Until next March 16, the Palacio de Quintanar in Segovia (San Agustín street) hosts the exhibition The Polish comic book lands in Spain, a selection of work by 50 Polish artists, Organised by the Instituto Polaco de Cultura in collaboration with the Palacio Quintanar and the Junta de Castilla y León, and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage with the Fund for the Promotion of Culture and the city of Jelenia Góra (Poland).
Curated by Piotr Machłajewski, this activity is part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January-June 2025).
The exhibition presents the works of fifty Polish cartoonists. Above all, contemporary creators, but also the precursors of 19th century comics and artists who worked before World War II and during the communist era.
If one were to point out a trend which unites Polish authors and distinguishes them from the European comic, it would be an artistic comic. Contemporary Polish comics are developed primarily as an art form, not as commercial entertainment.
Although the origins of illustrated stories in Poland go back to the second half of the 19th century, the emergence of a free press after the restoration of independence from Poland in 1918 can be considered as a turning point for the development of comic books in Poland. The stories published then were a combination of drawings and text below the images. Some of these comics were copies of foreign publications. The theme was varied and addressed social, political and moral issues, mainly in humor.
After the Second World War, the communist authorities were at first reluctant to consider comics as a genre of American popular culture. However, in the late 1950s, the comic book gained strength again. It was then that they began to publish artists now considered classics: Janusz Christa or Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski, who created the comics aimed mainly at the young public.
