Title: The elusive murderer
Author: Franciszek Starowieyski
Item description:
Notes: Italian film 1971; thriller.
Directed by: Duccio Tessari. Screenplay: Gianfranco Clerici, Duccio Tessari. Music: Gianni Ferrio. Cinematography: Carlo Carlini. Set design: Elena Ricci Poccetto. Costumes: Paola Nardi.
Actors: Helmut Berger and Ida Galli.
About the author: Franciszek Andrzej Bobola Starowieyski a.k.a. Jan Byk (8.07.1930 Bratkówka near Krosno - 23.02.2009 Warsaw) Polish graphic artist, painter, draughtsman and stage designer, poster designer, collector and educator. He often signed his works with a monogram: "F. v B. S." = Franciszek von Biberstein Starowieyski. He came from a landowning family. After graduating from an art high school in Cracow from 1949 to 1952, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Cracow under Wojciech Weiss and Adam Marczyński, and then from 1952 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Michał Bylina, where he received his diploma in painting in 1955. He was involved in easel and wall painting, posters, applied graphics mainly for books, theater and television stage design, and calligraphy. He was the creator of the Drawing Theater, which he launched in 1981. After a brief period of his work from the 1950s, which was ascetic in form, his work from the 1960s onward began to be characterized by baroque and surreal imagination, sensuality and fascination with the rubenesque female body, and reflection on transience and death. Numerous fantastic and macabre motifs, humorous and grotesque or calligraphic elements were present in his work. He developed his own very characteristic expressionistic individual and unique style, he was a total artist. He created in Warsaw and Paris. In 1980 he taught at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, then from 1993 at the European Academy of Art in Warsaw as a professor. He has exhibited many times in galleries and museums in Poland and many countries around the world since 1955, and has had more than 100 solo exhibitions since 1959 (including an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York 1985). He was the recipient of many awards, including in the field of posters among others: Grand Prix at the Saô Paulo Biennale of Contemporary Art (1973) for a set of posters, Grand Prix at the 2nd Cannes International Film Poster Exhibition (1974), Grand Prix at the Paris International Festival (1975), Annual Key Award of the Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles newspaper (1975 and 1977), Silver Medal at the International Poster Biennale (MBP) Warsaw - 5th. MBP (1974), 7th MBP (1978) and 17th MBP (2000), moreover, awards at the Chicago International Film Festival (1979 and 1982) and 3 times the Award of the Year in the "Best Poster of Warsaw" competition (1970, 1971, 2000). As a poster artist he debuted 1956 with the famous "Crying Dove of Peace". Leading creator of the Polish School of Posters, with which, however, he did not identify himself. Author of more than 300 posters almost exclusively for film, theater and opera; see Franciszek Starowieyski 2003 and https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/franciszek-starowieyski accessed 19.04.2023 and https://niezlasztuka.net/o-sztuce/franciszek-starowieyski-artysta-skandalista-kolekcjoner/ accessed 19.04.2023
Literature: Franciszek Starowieyski 2003 item 141.
Additional information:
Condition:
Item in very nice condition, poster practically without defects, very slight publisher's paper folds.
Grading of state of preservation:
- perfect condition: (6) no flaws, no signs of use, like new.
- very nice: almost perfect condition (+5), very slight defects, almost like new (unused)
- nice: very good condition (5), very slight, basically insignificant defects
- quite nice: condition - very good (-5), insignificant, insignificant defects
- more than good: condition between very good and good (4/5), fairly insignificant, not very significant defects
- at least good: condition at least good (+4), not very significant defects
- good: condition of good (4), fairly significant defects
- less than good: condition -good (-4), significant defects
- more than sufficient: condition between good and sufficient (3/4), very significant defects
- at least sufficient: condition at least sufficient (+3), quite poor condition, extremely significant defects, almost destructive
- Sufficient: sufficient condition (3), poor condition, major defects in the card, basically destruct
The evaluation of the state of preservation and some other elements of the description have some characteristics of subjectivity, but we make them with our best knowledge and the greatest possible reliability, if in doubt, please refer to the scan of the object or contact us.
