The plan of "monumental propaganda", adopted at the suggestion of V. I. Lenin, was the most striking expression of the general principles of the new art. V. I. Lenin saw the main goal of "monumental propaganda" in putting art at the service of the revolution, in educating the people in the spirit of a new, communist world outlook.

Together with the abolition of some monuments that "glorified tsarism", it was ordered to mobilize artistic forces and organize a competition to develop designs for monuments in honor of the October Socialist Revolution.

Beginning in the autumn of 1918, the first works of “monumental propaganda” appeared on the streets of Petrograd, Moscow and other cities: monuments to Radishchev, Stepan Razin, Robespierre, Kalyaev, T. Shevchenko, and others.

Many sculptors representing various creative trends worked on the implementation of the plan - N. Andreev, S. Konenkov, A. Matveev, V. Mukhina, S. Merkurov, V. Sinaisky, architects L. Rudnev, I. Fomin, D. Osipov, V. Mayat. The ideas of the Leninist plan also influenced the wider field of monumental and decorative art - the festive decoration of cities, mass processions, etc. Prominent artists, including K. Petrov-Vodkin, took part in the design of the streets of Moscow and Petrograd on the days of the first anniversary of the October Revolution , B. Kustodiev, S. Gerasimov.

A characteristic feature of the fine arts of the era of the revolution and civil war there was an agitational orientation that determined the significance and place of its individual types. Along with monuments and memorial plaques, the poster became the mouthpiece of revolutionary ideas and slogans, speaking the language of allegory (A. Apsit), political satire (V. Denis) and then reaching its highest height in the classic works of D. Moor (“Did you sign up as a volunteer?”, “ Help").

Unsurpassed in its kind were also "ROSTA Windows" by V. Mayakovsky and M. Cheremnykh. The "telegraphic" language of these posters, deliberately simplified, was sharp and concise.

The art of the poster was closely associated with political graphics, which were widely popularized by the magazines "Flame", "Krasnoarmeyets" and other periodicals. Revolutionary themes also penetrated into easel graphics (drawings by B. Kustodiev), especially into engravings on wood and linoleum. "Troops" by V. Falileev, "Armored car" and "Cruiser Aurora" by N. Kupreyanov - typical works charts of this time. They are characterized by intense contrasts of black and white manner, increasing the role of the silhouette.

The era of revolution was reflected in book illustration(drawings by Yu. Annenkov for "The Twelve" by A. Blok, covers and bookmarks by S. Chekhonin), but this kind of art was more associated with new editions classical literature, especially the "People's Library" (works by B. Kardovsky, E. Lansere and others).

In portrait graphics, sketches by V. I. Lenin made from nature (N. Altman, N. Andreev) were of particular value. A galaxy of great masters (A. Benois, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva) developed landscape graphics.

The easel painting of the first post-revolutionary years, more than any other kind of art, experienced the pressure of the “left front”. The canvases "New Planet" by K. Yuon, "Bolshevik" by B. Kustodiev, etc. testified to the desire of their authors to reveal the historical meaning of what is happening. The allegory, characteristic of all Soviet art of the early period, penetrated even into landscape painting, giving rise to such a peculiar response to contemporary events as, for example, A. Rylov’s painting “In the Blue Space”.

Among other arts, architecture was in a special position, the possibilities of which in this period did not go beyond the design of new tasks.

20s

In the 20s. there were many different groups among Soviet artists: the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, the Society of Easel Painters, the Society of Moscow Artists, the Society of Russian Sculptors, etc.

Despite the fact that Soviet art then had a transitional character, a common style was gradually developed in it. In painting, classical traditions, and especially the traditions of the Russian realistic school, acquire decisive importance. Artists are increasingly turning to the present. Together with the masters of the older generation, young painters also perform. This time is characterized by the works of S. Malyutin, A. Arkhipov, G. Ryazhsky in the portrait genre, B. Ioganson - in the everyday genre, M. Grekov, I. Brodsky, A. Gerasimov - in the historical and revolutionary genre, A. Rylov, N. Krymov, B. Yakovlev - in landscape, etc. The artists who were grouped before the revolution around the magazine "World of Art", former Cezannes, change their attitude to the environment, to the tasks of art. P. Konchalovsky, I. Mashkov, A. Kuprin are experiencing the flowering of their talent; the stylistic work of K. Petrov-Vodkin has recently been filled with real, vital content; a new approach to the problems of figurative expressiveness is reflected in the works of M. Saryan, S. Gerasimov and others. The innovative tendencies of Soviet painting were especially clearly manifested in the painting “Defense of Petrograd” by A. Deineka (1928).

Political caricature (B. Efimov, L. Brodaty and others) occupied a prominent place in the graphics. At the same time, the importance of book illustration, especially book woodcuts, is growing (A. Kravchenko, P. Pavlinov, and others). Her the largest master V. Favorsky laid the foundation for a whole creative movement. The development of easel drawings made in charcoal, pencil, lithography or black watercolor was also successful (N. Kupreyanov, N. Ulyanov, G. Vereisky, M. Rodionov).

Sculpture of the 20s continued to follow the ideas of Lenin's plan of "monumental propaganda". The range of its tasks has noticeably expanded, portrait sculpture has achieved great success (A. Golubkina, V. Domogatsky, S. Lebedeva).

However, the main efforts of sculptors are still directed to the creation of monuments. Unlike the first plaster monuments, which were of a temporary nature, new monuments are being built from bronze and granite. These include monuments to V. I. Lenin at the Finland Station in Leningrad (V. Schuko, V. Gelfreich, S. Yeseev), on the dam of the Zemo-Avchal hydroelectric power station in Transcaucasia (I. Shadr) and in Petrozavodsk (M. Manizer).

Images of generalizing significance were created by A. Matveev (“October Revolution”), I. Shadr (“Cobblestone is the weapon of the proletariat”), V. Mukhina (“Wind”, “Peasant Woman”), who already at that time determined the face of Soviet sculpture with their work.

After the end of the civil war, conditions favorable for the development of architecture arose. Its primary, most pressing task was housing construction (complexes of residential buildings on Usacheva Street in Moscow, on Traktornaya Street in Leningrad, etc.). But very soon the architects focused their attention on urban problems, the construction of public ensembles, and industrial construction. A. Shchusev and I. Zholtovsky are developing the first plan for the reconstruction of Moscow. Under their leadership, the planning and construction of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition of 1923 is carried out. A. Shchusev creates the mausoleum of V. I. Lenin. Until the end of the 20s. according to the plans of Soviet architects, a number of buildings for various purposes were built (Izvestia house by G. Barkhin; State Bank of the USSR by I. Zholtovsky; Central Telegraph by I. Rerberg), industrial complexes (Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station by O. Muntz, N. Gundobin and V. Pokrovsky ; Dnieper hydroelectric power station V. Vesnin), etc.

One of the important aspects creative activity Soviet architects were striving to develop new forms of architecture that correspond to new tasks, modern materials and construction techniques.

30s

The successes of Soviet painting of these years are especially fully represented by new stage creativity of M. Nesterov, in whose works (portraits of academician I. Pavlov, brothers Korin, V. Mukhina, surgeon S. Yudin) the depth and relief of the image human characters connects with wide common theme creative labor of the Soviet people. A high level of portrait painting is supported by P. Korin (portraits of A. Gorky, M. Nesterov), I. Grabar (portrait of his son, portrait of S. Chaplygin), P. Konchalovsky (portrait of V. Meyerhold, portrait of a Negro student), N. Ulyanov and others. The theme of the civil war was embodied in the painting by S. Gerasimov "The Oath of the Siberian Partisans." Kukryniksy (M. Kupriyanov, P. Krylov, N. Sokolov) also wrote “Old Masters” and “Morning of an Officer of the Tsarist Army” on historical subjects. Outstanding Master of Paintings modern theme becomes A. Deineka (“Mother”, “Future Pilots”, etc.). An important step towards development household genre make Y. Pimenov ("New Moscow") and A. Plastov ("Collective Farm Herd").

