Propaganda! (English)

Hardly any art form had a higher profile in Russia during the years after the 1917 Revolution than the poster. Posters were vehicles of mass communication that set their mark on the country’s streets and urban spaces. At the same time the poster genre became a key arena for the Russian avant-garde, which dreamed of an art that united form and function, the masses and the elite. The poster – “produced by the millions for the masses and posted on the streets” – brings art to the people, proclaimed by Vyacheslav Polonsky. In Norway, artists, advertisers, and political activists were inspired by the Soviet propaganda.

This book brings together a broad selection of outstanding Russian poster art, from the constructivists’ formal experiments to the socialist realism of the 1930s. It also includes some of the most important Norwegian posters inspired by Soviet posters. Richly detailed articles discuss the development of Russian and Norwegian political poster art during the interwar years, while brief introductions explain the historical background for every single poster. In this way, the reader is given a distinctive introduction to Russian history and culture in the decades following the revolution.