Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Russian design is quite interesting. Subjects were restricted during the first decades of Communist rule. Constructivism was favored early on, but later replaced by Socialist realism.

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Soviet posters were meant a link between the state and its citizens and presented attention-grabbing  slogans (proekt-a.ru). They were influenced by Russian Avant-Garde, Futurism, and Dada styles. Techniques such as photomontage and symbolic color were employed.

    

Contemporary Russian posters have a wider variety of intentions:

Foreign-movie posters are often hand-painted, but this art is fading. That’s from Men in Black II, by the way. Capitalistic gains and global concerns are more often the subjects of this “social advertising” (proekt-a.ru). Other types of media were utilized as well.

 

 

Browsing the Internet for other contemporary Russian art, I primarily found paintings (usually landscapes and floral still-lifes)

  

 and useful items. Forms resembled other objects, especially those related to modern technology. Proekt-a.ru mentions this as well. However, function is not sacrificed for form.

A twist on common objects, still emphasizing the importance of both:

 

 

www.worldgallery.co.uk/gallery/Russian%20Contemporary%20Art-1.html

www.designboom.com/contemporary/handpainted.html

http://www.internationalposter.com/country-primers/soviet-posters.aspx

http://poster.easytask.biz/

http://www.proekt-a.ru/stat-soc_plakat.shtml

JL