Painting graphics poster in the service of the new government. General characteristics and periodization of Soviet art
IN Russian folk tale about sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka tells about two orphans. Their parents were old and died, and the good older sister had to take care of little Vanechka.
The story is sad, but very instructive! While reading, children together with their parents will be able to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a Russian village and experience interesting events of an exciting fairy tale with the main characters. colorful illustrations help to vividly present the narrative, and large print to learn letters for kids and memorize new words for teenagers and adults.
The story is posted on the page for family reading. Parents will have to explain to the child why you can’t drink from a puddle and how to avoid contact with a bad person so that he does not harm him.
The main characters of a fairy tale are known to every adult since childhood. Cartoons were made about them, written beautiful pictures, and the kids in kindergarten creates a real gallery of drawings with famous and beloved characters. Let's take a closer look at the characters from an old Russian fairy tale:
Sister Alyonushka - a simple hardworking girl, on whose shoulders lay the care of her younger brother. She had to work hard to feed herself and Vanechka. Alena is very kind and beautiful, so she was able to meet her betrothed and get married. A rich merchant saved her from a difficult peasant life and together with his brother he settled in a rich house, but sincerity and gullibility almost ruined a kind girl.
Brother Ivanushka - a small peasant boy, nimble and cheerful. He did not listen to his sister Alyonushka and drank from the hoof, so he turned into a white kid. Perhaps, until the end of his life, he would have remained in a shaggy skin if he had not rescued his kind sister from underwater captivity.
Merchant - Alyonushka's husband. A wealthy merchant, who took pity on the girl and her enchanted brother, married Alena and took the orphans into his house. When the wife was replaced by an evil sorceress, he did not notice anything and, at the request of his wife, he almost slaughtered a kid.
Evil witch - a witch who lured Alena with deceit and cunning and threw her into the pool with a stone around her neck. She envied the girl and wanted to take her place in order to live with the merchant in rich chambers. Following her sister, she wanted to destroy her brother, but Lucky case prevented the insidious plans of the hated sorceress.
devoted servant - a real hero. He followed the kid and learned the secret of the evil witch, Alena and poor Vanechka. With the help of nets, he pulled the drowned woman from the bottom and exposed the vile sorceress. The happy ending of the fairy tale helped to remove the spell from Ivanushka, and all the heroes of the fairy tale returned home safely.
A wonderful story with a good ending is sure to please the kids. Can read them a fairy tale overnight, and to introduce folk art Russian craftsmen from the villages of Fedoskino, Mstera and Kholuy. Every child should know their roots, learn native language and present the history of their country through artistic miniatures.
Alyonushka and Ivanushka were left alone.
Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman, they had a daughter, Alyonushka, and a son, Ivanushka.
The old man and the old woman died. Alyonushka and Ivanushka were left alone.
Alyonushka went to work and took her brother with her.
They go along a long way, across a wide field, and Ivanushka wants to drink.
— Sister Alyonushka, I'm thirsty!
— Wait, brother, we will reach the well.
We walked and walked - the sun is high, the well is far away, the heat is pestering, the sweat comes out. There is a cow's hoof full of water.
“Sister Alyonushka, I’ll take a sip from a hoof!”
“Do not drink, brother, you will become a calf!”
The sun is high, the well is far away, the heat is pestering, sweat comes out. There is a horse's hoof full of water.
— Sister Alyonushka, I'll get drunk from a hoof!
“Do not drink, brother, you will become a foal!”
The sun is high, the well is far away, the heat is pestering, sweat comes out. There is a goat's hoof full of water.
Ivanushka says:
“Sister Alyonushka, there’s no urine: I’ll get drunk from a hoof!”
— Don't drink, brother, you'll become a kid!
Got drunk and became a goat...
Alyonushka calls her brother, and instead of Ivanushka, a little white kid runs after her.
Alyonushka burst into tears, sat down under the stack - crying, and the little goat jumped beside her.
