Object of the week: The Polish poster for Sidney Poitier drama To Sir, with Love
This stark black-and-white design for the Sidney Poitier classroom drama is the work of Maria Ihnatowicz, one of the few female artists at the celebrated Polish School of Posters.
This poster for To Sir, with Love (1967) is one of a large group of works from the Polish School of Posters held in the collections of the BFI National Archive. The school emerged in the aftermath of World War II and produced many distinctive, striking and enigmatic posters between the late 1940s and 1980s.
Under Soviet control, there was no commercial art market in post-war Poland, so the only real opportunities for artists to make a living were through the state-sponsored creation of posters. These were initially for propaganda purposes and subsequently, as cultural venues re-opened, for film, theatre, music and the circus. As the Polish film industry was also nationalised, there was no commercial imperative for this work and, while subject to some levels of censorship, artists were given an increasingly free hand to produce posters that were highly personal, opting for symbolism over star power. From the mid-1950s, films from Europe, America, Japan and beyond were shown in Poland, and the artists of the Polish School created their own interpretations of the tone and themes of the films.
This 1969 poster is by Maria Ihnatowicz, one of the few women artists of the school. She studied under one of its founders, Henryk Tomaszewski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and produced many posters from the 1960s onwards for films including Death in Venice (film 1971 / poster 1974) and The Last Picture Show (film 1971 / poster 1974). Departing from her usual colourful and painterly style, To Sir, with Love expresses the film in stark black and white (the film itself was shot in Technicolor), with star Sidney Poitier rendered simply, and unrecognisably, in silhouette form – more a representation of character than actor.
The hand lettering, lines and grid evoke blackboards and school exercise books, with the grid additionally suggesting the wire mesh glass panels once so beloved of schools and other public institutions, adding a more oppressive note to the composition. The monochrome palette also hints at the racism faced by Black schoolteacher Poitier navigating post-war British society and working within a mainly white secondary school, as well as the themes of class, youth and the establishment which underpin the film and the book on which it’s based.
It is in fact very easy to see this poster working equally well as a book jacket, and indeed Maria Ihnatowicz also worked as a designer of book covers in addition to her work creating so many inventive and memorable film posters.
Produced with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.