2
1900–1930
Constructing a New Society
The beginning of the 20th century brought the promise of change. Visions of speed and industrialization, demands for social revolution, experiments with new forms of visual expression: all signalled a break with the past. And all were helped, or hindered, by a terrifying force. Within two decades, much of humanity would be plunged into the First World War (1914–18), a significant participant to the creativity unleashed during this period.
Offering a ghostly premonition of things to come in Europe, the Mexican artist and printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) provided an intense, satirical and at times bloody, documentary of the years leading up to the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. He spent much of his working life in Mexico City, and produced an incredible output of illustrations – estimated at over 15,000 – for the ‘penny press’, aimed at the lower, near-illiterate classes. His sensationalized depictions of news events, crimes, politics or gossip covered posters, street gazettes and broadsheets, sold at fairs and festivals. Disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes as well as shoot-outs with the police (curiously relevant, even now) provided an exciting and at times gruesome portrayal of city life. All chronicled the interests of the common people, and especially the deep divisions between rich and poor. Posada is best known, however, for the use of macabre, humorous ‘calaveras’, the dancing skeletons of death (derived from ceremonies such as the Day of the Dead, 2 November, when barriers between worlds are transgressed and the living and dead coexist). Ambiguous agents of good or evil, they laugh, play, smoke cigars and invariably convey a feeling of impending doom or death, contributing to the unsettling effect of much of his work.1
At the same time, a different social revolution was brewing in Britain. Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. The WSPU represented the new spirit of militancy in the British women’s suffrage movement, demanding voting rights for women. Its members were dubbed ‘the suffragettes’ by the British press. From 1906 to 1914, the WSPU ran their campaign with military precision, underpinning all of their activities with visual propaganda and protest. Their militant activities involved public speaking, the production of their newspaper Votes for Women (followed much later by the more militant magazine The Suffragette), pestering and heckling politicians, demonstrating in front of Buckingham Palace, and many other actions, often ending in imprisonment, hunger-strikes and government retaliation by means of torture (force-feeding).2
Cover of songsheet for ‘The March of the Women’ 1911
Drawing by Margaret Morris
Also crucial to their cause were their corporate image-building activities: the introduction of ‘the colours’ (purple, white and green) and the ‘suffragette uniform’; the use of ‘spectacle’ or processions, mass demonstrations and smaller ceremonies; and the merchandising of ‘the suffragette look’ in fashion and style. In addition they produced a wide range of accessories, novelties (dolls, games and toys) and other goods. But despite all their efforts and sacrifices, by 1912 they were still denied the vote and so resorted to a campaign of violence in the form of window-smashing, setting fire to (unoccupied) houses and other actions. With the onset of the First World War in 1914, they immediately stopped their campaign and backed the war effort. Much of the WSPU’s campaign was documented graphically on postcards (extremely popular and collectable at the time), posters and in newspapers. The broader, international movement for women’s suffrage also yielded graphics from the USA and other countries.3
Across the English Channel, not far away, another revolution was taking place that would change the visual arts forever. F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto appeared on the front page of Le Figaro (Paris) in 1909, launching the first of a number of intellectually-based avant-garde art movements that collectively became known as the Modern movement, embracing writers, artists, designers and architects on an international scale. Futurism venerated the energy of speed and the machine, as well as the power and violence generated by war (considered to be the ultimate Futurist sensation). It was a movement of ideas, writings – manifestos, poetry, texts – and methods that were exploited by, and which energized, other existing art movements. Futurism’s dynamic artistic vision changed the use of typography and printed formats forever, allowing the free use of type as a pictorial/graphic element in itself rather than as a carrier of a verbal message. Its many written or recited manifestos made a clear rejection of the ‘old social order’ and its traditions, delivered with a vehemence best described by Marinetti’s caustic remark ‘Every day we must spit on the altar of art’. This sentiment would certainly have passed on to, and excited, Dada and other art movements.4
Dadaism (1916) was an outright protest against the First World War, translating the insanity of war and bloodshed into an absurdist rejection of everything. It was anti-war, anti-society, anti-art, and it proceeded to turn the conventions of art, performance, writing and typography upside down. The innovation of photomontage was one of its most powerful tools; its shocking treatment of typography was ‘calculated chaos’ on the page, and still bears a strong influence on the teaching and practice of graphic design today. Dada was born in the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich with the provocative performances (poetry readings, noise-music, riots) of a group of young artists and writers, including Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara. A Berlin Dada group soon evolved, including Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann and John Heartfield, all engaged in the development and use of photomontage, often for satirical or political purposes. There were many other Dada or anti-art movements in New York, Paris, Hanover and other cities, developing their own versions and methods of revolution.5