At that time, a merchant was driving by:
— What are you crying about, little red maiden?
Alyonushka told him about her misfortune.
The merchant says to her:
— Marry me. I will dress you in gold and silver, and the kid will live with us.
Alyonushka thought and thought and married the merchant.
They began to live and live, and the kid lives with them, eats and drinks with Alyonushka from one cup.
Once the merchant was not at home. Out of nowhere, a witch comes: she stood under Alyonushkino's window and so affectionately began to call her to swim in the river.
The witch brought Alyonushka to the river. She rushed at her, tied a stone around Alyonushka's neck and threw it into the water.
And she herself turned into Alyonushka, dressed up in her dress and came to her mansions. Nobody recognized the witch. The merchant returned - and he did not recognize.
One kid knew everything. He hung his head, does not drink, does not eat. In the morning and in the evening he walks along the bank near the water and calls:
- Alyonushka, my sister! ..
Swim out, swim out to the shore...
The witch found out about this and began to ask her husband - slaughter and slaughter the kid ...
The merchant felt sorry for the kid, he got used to him. And the witch pesters like that, begs like that, - there is nothing to do, the merchant agreed:
“Well, stab him...
The witch ordered to build high fires, heat cast-iron boilers, sharpen damask knives.
The little kid found out that he did not have long to live, and said to the named father:
“Before I die, let me go to the river, drink some water, rinse the intestines.
— Well, go.
The kid ran to the river, stood on the shore and cried plaintively:
— Alyonushka, my sister!
Swim, swim to the shore.
Bonfires are burning high
Boilers boil cast iron,
Knives sharpen damask,
They want to kill me!
Alyonushka from the river answers him:
— Ah, my brother Ivanushka!
A heavy stone pulls to the bottom,
Silk grass tangled my legs,
Yellow sands lay on the chest.
And the witch is looking for a goatling, cannot find it, and sends a servant:
— Go find the kid, bring him to me.
The servant went to the river and saw: a goat kid was running along the bank and plaintively calling:
— Alyonushka, my sister!
Swim, swim to the shore.
Bonfires are burning high
Boilers boil cast iron,
Knives sharpen damask,
They want to kill me!
And from the river they answer him:
— Ah, my brother Ivanushka!
A heavy stone pulls to the bottom,
Silk grass tangled my legs,
Yellow sands lay on the chest.
The servant ran home and told the merchant about what he had heard on the river. They gathered the people, went to the river, threw down silk nets and pulled Alyonushka ashore. They removed the stone from her neck, dipped her in spring water, dressed her in a smart dress. Alyonushka came to life and became more beautiful than she was.
And the kid, for joy, threw himself three times over his head and turned into a boy, Ivanushka.
The witch was tied to a horse's tail and let into an open field.
Download all coloring pages in one archive: (downloads: 271)
Not only in Leningrad, but also in Moscow - the two most active art centers countries - there are more and more calls to oppose the Soviet poster to the Western one, more and more often the acquaintance of Russian artists with the works of their German colleagues, the achievements of French or American graphics is regarded as a harmful influence. Even such a master as Lissitzky, whose work in the 1920s. was closely connected with the world artistic process, in Once again emphasized in the preface to the catalog All-Union Printing Exhibition of 1927 that it was the October Revolution of 1917 that contributed to the creation of a new industrial graphics. Noting that in Germany, too, the poster "was used politically," Lissitzky nevertheless insisted that "only in our country did it mold into a clear social and art form". .
Lissitzky's theses on the innovative essence and social activity of Russian photomontage were vividly illustrated at the 1927 exhibition by posters Klutsis And Senkina. In their work, photomontage, which was a topic of intense debate throughout the 1920s, found a special life. They knew how to give the plot versatility and a special visual polyphony to the sheets devoted to the appeals of the party and industrial plans. Sharply, actively comparing fragments of natural, documentary photography with conditional graphic elements, these masters increased the scale of the poster form, giving it an increased monumentality and even a certain epic quality.
