Leah Dickerman

Wallach Art Gallery

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.

Books like Building the Collective

Your next favorite book is out there