Publication details

Hledání sebevýrazu – plakáty Blažeje Juřeny pro HaDivadlo v prostějovském období

Title in English Seeking Self-expression – Posters of HaDivadlo by Blažej Juřena, 1974–1985
Authors

MARYŠKA Martin

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Časopis Moravského muzea. Acta Musei moraviae. Scientiae sociales.
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web http://www.mzm.cz/scientiae-sociales/
Keywords Theatre Posters; Grafický design; Blažej Juřena; Hanácké divadlo; HaDivadlo; Czechoslovak Poster School; Visual Communication; Semiotics
Description This paper surveys the posters by Czech graphic designer Blažej Juřena for HaDivadlo (or Hanácké divadlo, ie. “Hanakian Theatre”), an alternative Czechoslovak scene established by Svatopluk Vála and Josef Kovalčuk in 1974 in the Moravian city of Prostějov, and still alive in Brno. It advocates for posters to have a research value in Theatre Studies beyond their role as a mere source of documentary meta-information. The posters work as a part of the general theatrical communication, they have a quality of a paratheatrical activity and contribute to understanding theatrical semiotic complexity. Using four posters as an example, this study will reflect on several principles that are typical for the visual communication of the 70s and 80s studio theatres of communist Czechoslovakia as a whole: Strategies by which theatre through of posters, relates reflexively to its “behind the scenes” conditions; that is, in accordance with searching for authenticity, and finally, how posters and playbills constitute parallel semantic narratives and quasi-scenographic realities. In particular, the study clarifies the organisational, institutional, but also the political background that determined the function, themes, form and artistic quality of the given graphic design.
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