The development of graphics in this period is associated primarily with book illustration. Masters of the older generation - S. Gerasimov ("The Artamonov Case" by M. Gorky), K. Rudakov (illustrations for the works of G. Maupassant), and young artists - D. Shmarinov ("Crime and Punishment" F . Dostoevsky, "Peter I" by A. Tolstoy), E. Kibrik ("Cola Breugnon" by R. Rolland, "The Legend of Ulenspiegel" by Charles de Coster), Kukryniksy ("The Life of Klim Samgin" by M. Gorky and others), A. Kanevsky (works by Saltykov-Shchedrin). The illustration of the Soviet children's book was noticeably developed (V. Lebedev, V. Konashevich, A. Pakhomov). A fundamentally important change compared to the previous period was that the Soviet masters of illustration switched (albeit somewhat one-sidedly) from the decorative design of the book to the disclosure of the ideological and artistic content of literary images, to the development of human characters and the dramaturgy of the action, expressed in a string of successive other images.

In book illustration, along with realistic drawing, watercolor, lithography, engraving also retains its significance, represented by the works of recognized masters such as V. Favorsky (“Vita Nuova” by Dante, “Hamlet” by Shakespeare), M. Pikov, A. Goncharov.

In the field of easel graphics, the portrait genre came to the fore at that time (G. Vereisky, M. Rodionov, A. Fonvizin).

A major obstacle to development Soviet art in these years is handicraft, trends of false monumentality, splendor associated with the personality cult of Stalin.

In the art of architecture, the most important tasks were solved in connection with the problems of urban planning and the construction of residential, administrative, theater and other buildings, as well as large industrial facilities (such as, for example, a car factory in Moscow, a meat processing plant in Leningrad, a heating plant in Gorky, etc. .). Among architectural works, the House of the Council of Ministers in Moscow (A. Lengman), the Moscow Hotel (A. Shchusev, L. Savelyev, O. Stapran), the Theater Soviet army in Moscow (K. Alabyan, V. Simbirtsev), the Ordzhonikidze sanatorium in Kislovodsk (M. Ginzburg), the river station in Khimki (A. Rukhlyadyev), etc. The main aesthetic trend in the course of these works was the attraction to the traditional forms of classical order architecture . The uncritical use of such forms, their mechanical transfer to the present often led to unnecessary external splendor and unjustified excesses.

The art of sculpture acquires new important features. Strengthening the links between monumental and decorative sculpture and architecture becomes a characteristic feature of this period. The sculptural work - the group "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" - Mukhina arose on the basis of the architectural project of the USSR pavilion at the International Exhibition of 1937 in Paris. The synthesis of sculpture with architecture also manifested itself in the design of the Moscow Metro, the Moscow Canal, the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, and the USSR pavilion at the International Exhibition in New York.

Of the works of monumental sculpture of these years, the monuments to Taras Shevchenko in Kharkov (M. Manizer) and Kirov in Leningrad (N. Tomsky) were of the greatest importance.

The sculptural portrait was further developed (V. Mukhina, S. Lebedeva, G. Kepinov, Z. Vilensky and others). Many sculptors are successfully working on a typical generalization of the images of their contemporaries (“Metallurg” by G. Motovilov, “Young Worker” by V. Sinaisky).

This period (due to obvious historical changes) is characterized by a change in the main main line of official art in comparison with the previous stage in the development of Russian art. The ideological content begins to come to the fore.

Art belongs to the people. It must have its deepest roots in the very depths of the working masses, it must be understood by these masses and loved by them. It must express the feelings, thoughts and will of these masses, raise them. It should awaken the artists in them and develop them.

The main "tasks" of Soviet art: "to serve the people, to defend the common cause of the struggle for socialism and communism, to bring people the truth, to give birth to creativity in them."

In addition, nationality and multinationality were important concepts.

Periodization 1917-1990:

1 1917-1922 - art of the period of revolution and civil war

2 1922-1932 - Marx's theory stops working, Nep's theory

3 1932-1941 - art of the 30s, party principles, socialist realism

4 1941-1945 - the art of the Second World War, all art for the front, for victory, graphics come first, Soviet political poster, in painting historical picture landscape.

5 1945-1960-art of the post-war years

6 1960-1980 - the era of Brezhnev's stagnation

Soviet art history divided the masters of Soviet painting of this period into two groups:

Artists who sought to capture scenes in familiar pictorial language factual display

Artists who used a more complex, figurative perception of modernity. They created symbolic images in which they tried to express their "poetic, inspired" perception of the era in its new state.

2 Painting of the period of revolution and civil war 1917-1922. Art of the period of the Revolution and the Civil War Already in the first months after coming to power, the Soviet government adopted a number of resolutions important for the development of culture:

In November 1917, the Collegium for Museums and the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity was created under the People's Commissariat of Education.

"On registration, registration and storage of monuments of art and antiquity" (October 5, 1918) on the general registration of works and monuments of art and antiquity. This accounting was carried out by the museum department of the People's Commissariat of Education.

"On the recognition of scientific, literary, musical and works of art state property "(November 26, 1918)

The issue of museums has become an important aspect of government policy in the field of art. In the early years, the Soviet government nationalized art museums, private collections and collections. For the study and systematization of artistic values, the State museum fund, where museum values ​​were concentrated. After accounting, systematization and study, the stage of acquisition of museums began - the values ​​​​were approximately evenly distributed among the various museums of the country. In parallel, large-scale museum construction began. Painting In the early years of the revolution, traditional easel forms continued to develop. Many of the Soviet artists of the older generation of the first years of Soviet power were formed, of course, back in the pre-revolutionary years and, of course, “contact with new life was associated with considerable difficulties for them, which were associated with the breaking of the creative individuals already established by the period of the revolution. Soviet art history divided masters of Soviet painting of this period into two groups:



Artists who sought to capture the plots in the usual pictorial language of factual display

Artists who used a more complex, figurative perception of modernity. They created symbolic images in which they tried to express their "poetic, inspired" perception of the era in its new state.

Art forms capable of "living" on the streets in the first years after the revolution played a crucial role in "shaping the social and aesthetic consciousness of the revolutionary people." Therefore, along with monumental sculpture, the political poster received the most active development. It turned out to be the most mobile and operational art form.

During the Civil War, this genre was characterized by the following qualities:



"Sharpness of material supply,

Instant reaction to rapidly changing events,

Agitational orientation, thanks to which the main features of the plastic language of the poster were formed.

They turned out to be laconism, conventionality of the image, clarity of silhouette and gesture. Posters were extremely common, printed in large numbers and posted everywhere.

Before the revolution, there was no political poster (as a formed type of graphics) - there were only advertising or theater posters. The Soviet political poster inherited the traditions of Russian graphics, in the first place - political magazine satire. Many of the masters of the poster have developed precisely in magazines. Festive decoration of cities

The artistic decoration of the festivities is another new phenomenon of Soviet art that had no tradition. The holidays included the anniversaries of the October Revolution, May 1, March 8 and other Soviet holidays.

This created a new unconventional look art, thanks to which painting acquired a new space and functions.

For the holidays, monumental panels were created, which were characterized by a huge monumental propaganda pathos. Artists created sketches for the design of squares and streets. The first post-revolutionary the five-year period (1917-1922) was marked by the diversity and fragility of artistic platforms, the activity of left-wing artists who saw in the new conditions the possibility of implementing the most daring innovative ideas.

Most of the pre-revolutionary artists began to collaborate with the Soviet authorities, among whom were the Wanderers, and the Russian Impressionists (Rylov, Yuon), and the World of Art (Lancere, Dobuzhinsky), and the Blue Bearers (Kuznetsov, Saryan), and the Jack of Diamonds (Konchalovsky, Mashkov , Lentulov).

At first, abstractionists V. Kandinsky and K. Malevich occupied a prominent place in the Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education. The ideas of the revolution gave birth to new directions. Among them, the new Russian revolutionary avant-garde "Unovis" ("Affirmative of the New Art", 1919-1920. Malevich, Chagall, Lissitzky) declared a struggle for "pure" art and began to develop propaganda forms. "KNIFE" (New Society of Painters) was close to the jacks of diamonds.

"Proletkult" made an attempt to create a new organization proletarian culture“on the ruins of the past”, abandoning the classical heritage, but did not last long, having no support from both artists and viewers.

