Waldemar Świerzy (1931 - 2013) was the co-founder of the Polish school of poster art, professor of poster design at the Academies of Fine Arts in Poznań and Warsaw. He has received many awards for his artistic work, including Grand Prix Toulouse Lautrec (Paris), The Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles, Biennale in São Paulo , gold medals at the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw and Lahti. In addition to posters, he created postage stamps, book illustrations, as well as CD and magazine covers. In 1992 the government of Poland issued a postage stamp to honor one of his Cyrk posters, 'Clown with derby'. Swierzy is one of the Polish School of Posters' most prolific artists, having created over 2500 posters. In the 1970s he devoted himself to traveling in order to propagate the science of the poster. He visited Mexico , Havana and West Berlin . His posters can be seen in Warsaw , Poznań , Amsterdam , London , St. Petersburg and Berlin. In November 2006, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture, Gloria Artis. In the years 2003–2013, he painted a series of 49 portraits of Polish rulers, the so-called A new group of rulers of Poland. It includes Polish kings and princes from Mieszko I to Stanisław August Poniatowski. He completed his last portrait a few days before his death.