Sawka Jazz Poster - Original 1979 Polish Festival Art

Specifications
Artist / Designer: Jan Sawka (Polish-American, 1946–2012)
Event / Subject: Jazz Nad Odrą (Jazz on Odra River Festival, Wrocław)
Printer: PZG Wrocław (Official order code: 3478/79)
Edition Size: Limited historical edition of only 5,500 copies (5500 B1)
Year of Print: 1979 (Based on the 1977 festival design)
Type: Original Polish School of Posters Music Graphic
Dimensions: B1 format, c. 67x97 cm (27x39 inches)
Condition: Vintage state, rich blue and emerald-green tonal saturation
 
Description (About the Artwork)
This original 1979 vintage print is a verified Sawka Jazz poster, commissioned to commemorate the famous Jazz Nad Odrą (Jazz on Odra River) international festival in Wrocław. Documented along the lower margin with the official state archival mark "PZG Wrocław 3478/79 T-13 5500 B1", this lithographic piece stems from a limited historical printing run of 5,500 copies. Designed by world-renowned artist and architect Jan Sawka, the high-psychedelic composition depicts a surreal "Super X-Ray Jazz Machine" framing a glowing orange trumpet within a musician's torso, topped with mirrored cloud sunglasses. This rare B1 format item stands as a magnificent institutional-grade crossover collectible combining late 20th-century avant-garde graphic design and historic jazz ephemera.
 
About the Designer
Jan Sawka (1946–2012) was an internationally celebrated Polish-American painter, sculptor, and architect who infused the mature phase of the Polish Poster School with a distinct counterculture, pop-surrealist energy. A graduate of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts, Sawka was exiled from Poland in 1976 due to his involvement with underground cultural movements, later settling in New York. Over his prolific global career, he created award-winning graphics, multimedia stage designs for the Grateful Dead, and grand architectural monuments. His works reside inside elite institutions worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.