In the early 1920s, the art movement known as Constructivism borrowed the geometric forms and dynamic composition of Russian Suprematism (Kasimir Malevich’s abstract art movement of 1915) and used them to develop a new ‘Constructivist vision’, or model for life. The Constructivists placed their artistic talents at the service of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, envisaging a new culture for a new society. Under the title of ‘Productivism’, they created a utilitarian role for art and design in the new Soviet future, producing everyday products across a wide range of disciplines, from graphic design and advertising to textile design, theatre design and film.6
Alexander Rodchenko was an early advocate of Constructivism, exhibited widely and was one of the most versatile in advancing the possibilities of Productivism. He applied a Constructivist sensibility and style to typography, graphic composition and layout, photomontage and photography, while working across advertising (often partnered with his friend, the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky), illustration, logo design, book/magazine design, and poster design for the cinema. He even ventured into the design of a worker’s suit, the furniture and interior for a Worker’s Club, and other products such as a table lamp and teapot. Varvara Stepanova, wife and co-worker on many projects with Rodchenko, was also an internationally recognized artist in her own right. She was deeply committed to Productivism, especially in the area of clothing and textile design. She produced remarkable designs for sports clothing and textile prints, and especially enjoyed designing specialist clothing for surgeons, firemen and pilots. Economy of material was always an issue, often supplemented by the use of bright colours. She also designed both costumes and sets for the theatre and posters, as well as being involved in the graphic design and production of magazines and journals.7
El Lissitzky’s pioneering Constructivist experiments in typography and layout dealt with the visual expression of sound and the rhythm of the spoken word, or revelled in the use of letters as pictorial material. It was art for the machine age, and the beginning of seeing type and pictorial material as a whole. Lissitzky was also the great connector, visiting other avant-garde artists in Europe, forming collaborations, lecturing on Constructivist principles, designing several Russian exhibitions in Germany, and bringing the new Russian art and its ideas to the attention of the West. Sadly, this period of creativity was not to last. Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Revolution, died in 1924; by 1928 Stalin was leader, and in 1932 he outlawed abstract art, introducing Socialist Realism.8
The First World War, having ended in 1918, had exhausted many of the European countries involved. Post-war Germany struggled to deal with reparation payments owed from the war. Unemployment and inflation spiralled, followed by the collapse of the currency in 1923. Artists drew or painted the reality they saw around them. George Grosz depicted bloated industrialists and their struggling workers or hungry, unemployed victims. Käthe Kollwitz’s graphic art continued to expose the poverty and oppression of the German working class and the wider tragedies of war. Chronicling the political developments throughout this period was the tough, satirical weekly Simplicissimus, launched in 1896 in Munich, with its famous bulldog symbol and much of its bold cover art drawn by co-founder Thomas Theodor Heine. For three decades its main artists/cartoonists – Bruno Paul, Olaf Gulbransson, Karl Arnold and others – had become well known for using a sophisticated drawing style to make aggressive comments about capitalism, nationalism, the ruling classes and (later) Hitler. But not surprisingly, with the rise of the Nazi Party in the early 1930s and Hitler’s installation as German Chancellor in 1933, the satirical tabloid finally had met its match.9
Never Again War! 1924
Kӓthe Kollwitz
Posada and Pre-revolutionary Mexico
Uncle Sam Consuming Cuba date unknown
José Guadalupe Posada
Engraving
In the Mexican War between Mexico and the USA (1846–48) over disputed border territory, a great deal of Mexican territory was lost to the USA. A by-product of the later Spanish-American War (of 1898) was the Platt Amendment of 1903, giving the USA the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs. It is therefore not surprising that, by this point in time, Mexicans would see the USA as an imperialist force that was a constant threat to Mexico and currently devouring Cuba.
Emiliano Zapata date unknown
José Guadalupe Posada
Engraving
Although at the time of this print he was probably still considered a local bandit, at the start of the Mexican Revolution (1910) Zapata raised an army of peasants and fought for land reform or tierra y libertad (land and liberty). Standing up to a succession of central governments, he took control of the southern state of Morelos, chased out estate owners and divided their land among the peasants. He was eventually assassinated by government forces in 1919, but became a legendary hero, and his agrarian reform movement is still considered relevant today.
Calavera of a Society Belle date unknown
José Guadalupe Posada
Engraving
Women do not escape ‘calavera’ treatment, and are particularly grotesque as skeletons when wearing fancy dress.