Klutsis was a founding member Association "October", whose declaration, published in June 1928, stated that all types of art - both traditional - painting, graphics, and "industrial" - poster, photography or cinema - should first of all "serve the working people" in the field " ideological propaganda", as well as in the sphere of "production and direct organization of everyday life". And almost all sheets Klutsis, in which photo frames are combined with type compositions ("From NEP Russia will be socialist Russia" (No. 14)) or in which color contrasts are vividly used ("Komsomol members, sowing for shock!" (No. 15)) are dedicated specifically to ideological propaganda. Distinguished by their visual power and special dynamism, which was often created by unexpected visual accents (“The development of transport is one of the most important tasks for the implementation of the five-year plan” (No. 16)), the posters of Klutsis or his follower Senkin were perceived by many as those same “proletarian paintings”, about which were written by constructivist theorists. It is interesting that the birth of some sheets was preceded - as with easel artists - by the "study period", the time of accumulation of natural material. They made trips to the industrial regions of the country, and in the Donbass, for example, they photographed the expressive types of miners who later became central images poster compositions ("Let's return the coal debt to the country" (No. 13)).
These theses Klutsis also defended at the discussion at the Institute of Literature, Art and Language at the Communist Academy, which unfolded thanks to the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted in March 1931 "About Poster Literature". It stated "an unacceptably ugly attitude to the poster and picture business on the part of various publishers ... which was reflected in the release of a significant percentage of anti-Soviet posters."
The management of "poster production" in this regard was transferred Department of Agitation and Mass Campaigns of the Central Committee, a system of strict ideological review was introduced, involving not only official censorship, but also students of the Institute of Red Professors. It was also proposed to organize "preliminary discussions" at enterprises, where ordinary workers were supposed to develop topics, as well as view sketches and finished "picture and poster production."
Thus, the poster was one of the first to be subjected to strict regulation by the party authorities, artistic disputes ended in total ideological control.
In 1932 a book was published "For the Bolshevik poster", in the preface of which it was emphasized: "Comrade Stalin's instructions demand that the front of the proletarian arts give the most severe rebuff to all deviations from Leninism." Here was the main indication: “The first and main requirement that we must present to the poster is political, ideological richness; it must contain content that comes from our reality in its dialectical materialist interpretation.”
The Soviet poster after the Civil War suddenly began to change its appearance. In 1922, one of the ideologists of the "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 the Poster" not only informed, enlightened and agitated, but also "revolutionarily rebuilt" the consciousness of Russian citizens by 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 made it possible to convey a picture of real life, to compare the past and present of the country, to show its success in the development of industry, culture and social area. The death of Lenin put forward the need to create "Lenin exhibitions" and "corners" in workers' and rural 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. THE 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 a revolutionary theory” G. Klutsis; “Only a party led by an 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). Talented artist made some very interesting posters during these years. The years of total terror have not yet come, and in the manner of the performance 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 a compositional solution for posters with a photograph 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 the Klutsis report on photomontage, said that one American artist(Hugo Gellert) set in his creative plan the task of illustrating Marx's Capital.
“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 completed!
Moscow - Leningrad, 1932.
More directly than other species visual arts, the poster responds to the most important events in the life of the Soviet people. per level high art a political poster was raised 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 Soviet poster experienced a period of recession. 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 the inner world of a person, 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.
Let's give for the 17th anniversary 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 periodicals, Klutsis designs and creates a series of propaganda photomontage posters about Lenin's conscription to the party, international labor aid, 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's choice of the intended path was the fulfillment by him, together with S. Senkin, of the task of the Agitprop of the MC 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 sheets.
