Boris Bućan is a world-renowned Croatian artist and poster designer, creator of images that speak louder than words. The International Cultural Center invites you to an exhibition showcasing a wide range of extraordinary artistry and works oscillating between pop art and op-art, which will go down in the visual memory of many generations.
The painter and printmaker, considered one of the first Croatian artists, turned to both public art and created Yugoslavian pop art as early as the late 1960s. Bućan's street actions in the center of Zagreb (such as painting the sidewalk and placing colorful paintings in the streets) have gone down in history as an expression of rebellion against the inscription of art into the ossified gallery-institutional system and its treatment like a commodity, which undoubtedly dovetailed with the Yugoslav economic boom and fascination with consumerist Western bling.
Particularly in the posters created since the 1970s, the artist developed his own peculiar and recognizable style. Strong, expressive forms, bright colors, geometrization and multiplication of motifs arranged in eye-catching - sometimes even psychedelic - patterns, the use of commercial, advertising tricks situates his poster art between op-art and pop art.
With these "posters" he took to the street, which became his gallery and attracted the attention of the general public
© ICC press materials
His philosophy was based on creating posters in the spirit of conceptualism, using photographs of generally known subjects, images from mass culture, cartoons, human figures, faces, animals and language media. Bućan deliberately produced "sounds" and explored communication processes in interaction with the public. He insisted on ambivalence and a multi-faceted approach, so he introduced procedures characteristic of painting and drawing techniques into his posters, thus creating a new kind of message. With these "posters" he took to the street, which became his gallery and attracted the attention of the general public.
In order to leave as much space as possible for the image, he completely marginalized the information for which the poster itself was created. Soon the separation of the image from the text, the transfer of words, information to the margins, transforming them into a kind of frame for the image, became a kind of "signature" of Bućan, his unique identifying mark.
Strong, expressive forms, bright colors, geometrization and multiplication of motifs arranged in eye-catching - sometimes even psychedelic - patterns
© ICC press materials
The Krakow installment of Boris Bućan's work consists of a series of sixteen of the most famous theater posters from the 1970s and 1980s. It will be on free display in the medieval basement of the International Cultural Center from July 2 to August 16, 2020.
