This new government, and nation, faced tremendous challenges: there was no standard national currency, most people lived in rural areas, the three currencies in use (from the former rulers) were all inflating rapidly, many elements of the infrastructure were either insufficient or nonexistent (e.g., a severe lack of rail networks), and there was a great deal of damage from the preceding years of conflict.

By the time this poster was made, the new Polish government had introduced a national currency (the złoty), improved and created industries, and achieved financial stability. This poster, for a trade fair held in the southeastern city of Lwów (which had only just been incorporated from the Ukraine into Poland at the war’s end) is a testament to this transformation, with the airplane as a symbol of the modernization of the new nation

In 1921, the French airline Franco-Roumaine applied to the Polish government to gain permission to made to run a line from Prague to Warsaw. This was the first attempt by any airline to establish an air connection between the West and the Center of Europe. That year, the Polish Ministry of Post and Telegraph sponsored the creation of an air transportation service in connection with the major commercial and industrial exhibition in the Polish city of Poznań. This service, dubbed Aero-Targ, existed only for the duration of the event. The link operated from Poznań to Warsaw to Danzig on the Baltic coast. Coupled with government research into commercial aviation’s viability, Aero-Targ’s successful operation demonstrated to the Polish government that a permanent air transport service could be both feasible and lucrative.

Subsequently, the government contracted a private firm, Aerolloyd, to operate Poland’s first air line. Aerolloyd’s first service operated two links: Danzig-Warsaw and Warsaw-Lwów, the city holding the seventh International Eastern Fair advertised in the poster. Thus, a city that had only recently been brought into the Polish state now figured prominently in the new air transport system. Aerolloyd would later add Krakow-Vienna and Krakow-Lwów flights. In 1925, Aerolloyd changed its name to Aerolot. Aerolot’s history was brief. In 1928, the Polish Ministry of Communications purchased Aerolot with the intention of running the airline as a national carrier. Polskie Linje Lotnicze (LOT) began operations in 1929.

Although still tackling the significant difficulties of the post-war years, Poland’s private aviation industry and government intended on expanding air service and capabilities. Indeed, the Polish work in this industry prepared the way for the aviation transport industry generally in Central and Eastern Europe. Poland’s geographical situation, between West and East, and its naturally flat terrain, positioned the country to be a key link in the intra-continental air network being developed across Europe. In October of 1927, the year of the poster’s publication, the Polish government pushed forward in efforts to design and build Polish airplanes, as all the current craft in use in Poland were produced outside of Poland. In December, Charles Lawrence, president of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, returned from a business trip to Europe, where amongst other deals, he sold manufacturing rights for the Wright Whirlwind airplane engine to the Polish government.

A New York Times article of August, 1928, noted that the “plane in the air is now a common sight in [Poland].” The article described the successful Polish air transport operations, documenting the increasing number of flights from only a few hundred to several thousand in the space of six years. The same dramatic increases were shown in passengers carried and kilometers flown (in the last case, from a little over one hundred thousand to over a million). As well, it was commented upon that flying was relatively inexpensive, with a ticket from Warsaw to Vienna costing 120 złoty, about $13 in U.S. currency. Further, the Polish transport companies were expanding service within Europe and also integrating into foreign-operated lines with destinations in Germany and Turkey. In addition to industrial expansion, 1927 also saw the formation of aeroclubs patterned on those of the West, affording the public increased opportunities to enjoy sport aviation. The “First National Light Aeroplane Competition,” held that year, played a significant role in the growth of these clubs and aviation for sport. Most pilots working in the aviation industry, as opposed to sport fliers, received their training through military service

By 1927, Polish air lines had operated successfully and safely and were expanding, despite financial difficulties and the lack of a native Polish aviation industry. Movement by air had an increasingly significant role in the nation’s overall transportation infrastructure. The city of Lwów’s aerodrome operated as the chief air service facility for the southeast of Poland, served solely by Aerolot. The polytechnic school in the city offered a creative resource for engineering and design, with students in those fields assisting professional engineers in the growth of the industry. The airplanes depicted in the poster, although stylized, still reveal their origin: the German-made Junkers F.13 that Aerolot flew exclusively, with Polish crews.