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 Serezha 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, rich in content political information, the posters were presented in the autumn of the same year at the All-Union Printing Exhibition that opened in Moscow in the Park of Culture and Leisure. 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 mature period 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 hot topics 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 substitution of living creativity for mechanical stickers is the systematic killing of creative abilities. 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 sharp-sighted eye of the critic correctly noticed some specific features of the photomontage poster - the diversity of scale in the image, the combination 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. More than a dozen posters of Klutsis were presented at the exhibition of the Oktyabr association in the Park of Culture and Leisure in 1930, including 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 the shortcomings and improve the picture and poster 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 picture and poster 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 brought him 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, subsequently 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 I understand the seriousness and hard labour slaughterer, 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, was recognized in Klutsis's posters even by critics, who underestimated the artistic value of montage. 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 difficult installation - a gradual transition from close-up to the petty and the smallest, the 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 working woman, 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 method 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 figurative thinking 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 at the same time, becoming major masters of montage art, they appeared prominent representatives its various directions: 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 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 it to a symbol figurative meaning. “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 bloodied axes. "Through light to darkness," Hartfield paraphrased famous 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.
The law of the genre, the common ideological platform determined the commonality of many techniques. 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 "The New Man" (1931) and the 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”, “only 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". Publication of the report by Klutsis “Photomontage as new problem propaganda art" in this collection was accompanied by a note from the editors, which noted that the section spatial arts 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 about the sources of occurrence 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 first introduced new social elements into the composition - a mass, a 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 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 force.
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, 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, while analyzing a "collection of works" from Soviet Union(referring to 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, complex processes in the development Soviet art in the second half of the 1930s could not help but influence 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 wrestler, according to consonance figurative language 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" ...
Poster (from the Latin "plakatum" - evidence) - the most massive form graphic art performing the tasks of visual political agitation or serving as a means of information, advertising, instruction.
Original posters are created by artists for printing production. In some cases, the poster is printed from the author's printed form (linocut, lithography).
Strictly defined functions of the poster dictate the choice of pictorial means, methods of work, determine the special pictorial language of the poster and its dimensions. The poster, printed in huge print runs, is designed for the widest masses of viewers and is hung out, as a rule, on the streets and in public places. The poster should very quickly respond to all socio-political topical tasks, call for action. Posters quickly replace each other and, acting relatively a short time, should be distinguished by clear and concise language. The poster should grab the viewer's attention from a distance. The viewer, who has stopped in front of the poster, should become clear in the shortest possible time what the poster is calling for, what is its purpose; the poster should be perceived instantly. It is precisely these tasks that dictate the relatively large (for graphics) sizes of posters. In the name of brevity, intelligibility and expressiveness, the poster uses especially sharp typification of images and widely uses such conventionally decorative techniques as generalization of the image, simplification of color relationships, rejection of minor details, symbolic designations, and the combination of different scales. The text, which is an obligatory element of the poster, should be extremely brief and understandable from the first reading (the only exception is instructive and educational posters). The text should not be mechanically attached to the image, but organically included in it. The nature of the font should correspond to the content of the poster, it should be easy to read. The inscription is an element of the poster composition for the artist. Of course, thinking about the observance of all these requirements, the artist strives by all means to preserve the integrity, composure of the poster within the sheet of paper.
Types of posters are diverse and are divided into several groups according to their purpose.
Political poster - the main, most important type of poster. It is he who is one of the most effective forms of political agitation, embodies visual means political goals and slogans. The subjects of political posters are unusually broad: in our conditions they are devoted to the struggle to fulfill the tasks of building communism, the struggle for peace, they call for the strengthening of the socialist camp, and are aimed at exposing the enemies. Many posters are created in honor of revolutionary holidays, international events, etc. Satirical posters have acquired great importance. A satirical poster is almost always associated with a literary text. The special popularity of these combative and sharp posters brought to life the association of poster-satirists ("Windows of Satire ROSTA", "Windows TASS", "Combat Pencil", "Agitplakat").
