Andrzej Krauze began studying painting and illustration at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Art, and in 1971, while still a student, he began contributing cartoons to the satirical magazine Szpilki. After leaving the Academy of Fine Art, Krauze travelled to Paris and London, but in 1974 returned to Warsaw, where he continued contributing to Szpilki and began work as political cartoonist on the weekly magazine Kultura. The context was one of heavy censorship. "Your first censor was your editor," Krauze recalled: "All material was sent to a special office several days before publication and, if they stopped something, it was not only a problem for you but for your editor too. The editor had to be a member of the Communist Party and it was very important for him not to have too much material stopped. If this happened, he was in trouble." Krauze became a well-known figure in Poland, and across Europe. In 1980 he went to Amsterdam, where he worked as an illustrator for the newspaper Handelsblad, and then moved to Paris, contributing to L'Express, L'Expansion, Lire and L'Alternative. When Martial Law was declared in Poland in December 1981 he was in London organising an exhibition. As he recalled, "I said to myself, if I am a political cartoonist this is my time": "I only had a one-week tourist visa to begin with, but after Martial Law I published a lot of drawings in English, American and French newspapers, and immediately it was impossible to return." Kultura was closed down under Martial Law, but Krause drew cartoons for the Polish trade union paper Solidarnosc. In 1982 he was awarded First Prize in the Forte Dei Marmi (Italy) political satire competition In 1985 Krauze began supplying political cartoons and illustrations to the Finnish daily Aamulehti, and from 1986 to 1990 he designed posters for London's Old Vic Theatre under the directorship of Jonathan Miller. In 1988 he began contributing cartoons and illustrations to the New Statesman, adding the Guardian and Independent on Sunday in 1989.
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