The artists of the associations "Four Arts" (Kravchenko, Tyrsa, Petrov-Vodkin) and "Makovets" (Chekrygin, father Pavel Florensky) opposed avant-gardism for the philosophical depth of art and the traditional monumentalism of forms.

The romanticism of the first post-revolutionary years was conveyed in symbolic and allegorical form by P. Filonov in the series of paintings “Entering the World Heyday” (1919); K. Yuon "New Planet", B. Kustodiev "Bolshevik". As early as the beginning of the 20th century, K. Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939) expressed a premonition of impending changes in Russia in the painting Bathing a Red Horse (1912, State Tretyakov Gallery). He conveyed the threat to the peaceful life of ordinary people during the years of the civil war in the film “1919. Anxiety "(1934, Russian Museum).

The type of a new hero - a working man, an athlete and a social activist, is created in the portrait genre by A.N. Samokhvalov "Girl in a T-shirt". during the years of the civil war, mass propaganda art came to the fore: the decoration of holidays and rallies, the painting of propaganda trains, etc. (B. Kustodiev, K. Petrov-Vodkin, N. Altman); political poster (A. Apsit “Breast to the defense of Petrograd”, D. Moore “Have you signed up as a volunteer?”, “Help!”. Windows of GROWTH (1919-1921, Mayakovsky and Cheremnykh).

In 1922, the AHRR (Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia) was created, which existed until 1932. Its organizers were A. Arkhipov, N. Dormidontov, S. Malyutin and other late Wanderers. The propaganda of her "new course" attracted artists of different views on art - former jacks of diamonds, artists of the KNIFE Society, 4 Arts, etc.

The revolution of 1917 began a completely new stage in Russian painting, which was expressed both in the development of its new forms and in the comprehension of new, hitherto unseen events in Russia.

It can be confidently noted that the revolutionary events of this landmark year for our country laid the foundation for a unique cultural revolution, which, by the way, had no analogues in the world at that time. The content of this phenomenon also cannot have any unambiguous characteristics.

Since the October Revolution, Russian painting has found itself in a situation where:

  • The idea of ​​the partisanship of any art was realized everywhere, i.e. the existing and even partially idealized principle of freedom of creativity was excluded. Which eventually came down to the active politicization of the entire cultural sphere, and especially art and literature.
  • There was an active "cultural enlightenment" of all, including the illiterate sections of the citizens of the former empire, and their familiarization with the national achievements of art.

Russian Artists and the Revolution - New Organizations, New Tasks

October 1917 basically drastically changed the position and nature of the work of the masters, whose artistic life and manner had already taken shape. It should be noted that the revolution, first of all, appealed to the work of young artists, which is natural. However, the numerous and diverse platforms that arose in its first impulse lasted in general only the next five years. The new artists showed themselves as daring innovators, destroying everything and tearing off experimental paths.

Among the major pre-revolutionary masters, the following representatives found agreement with the revolution:

  • Russian impressionism - K. Yuon, A. Rylov
  • — M. Dobuzhinsky, E. Lansere
  • — A. Lenturov, P. Konchalovsky, I. Mashkov
  • Vanguard -,

There are absolutely new directions in Russian painting on a revolutionary upsurge:

  • "Unovis" as a representative of the already revolutionary (existed for 1 year) - included M. Chagall, K. Malevich, L. Lissitzky. The task of unification is new forms and a new "pure art"
  • The group of artists "KNIFE" - in terms of tasks and forms, it was close to the ideas of "Jack of Diamonds"
  • "Proletkult" - arises as an association on the principle of creating a new culture (proletarian), opposed to the entire heritage of the classics

Meanwhile, in the artistic field of Russia, which changed with the revolution of 1917, artistic groups continued to exist, holding on to traditional forms and depths of philosophical reflection - these are associations:

  • "Four Arts" - K.Petrov-Vodkin, N.Tyrsa, A.Kravchenko
  • "Makovets" - father P. Florensky, V. Chekrygin

Revolution - new meanings and genres of painting

The leader of the revolutionary events, V. Lenin, saw in painting, as well as in cinema, a huge potential for:

  • Education of the population (general), i.e. eradication of illiteracy
  • Enlightenment through agitation, i.e. artistic propaganda of new ideas
  • Cultural revolution, according to Ilyich, necessary for a "backward country"

This is how whole mass propaganda trends appeared in Russia, combining painting,.

Steamships and trains painted by artists drove across the country, on which speakers, theater groups, projectionists, etc. went to the people. Also, these propaganda trains carried newspapers, posters and other print products, being in essence at that time an analogue of the media. In the difficult five years after October, Russia had almost no other means of information at its disposal.

The walls and hulls of such propaganda ships and trains were semantically decorated with either poster graphics or art panels using primitive forms and techniques that could be accessible to an uneducated person.

Such painting was certainly supplemented by a text explaining the content, as well as necessarily motivating the viewer to action.

As the most mobile and optimally informative genre in the then revolutionary Russia, graphics became the most popular, namely, a drawing (newspaper or magazine) and a poster.

The main types of the poster genre born by the revolution along with the new country of the poster genre were:

  • Heroic and political type (artist D.S. Moor, V. Mayakovsky)
  • Satirical type (art. V.N. Denny, M.M. Cheremnykh)

The propaganda and informative "load" in the poster was given in a simple, but bright, capacious graphics. The slogans for it had artistic expressiveness and were quickly perceived and remembered even with a short acquaintance.

Soviet artists who worked in the poster genre brought it to a high level of technology, possessing both their unique manners and personal artistic skill.

In fact, the poster as a type or genre of painting appeared earlier - back in the 19th century, but in a young country that defeated the people's revolution, it was born anew and became a whole independent artistic phenomenon.

Tasks and functions of Soviet poster art

Also in world war newspaper graphics played a significant role, comparable to the action of direct or psychological weapons that crushed the enemy and raised them to battle.

During the period of construction following the war, the poster continued to implement the same tasks, being an ideological tool. As the entire history of the USSR will show, there will not be a single significant event or phenomenon in it that will remain outside its poster comprehension.

Thus, the main functions Soviet poster were:

And for the purposes - it is also aesthetic education.

Gradually, as a genre that flawlessly copes with ideological tasks, the poster is generally displayed as the main type of painting. The revolution "secures" for him the status of a real " high art", so in the country:

  • Thematic poster exhibitions are held
  • These works are included in the collections of museums
  • Placed in the archives
  • Training courses open

To the credit of the artists who worked in this art form, it should certainly be added that, despite all the global politicization of the poster genre, its art has always been embodied at a highly artistic level. This is partly why, in the future, in addition to the above, tasks were added to the functions of the Soviet poster:

  • Communications as connections between people and power
  • Image - as forming the image of the power itself
  • Educational - as developing moral and social topics
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The Soviet poster after the Civil War suddenly began to change its appearance. In 1922, one of the ideologists of "left art" B. Kushner proclaimed that the "embryos of renewal" are rooted in the "planted faces of posters", which are necessary for new forms of art coming from "the culture of industrialism, from the culture of production." On the pages of many magazines of the 1920s. this idea was widely promoted, explaining the reason for the close professional interest in the poster by innovative artists such as El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Alexei Gan, Anton Lavinsky, Gustav Klutsis, Dmitry Bulanov, Viktor Koretsky, Sergey Senkin and Vasily Elkin. After all, "His Majesty Poster" not only informed, enlightened and agitated, but also "revolutionarily rebuilt" the consciousness of Russian citizens artistic means free from the excesses of traditional descriptiveness and illustrativeness. The language of such a poster was akin to the language of architectural and book experiments, literary and theatrical innovations, cinematographic montage of those years. In the 1920s-1930s (the era of the "golden period" of Soviet graphic design) in Soviet Russia, the poster made itself known in three main ways. And this:

1. politics, both internal and external (this also includes culture, the fight against illiteracy and homelessness, as well as industrialization with collectivization);

3. cinema.

Anton Lavinskiy. Dobrolet. Poster sketch.

Gouache, paper. 1927. 73x92.5 cm.

The origins of the Soviet constructivist political poster go back to the 1918s-20s, when the famous Russian revolutionary poster and the incomparable "Windows of ROST" were created. It is believed that the painting style of the artist Vladimir Lebedev was closest to constructivism in the poster:

Vladimir Lebedev. You need to work with a rifle, nearby.

