MIKHAIL BALJASNIJ | BRIGADE KGK3 | MIKHAIL CHEREMNYKH | NIKOLAI CHOMOV | VIKTOR DENI | NIKOLAI DOLGORUKOV | BORIS EFIMOV | VLADIMIR GALB | IULII GANF | VERA GITSEVICH | František Gross
MIKHAIL BALJASNIJ
1892-1970
"Communism means soviets [popular councils], plus the electrification of the whole country. Let us transform the USSR through socialist industrialization"
1930
Lithograph
29¼ x 27¾
In the captions artists' titles are in italics, descriptive titles are in roman, and inscriptions taken from the artwork are in quotation marks.
Dimensions are in inches.
BRIGADE KGK3
(VIKTOR KORETSKY, VERA GITSEVICH, and BORIS KNOBLOK)
Ukrainian 1909-1998, Russian 1897-1976, and Unknown, respectively
"Long live International Women's Day"
c. 1930
Lithograph
36¾ x 23
MIKHAIL CHEREMNYKH and VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY
Russian: 1890-1962 and 1893-1930, respectively
ROSTA Window series #81
March 1921
All for Farming Equipment Repair Week!
Hand-cut stencils with watercolor pigment
20½ x 13½ to 21¼ x 14¼ each
"1. Those are the weapons our factories used to produce"
"2. Now we have a new kind of weapon to use"
"3. For Spring's arrival we must prepare —"
"4. Get the plough and harrow in full repair"
"5. Worker! A new front has opened"
"6. Quickly, go fix the farming equipment!"
NIKOLAI CHOMOV and IURII MERKULOV
Ukrainian 1903-1974, and Unknown, respectively
"Fulfill the five-year plan not in five years, but in four"
1930
Lithograph
21¾ x 13½
VIKTOR DENI
Viktor Deni and Dmitri Moor began their careers as cartoonists during the Revolution and went on to become the major poster artists of the Bolshevik period (1917-1921). Deni was above all a satirist, and his artistic style was well established before the October Revolution.
Wildly clever imagery and scathing text characterize his bitingly satirical posters and cartoons, leaving no question as to who was friend and who was foe in Civil War Russia. Devoted to the Bolshevik cause, Deni lionized the strong factory worker and noble collective farmer and demonized the capitalist, imperialist, Tsar, kulak, priest, and White Army general. Heroes are portrayed with red fists raised in service of the collective while enemies are shown as grotesquely fat, wealthy, and uncaring or as savage beasts concealed by a friendly mask.
Born in Moscow as Viktor Denisov in 1893, he later shortened his name to Deni. A year before the outbreak of World War I, he moved to St. Petersburg and was immediately successful, his caricatures appearing in several illustrated satirical journals. Deni worked under the Litizdat (the state publishing house) after the October Revolution and dedicated himself to the new Russia. He composed nearly 50 posters during the Civil War, including some of his most well known satirical work, such as "Death to capital — or death under the heel of capital" and "The Denikin Gang" both included in the exhibition. In the later 1920s and 1930s, Deni shifted his focus to newspaper cartoons with foreign policy themes. Although he returned briefly to the medium of the political poster during World War II, he died shortly thereafter, in 1946.
VIKTOR DENI
Russian, 1893-1946
"Death to capital — or death under the heel of capital!"
1919
Lithograph
28¼ x 42
"The dogs of the Entente: Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich"
c. 1919
Offset lithograph
3½ x 5½
"In Denikin's Kingdom"
after a poster dated 1919
Offset lithograph
3½ x 5½
"Kolchak: The hangman of workers and peasants"
after a poster dated 1919
Offset lithograph
3½ x 5½
"The Denikin Gang: Beat the workers and peasants"
after a poster dated 1919
Offset lithograph
5½ x 3½
"The League of Nations: Capitalists of all counties, unite!"
after a poster dated 1919
Offset lithograph
5½ x 3½
"The Village 'Virgin'"
after a poster dated 1919
Offset lithograph
5¾ x 4
"The final hour"
1920
Lithograph
28 x 21¼
"Bread power. Kulak-bloodsucker: What do I care about the hungry?!"
after a poster dated 1921
Offset lithograph
5¾ x 4¼
Kulak and Priest
1922
Offset lithograph
5¾ x 4
"International Red Day — The day to mobilize the proletariat of the world against the armies of imperialism"
1929
Lithograph
20½ x 26¾
"Murderers of the five-year plan"
after a poster dated 1929
Offset lithograph
4 x 5¾
The Democracy of Mr. Lynch
1930s
Offset lithograph
5¾ x 4
Culture and Civilization in the Colonies
n.d.
Offset lithograph
5¾ x 4¼
NIKOLAI DOLGORUKOV
Russian, 1902-1980
"Workers of the world, unite! For a worldwide October!"
1932
Lithograph
56½ x 39
"Long live the great, unconquerable banner of Marx, Engels and Lenin!"
1934
Lithograph
68¾ x 20¼
"Death to the Nazi occupiers!"
1942
Lithograph
33½ x 23¼
BORIS EFIMOV
Russian, 1900-
"A True Aryan Should Be: Tall (Goebbels), Muscular and Slim (Goering), Blonde (Hitler)"
1941
Ink, watercolor, pencil on cardboard
19 x 14¼
Untitled
1941
Ink, white paint, watercolor on cardboard
12½ x 9½
"Death to the Nazi occupiers!"
1942
Lithograph
33½ x 23¼
"Forces of peace with Soviet Union at their head are invincible!"
1949
Lithograph
25 x 33
Brigade KGK3
(VERA GITSEVICH, VIKTOR KORETSKY,
and BORIS KNOBLOK)
Russian 1897-1976, Ukrainian 1909-1998, and Unknown, respectively
"Long live International Women's Day"
c. 1930
Lithograph
36¾ x 23
