Despite the limitations placed on artists under the Communist regime, graphic arts continued to flourish. It is this area that has greatly contributed to the advancement of Polish art. This book explores the work produced by an eclectic selection of artists from many generations, working in a variety of mediums including fine art printmaking, poster art, and drawing. This book exemplifies how the traditions of excellence established over the past century continue to flourish as a major part of one of the most exciting art scenes in Europe.

Drawings are not simply tools for communication but important instruments for investigating reality and its structure. This pathbreaking book, richly illustrated, with exercises for readers, illuminates the complex interactions between the material

"In postwar Poland, film poster artists employed the universally recognized symbols of the Western - horse, six-shooter, boots, tin-star badge, Stetson, saddle - to convey violence as a negative force. Unlike many other art forms, the film poster did not fall within the censor's domain because it was not expected to pose a threat to the social order. But messages were conveyed through subtle means of symbol and color. The Polish poster has been likened to the Trojan horse, with the artist smuggling messages onto the streets in the guise of ephemera."--BOOK JACKET. "The posters displayed so strikingly in this book, and discussed in three essays, are from the golden age of Polish poster-making, the mid-1940s to the 1970s."--BOOK JACKET.

Sightlines is an architectural term meaning what you can see from where you stand - it's a question of perspective. This collection of images and words, gathered in conjunction with the international Sightlines symposium in Edmonton, Canada, in 1997, reveals the printmaker and the print from many angles. Including more than 250 color images representing more than 120 artists and a text by more than a dozen contributors, Sightlines opens up a rare view of contemporary printmaking around the world.