La Traviata 

Boris Bućan created this poster for La Traviata using screen printing in black and gold. Bućan came of age as an artist in Socialist Yugoslavia, a state that balanced communist ideology with a more open approach to cultural expression than other Eastern Bloc countries. Here, the opera's tragic heroine, Violetta, is captured in a moment of solitary contemplation. The use of gold lends the scene a veneer of glamour, but the bars enclosing her evoke the constraints placed on women in 19th-century society, mirroring Violetta's own gilded cage. Her identity is reduced to an outline, hinting at the way society often strips women of their individuality. The composition resonates with the opera's themes of love, sacrifice, and societal expectations. Bućan's poster invites us to reflect on the personal costs of societal pressures, the weight of which is carried most heavily by women.