An information and advertising poster solves the problems of information, notification of various cultural and educational events (performances, films, lectures, exhibitions, etc.) or advertising tasks - familiarizing consumers with goods, services provided by various institutions and organizations. An advertising poster in our conditions pursues the tasks of truthful and cultural information, assistance in choosing a product and educating the taste of the consumer. Theatrical posters and film posters are endowed with special qualities. Performing the tasks of advertising performances or films, they must simultaneously reflect the style inherent in this spectacle, the creative aspirations of its authors.
The educational and instructive poster aims to promote scientific knowledge, labor methods, various rules (safety, sanitation and hygiene, fire fighting, etc.), and also helps to solve educational problems. The instructional poster, unlike other types of poster, contains a significant amount of text, a whole series of drawings and is intended for longer use. Educational posters serve as a visual aid in the educational process.
The poster in its usual form arose relatively recently - at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. The modern poster was preceded by engravings and drawings of large size, dispersed by hand, pasted on the walls, exhibited in shop windows and windows. In 16th century Germany they were known as "flying leaves". Such propaganda images were widely distributed during the bourgeois revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries in England, France and Holland. A similar role in Russia was played by large luboks, as well as anti-Napoleonic sheets of 1812. With the invention of new methods of reproduction and the development of printing, the circulation of campaign sheets increased. At the end of the 19th century, posters appeared that were similar to modern ones in purpose and appearance. Such great masters as T. Steinlen, F. Brengvin, A. Toulouse-Lautrec, K-Kollwitz and others worked on the creation of various posters. Among modern foreign posters, the works of A. Bertrand (Mexico) and G. Erni (Switzerland) dedicated to the struggle for peace stand out. Of particular note are the excellent posters by the artists of socialist Poland, significant and deep in content, made in excellent poster language (posters by T. Trepkovsky, T. Gronovsky, A. Bovbelsky, Z. Kaya).
From the first days of Soviet power, the poster in our country has received the widest distribution and recognition as a vital, operational and deeply party art. Attaching great importance to the poster as a means of political agitation, our Party closely follows its development and does everything possible to help improve its ideological content and skill. Evidence of this are the resolutions of the Central Committee of the Party and all-Union meetings devoted to political posters. During civil war, recovery National economy, during the years of the first five-year plans, the poster played a significant role and Soviet poster artists were in the forefront of fighters on the ideological front. High examples of poster art are, for example, Moor's posters "Have you signed up as a volunteer?", "Help." A. Deineka, M. Cheremnykh, N. Dolgorukov and other artists worked a lot in the poster. Great was the significance of the satirical posters "Windows of satire ROSTA", in the creation of which V. Mayakovsky, S. Malyutin, A. Radakov and others took an active part. Mobilizing their forces to defeat the enemy during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet artists worked especially hard and successfully on the creation of posters that were distinguished by passion and a high patriotic spirit. According to the model of "Windows of satire ROSTA", "Windows TASS" were created. In besieged Leningrad, the "Fighting Pencil" association arose. Not only graphic artists worked on the posters, but also many painters. The posters of the Kukryniksy, Efimov, Golovanov, Kokorekin, Dolgorukov, V. Ivanov, Toidze, Shmarinov, Serebryany will remain in the memory of the Soviet people for a long time. In the post-war period, there were attempts to turn the poster into a kind of color photograph with text glued to it. The longest quotations were printed in movable type in the posters.
Standard, "prosperous" people-schemes appeared on the posters with a "duty" smile on their faces, almost unchanged, wandering from poster to poster. Having successfully overcome these mistakes, having returned to the poster its best fighting qualities, experienced poster masters and young people are actively working in various genres of this art. In Moscow, Leningrad and other cities, satirical posters of the "Fighting Pencil", "Agitplakat" and other associations are very popular. The viewer is familiar with the posters of Soviet artists V. Ivanov, Kukryniksy, N. Denisovsky, M. Gordon, K. Ivanov, V. Govorkov, V. Briskin, M. Mazrukho, K. Vladimirov, G. Kovenchuk and other artists.