The Junkers company, founded in Germany by Hugo Junkers in 1917, was a major force in aviation history, offering many innovations to aviation, such as Junkers’ invention of the opposed piston diesel engine. This particular airplane, the F.13, was an all-metal monoplane based on a World War I-era design. In fact, it was the world’s first all-metal monoplane explicitly built for commercial service. Its maiden flight occurred in 1919 with an open cockpit for the two-man crew and an enclosed compartment for four passengers. The cockpit was later enclosed, offering the crew greater comfort. The plane was manufactured until 1932 and had a trend-setting cantilevered wing design, a first to be successfully and efficiently implemented—also a design of Hugo Junkers. The F.13, or “Commercial Limousine” as it was also termed, could be outfitted to operate on land or water, and in 1927 held the position of being one of the leading German passenger planes in operation and a benchmark for this type of craft.

How fitting, then, that a poster depicting an exciting and successful new industry for Poland should be designed by one of the chief graphic artists of the period: Tadeusz Gronowski (1894—1990). A graduate of the architecture program at the Warsaw University of Technology, he also studied painting at the famed École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Working in commercial design in Poland, he created advertisements and participated in designing a color palette for residential dwellings in Warsaw. He turned his talents to the theatre as well, designing sets for productions in Warsaw.

One of his best-known contributions to Polish design history resulted from his winning a contest in 1929. The contest’s purpose was to create a symbol for the newly-formed Polish national air line, LOT. This was the line that was established after the concession for Aerolot had ended, with multiple companies folding into the new organization. Gronowski submitted a stylized crane in flight and, within two years, it became the line’s official logo. This crane is still the emblem of LOT more than seventy-five years later.

Gronowski also played a significant role in his nation’s artistic life through his collaboration with other artists. He was a part of the “Rytm Group,” or Rhythm Group an “Association of Plastic Artists.” This gathering of creative talent had its major impact between 1922—1932, although their works were still shown in subsequent years. Their goal, which was not rigidly defined, aimed to offer exhibitions of a high caliber, featuring works that contained elements of classicism, stylization, rhythmic flow, and decorative effects. As ambassadors of the Polish Art Deco, they gained much prestige at a decorative arts and industrial design show in Paris in 1925, and again at a Parisian book exposition in 1931.

Poster design was a forte of this group, and their output revealed an exciting and lively style. They worked both for private industry and the government, achieving commercial and artistic success. While criticized on the one hand for being too traditional, others critiqued their work as being excessive and foreign to the long-standing practices of Polish art. Eventually, they founded a school that taught their design, contributed to a greater interest in art by the Polish public, and played a key role in the Polish Institute of Art Propaganda, the premier art exhibition organization in Poland between the world wars.

Gronowski himself received international recognition, winning the grand prize at the 1925 Parisian decorative and industrial design exhibition and a gold medal for the Polish pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair, held in New York. One commentator described a sample of his work as “neither too traditionally realistic nor too modernistic-abstract,” reflecting the path chosen by the Rhythm Group between these two poles. His objects, while stylized to a degree, as the Junkers planes are in the poster, are still recognizable as aircraft. The sky, a blue and white wavy block, is also stylized, but its coloring and spatial relationship to the airplanes clearly indicates what it is. He employs bold colors and focuses not on detail, but on strong geometric shapes and dynamic interactions. Interestingly, his use of blue and grey foreshadows the colors later chosen for the livery of LOT’s aircraft.

Although the Polish aviation industry came to an abrupt halt when the Germans invaded in 1939, it would eventually recover in the post-war period. This poster, however, comes from a unique time: when the forces of artistic and engineering creativity, industrial growth, and the developing life of a new nation combined, propelling Poland in a vibrant and vigorous leap forward.

Bibliography