Building the Collective: Soviet Graphic Design 1917-1937 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568980744 ISBN 13: 9781568980744

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997

Synopsis

Covering the first decades of the Soviet Union, from the Civil War to the end of Stalin's Second Five-Year Plan in the 1930s, the graphic works in Building the Collective provide a remarkable overview of design during one of this century's most politically turbulent and artistically active periods. These designs, from the collection of Merrill C. Berman, challenge assumptions of a monolithic Soviet poster style, conveying the impressive range of graphic design as it responded to a rapidly evolving political situation. Providing historical context and focusing on images of labor, industrialization, and technology, Building the Collective demonstrates how the ideological imperative of imagining a new collective society existed in a fertile and sometimes contradictory relationship with the artists' efforts to redefine their role in post-revolutionary Russia.
Building the Collective showcases over 100 posters and other graphic works, representing the talents of a wide variety of artists, from the acclaimed to the anonymous. Color reproductions of works by Gustav Klutsis, Aleksandr Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and the Stenberg brothers - as well as those of lesser-know but important designers such as Aleksandr Deineka, Viktor Deni, and Elena Semenova - are shown alongside posters created by "brigades" of designers who worked collectively and anonymously in the spirit of the times.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1568980744
• ISBN 13: 9781568980744
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 186
• Editor: Leah Dickerman