Petersburg "ROSTA".

Vladimir Lebedev. If you work, there will be flour;

If you sit back, there will be no flour, but muka!

Petersburg "ROSTA".

Petrograd, 1920-21. 70x60 cm.

Vladimir Lebedev. Long live

vanguard of the revolution

Red Fleet!

Pg, 1920. 67x48.2 cm.

Vladimir Lebedev. RSFSR.

Pg., 1920. 66x48.5 cm.


Vladimir Lebedev. Who goes with them

he follows in the footsteps of Judas.

Petersburg, 1920. 51.7x69.5 cm.

The famous "revolutionary impulse" was felt in the work of many, many artists of the era of Russian revolutionary posters:

Ivan Malyutin. To rebuild my working life

Go repel the Panovo invasion!

Moscow, ROSTA, 1920.

65x45 cm.

Mikhail Cheremnykh. If you don't want

return to the past

rifle in hand! To the Polish front!

Moscow, ROSTA, 1920.

D. Melnikov. Down with capital, long live

dictatorship of the proletariat!

For economy mode.

Moscow, 1920. 71x107 cm.

What gave the October Revolution

worker and peasant woman.

Moscow, 1920. 109.5x72.5 cm.

As always, in the field of constructivism, students of VKhUTEMAS, the "forge" of such personnel, were among the first to be noted:

Red Moscow is the heart of the proletarian

world revolution. Fulfilled

Printing and Graphic Faculty of VKhUTEMAS.

Moscow, VKHUTEMAS, 1919.

More serious artists were also noted:

Lazar Lissitzky. Beat the whites with a red wedge! Univis.

Vitebsk, Litizdat of the Political Administration of the Western Front, 1920.

52x62 cm.

The first experience of the dynamic figurative embodiment of the idea of ​​revolutionary struggle was demonstrated by the posters "Red Moscow" of the graphic department of VKhUTEMAS and Lazar Lissitzky "Beat the whites with a red wedge!", Printed in Vitebsk in 1920. But the influences of cubism and suprematism are still strong here.

Alexander Samokhvalov.

Councils and electrification

is the basis of the new world.

Leningrad, 1924. 86x67 cm.

A. Strakhov. KIM is our banner!

1925. 91x68 cm.

A. Strakhov. History of the Komsomol. 1917-1929.

1929. 107.5x71.5 cm.


Everyone to the elections of the BakSoviet!

Poster.

Baku, 1924.

Designed by S. Telingater.

Julius Chass. Lenin and electrification.

Leningrad, 1925. 93x62 cm.

The years 1924-1925 can rightly be considered the birth of the constructivist political poster. Photomontage allowed to convey the picture real life, to compare the past and present of the country, to show its success in the development of industry, culture and the social field. Lenin's death raised the need to create "Leninist exhibitions" and "corners" in workers' and village clubs, educational institutions and military units.

Makarychev R. Every cook must learn

run the state! (Lenin).

Moscow, 1925. 108x72 cm.

Long live international day

Leningrad, 1926. 92x52 cm.

Yakov Guminer. USSR.

Leningrad, 1926. 83.6x81 cm.

You help eradicate illiteracy.

All in society "Down with illiteracy"!

Leningrad, 1925. 104x73 cm.

Working people, build your air fleet!

Leningrad, 1924. 72x45, 6 cm.

Radio.

From the will of millions we will create a single will!

Leningrad, 1924. 72x45.5 cm.

Agitation and educational posters, combining documentary photographs with text "inserts", illustrated the pages of the leader's biography and his precepts, as on the sheet of Yu. Chass and V. Kobelev "Lenin and electrification" (1925). G. Klutsis, S. Senkin and V. Elkin created a series of photomontage political posters (“There can be no revolutionary movement without revolutionary theory” G. Klutsis; “Only a party led by advanced theory can play the role of an advanced fighter” S. Senkin. Both 1927 ). The photomontage poster finally established itself as the main means of mobilizing the masses during the years of the first five-year plan (1928/29-1932). He demonstrated the power of a developing power, the basis of which was the unity of the people.

Vera Gitsevich. To the socialist smithy of health!

For the proletarian park of culture and recreation!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932. 103x69.5 cm.

Ignatovich E. In a campaign for cleanliness!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932. 71.5x54.5 cm.

Viktor Koretsky. There is a defense of the Fatherland

the sacred duty of every citizen of the USSR.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1941. 68x106 cm.

We will create an Avtodor fund for the motorization of border units,

let's give a motor to the red border guard. (c. 1930). 103x74 cm.

The poster of G. Klutsis "Let's carry out the plan of great works" (1930) became an example of photomontage. A special sound was given to it by the "street" format in two printed sheets. Documentary photography of hands was introduced into his works by John Heartfield. The image-symbol - the hand - appeared in the early works of Klutsis: in illustrations for Y. Libedinsky's book "Tomorrow" (1924), in poster designs for "Lenin's Appeal" (1924).

Photograph of G.G. Klutsis.

Work item mounting.

1930.

Klutsis G. Workers and women all for the elections of the Soviets!

The most famous poster of G. Klutsis in the world. 1930. 120x85.7 cm.

Made in the technique of lithography and offset lithography.

Consists of two panels.

The price on the world market reaches 1.0 million rubles.

And as an option:

Klutsis G. Let's fulfill the plan of great works!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 120.5x86 cm.

Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis.

Shock workers of factories and state farms,

Join the ranks of the CPSU(b)!

Moscow-Leningrad, 1932. 94x62 cm.

The raised hand of a female worker on the poster of Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis symbolized the call for female shock workers of the five-year plan to join the ranks of the Communist Party (1932). The talented artist made some very interesting posters during these years. The years of total terror have not yet come, and in the manner of execution of the great master of political posters, there is a certain shade of non-objectivity, which later will become impossible in principle - due to accusations of formalism:

Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis. We'll be ready

to repulse a military attack on the USSR.

International Women's Day -

fighting day of the proletariat!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1931. 100.7x69 cm.

Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis. For the defense of the USSR.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 91x66 cm.

Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis.

International Women's Day -

day of the review of socialist competition.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 106x71 cm.

Valentina Kulagin. shock workers,

fasten shock brigades,

master the technique

zoom in

proletarian experts.

Moscow - Leningrad. 1931.

Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis. Comrade miners!

Moscow, 1933. 103.5x72 cm.

Her husband Gustav Klutsis also found compositional solution posters with a photo portrait of Stalin.

Gustav Klutsis. The reality of our program is -

living people, this is you and me. (Stalin).

Moscow - Leningrad, 1931.

The figure of the leader in an unchanging gray overcoat with quotes from his statements against the backdrop of collective farm work or the construction of factories and mines convinced everyone of the correct choice of the path that the country was following (“For the socialist reconstruction of the countryside ...”, 1932). In the work of Klutsis, photomontage is becoming increasingly stronger as an original means of designing books, leaflets, newspapers and other printing publications. The innovative approach to illustrating the party press at that time was supported by a number of critics, art critics and public figures. I. Matsa, for example, speaking at the discussion of Klutsis' report on photomontage, said that one American artist (Hugo Gellert) set the task of illustrating Marx's Capital in his creative plan.

“This issue,” Matza said, “really requires a lot of attention. We sometimes illustrate completely empty books, and leave political ones without illustrations. Photomontage can help us in this respect.”

Portraits of prominent figures of the communist movement and the socialist state, historical documents, images of political events introduced Klutsis into artistic illustration. Klutsis turned photomontage into a high art, elevated the authenticity of a fact to a high style.

G. Klutsis, J. Heartfield, F. Bogorodsky,

V. Elkin, S. Senkin, M. Alpert.

Batumi, 1931.

The pinnacle of creativity Gustav Klutsis, a photomontage artist, was his work in the field of Soviet political posters, where he won an honorable first place. Therefore, his numerous works require special special attention.

Gustav Klutsis. The victory of socialism

provided in our country

the foundation of the socialist economy is complete!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932.

