Fight for your Flag
Artist
Marian Walentynowicz
Poland, 1896 - 1967
Date1942
Dimensions27 1/4 x 20 in. (69.2 x 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.24
DescriptionThis World War II recruitment poster addressed to foreign men now living in Britain from the German-occupied countries listed next to the flags here, was designed by Polish architect and graphic designer Marian Walentynowicz. He had studied architecture in Warsaw but during the 1920s and ‘30s, became an illustrator for several Warsaw publishing houses. In 1933, he became a creator of one of the earliest and most famous Polish comic books, Koziałek Matolek (Silly the Billy Goat) and worked on many other books for children. As a war correspondent based in Great Britain with the Polish forces who had taken refuge there after the German occupation, he produced propaganda and enlistment posters for the Allies. In this dynamic composition, a brilliant sun shines down in the darkness on a row of flags from seven occupied countries, with the British flag behind them all at lower right. The sun's rays appear to propel them symbolically toward its light. On View
Not on view
