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