More directly than other forms of fine art, the poster responds to the most important events in the life of the Soviet people. The political poster was raised to the level of high art in the very first years of Soviet power. A bright take-off in the history of this type of martial art of agitation was the “ROSTA Windows”, created by Mayakovsky and a group of artists who worked with him - M. Cheremnykh, I. A. Malyutin, A. Nurenberg, A. Levin and others. The remarkable works of the masters of the Soviet printed poster D. Moor, V. Denis, M. Cheremnykh, N. Kochergin and others also belong to the same years. The political orientation and ideological clarity of the content of the posters of these artists were combined with the expressiveness of graphic means.

Gustav Klutsis. "Cadres decide everything!" I. Stalin.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1935. 198x73 cm.

In the second half of the 1920s, the established school of Soviet posters experienced a period of decline. In an article on the poster, J. Tugendhold wrote:

“True, the streets of our capital are full of posters and announcements, at their intersections there are stalls decorated with the muse of Mayakovsky, “Izo” of Vkhutemas, and even higher - above the streets - bright ribbon inscriptions, and in some places sparkling electrical advertising. And yet our art of street influence is at a turning point.”

The country entered a new period of history. New tasks arose before art - to reveal in more depth inner world man, his spiritual wealth and pathos everyday work. There is a need to update and expressive means of the poster. Photomontage possessed new means of active influence, not yet used in this area. New methods of constructing an image opened up rich opportunities for artists. With the advent of the first five-year plan, the activities of D. Moor, V. Denis, M. Cheremnykh intensified. The poster also attracted new creative forces.

Gustav Klutsis. All Moscow is building a metro.

Give to the 17th anniversary of the October Revolution

the first line of the best subway in the world!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1934. 140.5x95.5 cm.

A. Deineka, B. Efimov, Kukryniksy, K. Rotov, Yu. Hanf, N. Dolgorukov, A. Kanevsky, K. Urbetis, V. Govorkov, P. Karachentsov and other young artists began to work successfully in this genre. A prominent place in the process of activating the art of the Soviet poster began to take photomontage. Around G. Klutsis, a group of young photo artists united: V. Elkin, A. Gutnov, Spirov, V. Kulagina, N. Pinus, F. Tagirov. The collaboration between Klutsis and S. Senkin continued. Back in 1924-1928, along with work on photo-slogan-montages, illustrations in books, design of periodicals, Klutsis designs and creates a number of propaganda photomontage posters about Lenin's call to the party, about international workers' assistance, about sports, etc.

We stand for peace and uphold the cause of peace.

But we are not afraid of threats and are ready to respond

blow for blow warmongers.

I. Stalin.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932.

However, these posters, in their form, according to the principles of construction, developed the photomontages previously made by Klutsis of the Lenin series and for the VI Congress of Trade Unions. These works did not yet show all the qualities necessary for a political propaganda poster. The impetus for Klutsis to choose the intended path was the fulfillment by him, together with S. Senkin, of the task of the Agitprop of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to create two large propaganda posters “Active, study. Go to the cell for advice" and "Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."

Poster G. Klutsis. 1933. 130x89.8 cm.

Consists of two panels.

Legendary poster by G. Klutsis. 1931. 144x103.8 cm.

Made in the technique of lithography

and offset lithography.

Consists of two panels.

The price on the world market reaches 0.5 million rubles.

Legendary poster by G. Klutsis. 1930. 120x85.7 cm.

Executed in the technique of lithography and

offset lithography.

Consists of two panels.

The price on the world market reaches 0.5 million rubles.


Poster G. Klutsis. 1933. 79.6x170.5 cm.

Made in the technique of lithography and offset lithography.

Consists of three panels.

The price on the world market reaches 0.5 million rubles.

"I took it so - Klutsis wrote to his wife about the circumstances of the work on the first of them, - heaped up all the books, papers, photos, etc. In my practice, there has never been anything like this.”

The poster consisted of twelve montages, and the themes and issues were complex and difficult.

"Today, - the artist writes in a letter dated June 2, - at 12 o'clock they were supposed to present and at exactly 12 they presented. Almost completely finished. It remains only to technically correct. Will go to print (circulation 5000 copies). But I've never been so tired before."

Success inspired artists. A month later, Klutsis reported with pride that he was personally monitoring the progress of the qualitative implementation of the second “large cub - poster”, which “came out very, very well, or, as Seryozha and I say: Oh-oh!”.

Two posters Gustav Klutsis,

dedicated to I. Stalin:

Long live the Stalinist tribe

heroes of the Stakhanovites!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1935.

Long live the USSR

prototype of the brotherhood of workers

all nationalities of the world!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1935.

Unusual in appearance, saturated with meaningful political information, the posters were presented in the fall of the same year at the All-Union Printing Exhibition that opened in Moscow in the Park of Culture and Recreation. A premonition of a creative upsurge, a feeling that the main and significant came into life, like a prophecy, was voiced in the artist’s letter dated July 13, 1927:

“You, Willit, cannot imagine what a strong desire I have to work, and it has never been so easy to work. And the results are good. When I see two of my posters right now in front of me, one of them is huge, colossus, and the other, which you know, then a strong desire arises in me to make a whole hundred of the best and most original posters, if only there were certain orders.

The customer was the era - the era of industrialization of the country and the collectivization of agriculture, the era of building socialism. The era gave birth to fighters of the labor front, worthy of becoming heroes of the art created for them. The era gave birth to artists worthy of it. In addition, other circumstances determined the activities of Klutsis the poster artist. First, he turned to the poster in the mature period of creativity. In the art of the poster, Klutsis found his vocation. Secondly, the subjective evolution of his work coincided with the objectively experienced turning point in the development of the Soviet poster. And finally, thirdly, his work was accompanied by an incessant struggle for the approval of photomontage, for its promotion to the forefront of fine art. The wish expressed by Klutsis to his own address will be fulfilled. For ten years of work in the poster, he will create more than a hundred political posters on the most topical topics of the struggle of the Soviet people for the construction of socialism. The best of them will constitute a milestone in the development of the Soviet poster.

Gustav Klutsis. Long live our happy

socialist motherland,

long live our

beloved great Stalin!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1935. 104.5x76 cm.

However, at that time, art criticism, represented by such serious authors as J. Tugendhold, questioned the creative nature of photomontage.

“It can be the first step towards creating a club amateur poster. But it is only the first step, because it is clear that the systematic replacement of living creativity with mechanical stickers is the systematic killing of creativity. Such is the extremely limited scope of the application of the photomontage poster. wrote J. Tugendhold.

Describing the crisis state of the genre at the end of the 1920s, J. Tugendhold refuses to see the possibility of reviving the poster by means of photomontage. He sees in it the main danger to the development of artistic tastes and culture:

“There is no need, that it is dry and callous, gray and colorless, it confuses the viewer with different scales, that it gives a controversial combination of volumes with a flat pattern, gray photography with color - we have declared it almost the ideal of a proletarian poster.”

The keen eye of the critic has rightly noticed some specific features of the photomontage poster - the diversity of scale in the image, combinations of volumes and planar drawing, monochrome photography and color. However, Tugendhold's article criticized the very methods and means of the method, the merits of which are determined not by themselves, but by the skill and ability of the artist to apply them. Klutsis, in his speeches, defended the opportunities that open up for an artist working in the field of photomontage. He defended the photomontage method from attacks by adherents of traditional forms and means in the poster and from artisans who discredited the positive properties of the new type of poster, who used photomontage techniques without penetrating the figurative meaning of the poster.

Gustav Klutsis. Long live the USSR

homeland of the working people of the whole world!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1931.

Klutsis himself stated:

"Photomontage, like any art, solves the problem figuratively."

