Wednesday, 4 December 2013

The Photomontages of Gustav Klutsis


Gustav Klutsis  (1895-1938) was a Latvian-born Soviet poster designer who started out as an avant-garde artist whose goal was to radically transform the spectator's viewing habits and then mutated into a agitprop supporter of the Bolshevik regime after participating in the October 1917 assault on the Winter Palace. He believed that the role of the artist was to communicate an unambiguous political message. His all-out endorsement of Lenin and Stalin did not however prevent his arrest and execution during the Great Terror of 1938. Below is a sampling of his output some of which might have been included in the chapter The Spirit of  Socialism in That Line of Darkness: The Gothic from Lenin to bin Laden (Encompass Editions, 2013) had space permitted.


Gustav Klutsis

Electrification of the Entire Country


Moscow Athletic Competition 1928

Untitled

We Will Return Our Coal Debt to the Country
Young People to the Aeroplanes




















The Reality of our Program is Real People


Russian Parade



















Fulfilled Plan Great Work

Onward into the Third Year





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