He saw in the expressive means of photography further development the language of artistic truth. With increasing perseverance in 1928-1929, Klutsis devoted himself to work in the field of posters, achieving in them more and more realistic expressiveness and imagery. The heyday of his activity comes in 1930-1931. At the exhibition of the association "October" held in 1930 in the Park of Culture and Leisure, more than a dozen posters of Klutsis were presented, among them such outstanding works as "Let's fulfill the plan of great works", "Let's return the coal debt to the country", "To storm the 3rd year Five-Year Plan”, “May 1 - Day of International Proletarian Solidarity”, “Long live the XIII Anniversary of the October Revolution” and others. The exhibition aroused wide public interest and positive responses from the press. On March 31, 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On Poster Literature”, which noted serious shortcomings in the organization of publication and in the production of picture and poster products. In order to eliminate shortcomings and improve the poster art business, the decree provided for a number of measures to improve the ideological and artistic quality of publications, to attract the broad Soviet public to the poster art business. The publication of posters was concentrated in Izogiz, under it a working council was created, discussions of publishing plans, poster sketches, traveling exhibitions of finished products were organized. With the formation of the poster edition of Izogiz, Klutsis becomes its active employee, and during the vacation of the chairman of the Association of Revolutionary Poster Workers D. Moora, he assumes the deputy leadership of the ORRP. As a response to the appeal of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, one after another during 1931, his posters were published: “Drummers, fight for the five-year plan, for the Bolshevik pace, for the defense of the USSR, for world October” (by May 1, 1931), “ The USSR is a shock brigade of the proletariat of the whole world”, “Work in the USSR is a matter of honor, a matter of glory, a matter of valor and heroism” and others. Klutsis introduces figures into the composition of the posters - indicators of the five-year plans, under the heading "The country must know its heroes" the names of workers - leaders in production are printed in the posters and their portraits are reproduced. Posters of Klutsis are published in 10-20 thousand copies, published and reproduced in art magazines, periodicals, in articles and collections devoted to the problems of visual propaganda. The pathos of heroic everyday life unites the posters of the series "Struggle for the Five-Year Plan". "March of time" called the five-year plan V. Mayakovsky.

Gustav Klutsis. Under the banner of Lenin

socialist building.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 94.4x69.4 cm.

In the powerful rhythms of the labor march of the heroes of Klutsis's photomontage posters, the image of the five-year plan is embodied in the language of visual means. The images of his heroes, the Soviet people, the artist found in life: portraits of workers were filmed in the workshop, at the open-hearth furnace, in the coal face. For the sake of a valuable shot, Klutsis was ready to go anywhere, sacrifice sleep and rest. He tirelessly filmed, collecting material for future work. New impressions and great material were brought to him by a creative trip to the southern regions of the country together with Senkin in the summer of 1931. Many cities (Rostov, Novorossiysk, Kerch, Baku, Sukhumi, Batumi, Tiflis, Tashkent, Gorlovka) Klutsis saw for the first time. Interest aroused the industrial regions of the country and, first of all, the Donbass, to which in those years the attention of the whole country was riveted.

Gustav Klutsis. Long live the worker-peasant

Red Army -

faithful guardian of the Soviet borders!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1933. 145x98 cm.

The letters to his wife reflected vivid impressions, later melted down into artistic images:

“Yesterday we arrived at the All-Union stoker. Gorlovka is the end of any resemblance to poetry. These are everyday life, hard and big work, dust and dirt. Last night at 10 o'clock Senkin and I went down to the mine together with a shift of workers. Only now do I understand the seriousness and hard work of a slaughterer, a miner. There is no real literature on this yet. The most remarkable thing is the baths and showers at each mine. Each shift after work enters the clean half and puts on their clean, often in the latest fashion suits. Here I think to linger a little. Very interesting characters and varied in form and content. A lot of work".

The ability to choose types, or rather, to typify the individual - in the posters of Klutsis was recognized even by criticism, which underestimated artistic value installation. On the poster “To fight for fuel, for metal” (1933), in the clothes of a miner, with a jackhammer on his shoulder, with a confident step, handsome and strong, Klutsis himself appears. What is the meaning of this inclusion of a self-portrait? Klutsis, a tireless propagandist and participant in the industrialization of the country, felt like an ordinary five-year plan. Klutsis is credited with creating the image of the Soviet worker in its documentary originality and monumental spirituality. Klutsis paved the way for the heroic line of the realistic photomontage poster. There is another aspect in the depiction of working people, characteristic of the montage poster genre developed by Klutsis.

Gustav Klutsis. Communism is Soviet power

plus electricity.

Moscow-Leningrad, 1930.

This image is in the poster of the masses, millions of working people of the globe. A Red Army soldier or a worker in the "Windows of ROSTA" symbolized the image of the people in a single, typical one. A close-up documentary portrait of a worker or a Red Army soldier in a poster served the same role. At the same time, side by side, the equal hero of Klutsis's posters is the people, the working people of our country and all mankind. Mass rallies, demonstrations, scenes of battles and battles, festive processions are an integral part of the artistic solution of many Klutsis posters. The inspirational source of Klutsis's work was October in its progressive victorious march. It is natural that the theme of the people turned out to be inseparable from the theme of the revolution for him. Painstakingly, with careful research, Klutsis found ways to embody the revolutionary movement of the masses in art. The most complex montage - a gradual transition from a close-up to a small and tiny one, a comparison of the individual and the general - these are the methods by which Klutsis was able to convey the scope and scale of the events depicted. In his posters, the truth of a document is combined with artistic exaggeration and generalization, the concreteness of a fact with the conventionality of its artistic interpretation. Remarkable in this sense is the poster "The goal of the union is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie ..." (1933). The figure of Marx is located in the center of the sheet and is thus interpreted as the focus of the composition. Behind him are scenes of past uprisings, the glow of conflagrations, the barricades of the Paris Commune.

Gustav Klutsis. To storm the 3rd year of the five-year plan.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930.

Before him is the globe and the masses of working people, embraced by a single impulse of struggle for freedom. Using the figurative language of photomontage, the artist reveals the greatness of Marx's ideas, his call for unity in order to overthrow the bourgeois system in the name of creating a new, classless society. The theme of international proletarian solidarity found a multifaceted reflection in the work of Klutsis, and often in his view it is associated with the image of the globe. The globe for Klutsis is an allegory of peace, the union of workers, a symbol of the communist future, the pictorial equivalent of the slogan: "Proletarians of all countries, unite!". The image of the planet Earth in Klutsis's posters is refracted in different ways - sometimes in the form of a volume conventionally outlined by a circle, covered with a network of meridians and latitudes, then in the form of a flat circle - a collage of red glossy paper, or in a drawing with volume-shadow elaboration with a stroke and elements of photomontage.

Gustav Klutsis. Work in the USSR is a matter of honor,

glory, valor and heroism.

The country must know its heroes.

M.-L., 1931.

Gustav Klutsis. Strikers to battle!

L.-M., 1931.

Klutsis went far from the figurative elements found in the "Dynamic City" to diverse realistic solutions, but the theme of the future of the Earth, the cosmic industrial age continued to be one of the cherished problems that worried the artist. The posters of the 1930s embodied the best creative achievements of the artist of previous years. Mature talent absorbed what he had discovered in spatial compositions and printing, used the experience of modern pictorial culture and developed the inherent properties of the poster as a powerful means of political visual agitation. Like any real art, photomontage brought to life its own laws of construction and thus updated the usual ideas about the poster form. Klutsis's political posters meet the general requirements for this genre; they are catchy, precise, convincing, witty, and inventive. The artist understood the "soul" of the poster, introduced new and used the old methods, while maintaining the specifics of poster expressiveness.

Gustav Klutsis. Let's give millions

skilled workers

personnel for new 518 factories and plants.

M.-L., 1931.

Gustav Klutsis. Through the efforts of millions of workers,

involved in socialist competition

turn five years into four years.

M.-L., 1930.

Gustav Klutsis. No heavy industry

we can't build

no industry.

M.-L., 1930.

Techniques for creating an image in Klutsis's posters are varied, but of particular interest are those in which he develops the means of expression specifically inherent in the photomontage method. Such techniques include comparisons of "natural" shooting with conditional images, rhythmic repetition of frames, the influx of one image onto another, and the combination of one or more elements of a photographic image. Klutsis is not afraid to repeat a well-known technique, but each time he gives an independent and no less perfect solution in terms of skill and technique.

Gustav Klutsis. Fight for five years

for the Bolshevik pace,

for the defense of the USSR, for world October.

M.-L., 1931.

solidarity of workers.

M.-L., 1930.

These are several versions of the poster, which depict two combined heads of a young worker and a worker, evoking Lissitzky's photomontage design of the Soviet pavilion at the international exhibition "Hygiene" (Dresden, 1928), in which the heads of a young man and a girl merged into a single image symbolized the theme of the exhibition - youth and health. A photographic portrait carved in silhouette and pasted onto a painted surface plays a different role than against its organic background. He is transferred to a different spatial environment, and this very fact pushes the visual space apart. Various options for combining three-dimensional (three-dimensional) photography with planar techniques for transferring space open up truly limitless possibilities.

Gustav Klutsis. Live culturally and work productively.

Moscow-Leningrad, 1932. 144x100.5 cm.

Klutsis deliberately went for the installation of three-dimensional and planar. The innovative nature of the most significant posters of Klutsis is determined by this specific way of depiction, which the artist himself called "the technique of expanded space", a technique so close to popular perception, which, on the basis of new principles, was continued and developed by artists of the 20th century. Varying, trying, experimenting, Klutsis achieved new visual impressions. The principle of “unfolded space” made it possible to change the real scale in the depiction of people and events, to bring the remote closer and to move the close away. Klutsis was the first to apply the principle of three- and four-fold parallel exposure of the same poster. Publishing in this form the poster “Let's return the coal debt to the country” (1930) in the Bulletin of the Arts Sector of the Narkompros, Klutsis pointed out that “the very construction of the poster is designed for such a principle” of its exposure and perception.

Gustav Klutsis. Long live the multimillion

Lenin Komsomol!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932. 154x109 cm.

Thus, the artist sought to increase the strength of the impact of the poster on the viewer. The world-famous poster “Let's Fulfill the Plan of Great Works” (1930) became the pinnacle of an expressive specific poster solution. In the archives of museums and in the family of the artist, photo reproductions of the original sketches of this outstanding work of Klutsis have been preserved at different stages of the realization of the idea. It became possible to trace the long path that the artist went through before reaching the desired result. The accentuated image of the hand as an image-symbol is characteristic of the work of many artists.

Gustav Klutsis. Komsomol members for shock sowing!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1931. 104.5x73.5 cm.

In the drawings and engravings of Käthe Kollwitz, the hands of the characters often carry no less, if not more, artistic load than the face. Close attention to the human hand can be traced throughout the entire work of the artist. From such early etchings as "At the Church Wall" (1893), "Need" (from the cycle "Rebellion of the Weavers", 1893-1898), to such works as "After the Battle" (1907), where a woman bending over a dead woman only one hand is illuminated, and the second holds a flashlight, or in the "Memory Sheets of Karl Liebknecht" (1919 - lithograph, etching, engraving) and in the lithograph "Help Russia" (1921) - everywhere hands: laboring, mourning, protesting - pass as a leitmotif artistic thought of the author. “Hands of builders” - called one of his poems F. Leger. This is one of the leading themes in the work of the French artist. Documentary photography of hands was introduced into his works by John Heartfield. The image-symbol - the hand - appeared in the early works of Klutsis: in illustrations for Y. Libedinsky's book "Tomorrow" (1924), in poster designs for "Lenin's Appeal" (1924). While working on the poster "Workers and women - all for the re-election of the Soviets" (1930), in the subsequent version of which the slogan was replaced by a more concise "Let's carry out the plan of great works", Klutsis also turned to the image of the hand. In one of the first versions of the poster, all future elements of the plot are present - a slogan, a photograph of a hand, a voting person, but there is still no internal connection between them, there is no integrity of the image, And the artist creates several more options one after another until he reaches the maximum power of poster expressiveness but with capacious content. The constructiveness of composite montage is the formula of the Klutsis method. This feature comes through more clearly when compared with the work of Hartfield, an outstanding master of photomontage. The work of Hartfield was often compared and contrasted with the work of Klutsis. If we compare the poster “The hand has five fingers - with five you will grab the enemy by the throat. Vote for the Communist Five" (1928) by Hartfield with the poster "Let's Fulfill the Plan of Great Works" (1930) by Klutsis, you can feel the difference in the figurative thinking of these artists. It can be conditionally said that in the concept, made up of two words - photo and montage, Hartfield puts the emphasis on the first word. Klutsis - on the second.

Gustav Klutsis.

(Lenin).

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 103x72 cm.

Almost simultaneously becoming major masters of montage art, they were prominent representatives of its various trends: Klutsis - constructive montage, Hartfield - allegorical. Montage of Hartfield - allegory, symbol, feuilleton. Hartfield worked during a difficult political situation in Germany, and after 1932, in the difficult conditions of anti-fascist emigration. His weapon is allegory. With deadly sarcasm, he commented on political events in the country. In his posters "His Majesty Adolf: I'm leading you towards a magnificent bankruptcy" (Berlin, 1932), "He wants to poison the world with his phrases" (Prague, 1933), Hartfield deforms or modifies the photographic image in order to put a different meaning into it. “The painter paints pictures with paints, I paint with photographs,” he said. Heartfield either literally depicts what lies behind the meaning of the word, or, conversely, elevates its figurative meaning to a symbol. “The old adage to the new empire -“ Blood and Iron ”(1934) - is the name of the poster, on which the black fascist swastika is made up of four bloody axes. "Through light to darkness" - Hartfield paraphrased a well-known expression in a montage against the burning of books in Berlin and many other universities in Germany on May 10, 1933. Hartfield creates a new imagery with the help of montage.

“At the same time, the faces, facts, events used in the composition are always real in themselves, but the montage comparison of them is “unreal”, but deeply realistic in spirit”,- writes about the montages of Hartfield I. Mats.

In 1931, Hartfield came to the Soviet Union, an exhibition of his works opened in Moscow. A meeting and acquaintance of two communist artists took place. The sacramental question about the "inventor" of photomontage arose again, to which Hartfield replied:

"The inventor of photomontage is the social shift that has taken place over the past 10-15 years."

Heartfield expression:

"It's not the tool that matters, it's who uses it"- was picked up by artists and critics.

Gustav Klutsis.

"NEP Russia will be socialist Russia"

(Lenin).

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 87.5 x 63.2 cm.

Law of the genre, general ideological platform determined the generality of many methods. Hartfield's famous montage "The Soviet Union Today" (1931) evokes Klutsis' posters "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification" (1929), "From NEP Russia will be socialist Russia" (1930) or "Let's Fulfill Lenin's Precepts" (1932). According to one principle - a portrait of a worker against the backdrop of an industrial landscape - Hartfield's poster " New person"(1931) and posters of Klutsis: "Long live the XIII anniversary of the October Revolution" (1930), "Live culturally - work productively" (1932) and others. Yet the style and handwriting of these two masters are different. Each of them followed the path dictated by the nature of the inner vision. The means of compositional editing by Klutsis were plot diversity, specific methods of transferring space, associativity of comparisons, thanks to which the documentary image was raised to the level of the broadest generalization. Klutsis does not hide the "seams", connects the mounting nodes. The art of Klutsis did not remain closed in the circle of developed techniques. Among his works there are samples in which the constructive nature of the montage and a special vision of space are essentially preserved, but the image is created by the synthesis of montage and pictorial-plastic embodiment.

Gustav Klutsis. Youth - on the planes!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1934. 144x98 cm.

This is the poster "Youth, on airplanes!" (1934). A parallel, at a new stage, appeal to painting had an impact on the work of the artist in all areas of his work, including the poster. The light and air environment, unusual for the former things, creates the integrity of the space. Something new was born, making a poster related to a picture “painted” with photographs, and significantly different from the usual idea of ​​a picture. Klutsis removed the "seams" and painted a picture in Hartfield style. But internally - in the structure of thoughts and sense of form - he remained himself. Chronologically and thematically, this poster evokes the canvases of A. Deineka on sports topics: "Running" (1930), "Skiers" (1931), "Cross" (1931), "Ball Game" (1932), "Running" ( 1934). The essential difference between the genres does not remove the common features inherent to a certain extent in the art of Klutsis and Deineka. In the work of each of them, the features of the fine arts of the mid-30s were clearly and peculiarly manifested: romantic elation in the interpretation of reality and monumentality of images, the predominance of light, cheerful colors, dynamism, intense expressiveness of the action. Noting characteristics creativity of the young A. Deineka, R. Kaufman wrote:

“In the people he depicts - workers, athletes, children - the viewer easily captures the well-known features of our era. And yet, the characters in his paintings sometimes lack something unique and individual, they are too standard.

Gustav Klutsis. Anti-imperialist exhibition.

Poster. 1931.

This cannot be said about the heroes of Klutsis's posters. In his interpretation, the image of a contemporary retains a unique character in its individuality. We can safely say that the later canvases of A. Deineka, such as The First Five-Year Plan (a sketch for a painting, 1937) or The Left March (1941), have direct threads from photomontage posters of the early 30s. Klutsis considered himself and indeed was a convinced revolutionary in art. Art criticism in the person of I. Mats, V. Herzenberg, P. Aristova, I. Weisfeld, A. Mikhailov, in her assessments, Klutsis’s posters were invariably singled out as the most successful, but noted that they constitute “a completely random phenomenon”, “just a drop in the ocean of released products” (I. Matsa). In 1931, Klutsis took part in the discussion “The Tasks of Fine Arts in Connection with the Decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on Poster Literature.” The materials of the discussion were widely covered in the press, published in the journal "Literature and Art", and published as a separate collection "For the Bolshevik Poster". The publication of Klutsis's report "Photomontage as a New Problem of Propaganda Art" in this collection was accompanied by an editorial note, which noted that the section of spatial arts of the Institute of Literature, Art and Language, where the report was read, "does not agree with a number of provisions of Comrade Klutsis, which show that Comrade Klutsis could not completely overcome the mistakes associated with the Oktyabr group, in which he was a member.

Gustav Klutsis.

"The purpose of the union is: the overthrow of the bourgeoisie,

the rule of the proletariat, the destruction of the old,

resting on class opposites

bourgeois society, and the creation of a new society

without classes and private property". K. Marx.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932. 151.5x102 cm.

What was meant was the opposition of photomontage as an art created on the basis of industrial technology to other types of visual culture. The statements and enthusiasm of Klutsis for his subject gave rise to such conclusions, but the pathos of the report and the specific content of the sources of origin and specific methods of installation were dictated by the desire to defend a new type of propaganda art and prove that it occupies a leading position in the visual culture of our time.

“The proletarian industrial culture, which puts forward expressive means of influencing the vast masses,” wrote Klutsis, “uses the method of photomontage as the most combative and effective means of struggle. Photomontage created a new type of Soviet political poster, which is currently the leading one. Photomontage was the first to introduce new social elements into the composition - the mass, the new man building a socialist state, workers of new types of production and agriculture, socialist cities, the proletariat of the whole world, not distorted by aesthetic appendages, but by living people. He created new methods for organizing a planar sheet, the features of which are to complex (organize) a number of politically relevant elements:

1. Political slogan.

2. Socially relevant photography (including documentary) as a pictorial form, color as an element of activation, and graphic forms linked by a single target setting, which achieves maximum expressiveness, political sharpness and impact power.

Klutsis substantiated a special kind of creativity, equivalent in its artistic possibilities to other types of fine arts and special in specific ways of influence.

Gustav Klutsis. hello to the worker

to the world giant Dneprostroy.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932.

Gustav Klutsis. Let's return the coal debt to the country!

Moscow - Leningrad, 1930. 104x74.5 cm.

Summing up the discussion, I. Matsa rightly said:

“All the comrades who spoke unanimously recognized the need to fight against the underestimation of photomontage. However, it must be remembered that this struggle should not turn into an overestimation.

D. Moor, the greatest master of the Soviet poster, who did so much for its development, rightly recognized the leading role of the new direction on the poster front:

“Photomontage during the years of the first five-year plan became one of the most important sections of the newly flourishing militant political poster,”- he wrote in a joint article with R. Kaufman "Soviet political poster 1917-1933".

Gustav Klutsis. Struggle for

Bolshevik harvest -

struggle for socialism.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1931.

Gustav Klutsis. field strikers,

in the fight for socialist reconstruction

Agriculture! (I. Stalin).

Moscow - Leningrad, 1932. 144x104.5 cm.

World fame came to the works of Klutsis. Along with the most significant Soviet artists Klutsis represented the art of revolutionary Russia at international exhibitions in Europe, America, Canada and Japan. A significant place was occupied by his works at exhibitions in the Stadelik Museum (Holland), "Film and Photo" (Berlin, Stuttgart) and "Photomontage" (Berlin). The preface to the catalog of the Berlin exhibition "Photomontage" was written by Klutsis. In a review of the exhibition, Geinus Lüdeke wrote:

“The discovery of Klutsis, the creator of the era of photomontage, makes this kind of art agitational and propagandistic: this idea is especially clearly emphasized after the film “Turksib”, also made on the principle of photomontage. Inherent in the works of both authors - Gustav Klutsis and Dziga Vertov - a huge propaganda impact puts their art at the revolutionary service of the proletariat.

The Danish art critic Gundel, when analyzing the “collection of works” received from the Soviet Union (meaning the exhibits of the exhibition “Photomontage”), especially notes the posters of Klutsis. D. Reitenberg, who visited England on business in 1931, informed Klutsis: "Your works are published in the last yearbook of Poster and Advertising (London, 1931) with good reviews."

Gustav Klutsis. Transport development

one of the most important tasks

for the implementation of the five-year plan.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1929. 72.5x50.7 cm.

On the pages of the magazine Art, the Soviet art critic M. Ioffe, in an article about the poster, nominated Klutsis "to the ranks of the foremost masters of party political posters." However, the complex processes in the development of Soviet art in the second half of the 1930s could not but affect the fate of the poster. “Like a mortal sin, the poster is afraid of the stamp,” said Tarabukin. In the context of an uncreative approach to its specificity, the standard has become the main danger for the artist. The general decline in the artistic level of posters was reflected in the work of Klutsis. The unambiguity of the subject, the schematism of decisions adversely affect the skill. The posters lose their luster of novelty, and the lively expression disappears from the faces of the heroes of Klutsis. The artist experiences acute dissatisfaction with himself. Already in 1934, the number of posters he created was reduced and almost ceased in 1935-1936.

Learn active.

Agitprop poster of the MK VKP(b).

Gustav Klutsis and Sergey Senkin.

Moscow, 1927. 71x52.5 cm.

In the workbooks of Klutsis, many entries appear, behind the external restraint of which one feels spiritual bitterness. From fragmentary theses, one can judge the content of his speeches: “I almost stopped working. Isogiz does not need my work. And I love poster art. Working on the poster, I am very closely with the party both ideologically and organizationally. Avant-garde role - Mayakovsky. The lowering of the artistic level was reflected not only in the photomontage poster. General anxiety for his fate was expressed by Moore in the 1935 article "Attention to the poster" and in a number of other speeches and statements:

“We forgot about the specifics of the poster, replacing the figurativeness with naturalism”; “And there was a poster and the poster disappeared.”

A critical reappraisal of the achievements of the photomontage poster began. Only at the end of the 1950s did Klutsis' work again begin to attract the attention of researchers (I. Birzgalis, A. Eglit, N. Khardzhiev, N. Shantyko).

“Klutsis's talent and keen interest in the matter helped him create many politically sharp and artistically eloquent photomontage posters. The artist arranged the material in an original way, knew how to inventively use large-scale contrasts of individual images, and most importantly, to successfully select photographs according to the type of characters”,- N. Shantyko wrote in 1965.

Gustav Klutsis. No revolutionary theory

there can be no revolutionary movement.

Moscow - Leningrad, 1927. 71x52.5 cm.

Today, the milestones passed and the peaks taken are more visible. Much that seemed insignificant, atypical, turns out to be significant and important. Of the artists who worked in the poster, Klutsis boldly changed his usual appearance. Not immediately from the time of the "poster fever" history singled out the hand-crafted "ROSTA Windows". Photomontage was not immediately understood. According to the temperament of the fighter, according to the consonance of the figurative language with the era, according to the monumentality of the image of a contemporary created by him, Klutsis stands next to those who opened new pages in the history of the poster, while showing outstanding talent.

Gustav Klutsis. Glory to the great Russian

poet Pushkin! 1936.

If we talk about the prices for G. Klutsis posters at world auctions, they are quite solid: large and well-known glued "sheets" go from 20 to 30 thousand US dollars. Less known: from 7 thousand to 15 thousand. For this, collectors and dealers simply adore Gustav Gustavovich. Poster"Glory to the great Russianpoet Pushkin!" is inexpensive - not the same proletarian and collective farm "impulse" ...