Calavera of the People’s Printer Antonio Vanegas Arroyo date unknown José
Guadalupe Posada
Engraving
The Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada produced his most renowned prints and illustrations for the small press owner and publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo in Mexico City. He began his work there in the early 1890s, producing a prolific output of illustrations depicting news, events, politics, gossip or poems for the ‘penny press’: cheap broadsheets aimed at the lower class, semi-literate audience and posted in the street or sold at fairs or festivals. His work chronicled the concerns of the common people, and particularly the social divisions between rich and poor. Although never an overtly ‘political artist’, his artistic narrative certainly included politics. His best known depictions, possibly both then and now, are his humorous ‘calaveras’, traditionally the macabre, grinning skeletons of death, derived from the festivities of the Mexican Day of the Dead, on 2 November, a day when the dead and the living spiritually coexist. However, the skeletons seem to overstay their welcome and appear fairly often in Posada’s work, a mischievous, cigar-smoking, gambling, romantic (but scary) presence and an ominous reminder of the fragility of life. The print shown here presents a very humorous poem about the death (real or imagined) of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. It gushes about his qualities and contributions in life throughout, while at the end joking that his pamphlets would even find readers ‘in hell’.
Votes for Women: The WSPU
Portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst 1915
Designer unknown
Postcard
Emmeline Pankhurst, pictured in this postcard, founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903, with her two daughters, Christabel and Sylvia. Christabel would, in time, acquire a first-class law degree and was a brilliant speaker; Sylvia had studied at the Royal College of Art and was the designer-artist for the WSPU. Determined to achieve voting rights for women, the WSPU represented a new spirit of militancy, necessary as the (failed) women’s suffrage campaign was already 40 years old. Also crucial to keeping the WSPU afloat were the formidable Pethick-Lawrences, Frederick and Emmeline, who were responsible for financial and propaganda initiatives. It was Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence who devised ‘the colours’ – a scheme of purple, white and green – and its symbolism: purple for freedom and dignity, white for purity, green for hope. Her genius was not only to apply ‘the ‘colours’ as a uniform and corporate identity, but to also relate them to marketing and fashion as ‘the suffragette look’. Due to the WSPU’s civil disobedience and militant tactics, the Daily Mail newspaper labelled its members ‘suffragettes’, a slur which the WSPU adopted with pride.
Votes for Women c. 1907
Hilda M. Dallas Poster
This poster advertises Votes for Women, the official newspaper of the WSPU from 1907 to 1912. The woman depicted is wearing ‘the suffragette look’. The paper originated as a monthly but quickly grew to weekly status. In 1912, during the last and most violent stage of militancy, the new and more militant newspaper The Suffragette, edited by Christabel Pankhurst, became the main organ of the WSPU (although Votes for Women continued to be published).
Banner c. 1911
Hammersmith WSPU
The WSPU made use of ‘spectacle’ – processions, mass demonstrations and smaller ceremonies – as an important part of its corporate image-building and interface with the public. Banners became important identifiers of local groups and associations, and carried impressive mottos such as the WSPU’s ‘Deeds Not Words’. This banner belongs to the Hammersmith branch of the WSPU. It is reversible, and uses a mixture of machine stitching, crewel stitch embroidery and appliqué. It is fair to assume that it was handmade by WSPU members or friends/associates.
Daisy Dugdale, standard-bearer, and ‘the uniform’ 1908
Photograph
Standard-bearer Daisy Dugdale leads a procession to welcome Mrs Pankhurst and Christabel on their release from Holloway Gaol, 19 December 1908. Daisy wears ‘the uniform’: a short skirt of purple or green, a white golf jersey and a simple hat of purple or green. The regalia (sash) is worn over the right shoulder, and fastened under the left arm. There was also a ‘full dress uniform’: a white frock with regalia and colours, usually worn only for processions. The uniform was meant to be simple and economical, so that women with very limited budgets could participate in WSPU activities and events.
The Woman’s Press 1910
Postcard
The Woman’s Press was launched in 1908 at 4 Clement’s Inn, London, as the WSPU’s publishing imprint and distribution house for Votes for Women and other WSPU publications. By 1910 it had expanded into additional premises, including a shop, at 156 Charing Cross Road which acted as a focal point for its merchandising. The shop sold a wide range of novelties and products, from fashion accessories and postcard albums (collecting postcards to follow the personalities, celebrations and adventures of the movement was very popular) to packaged tea, soap and stationery, much of it sporting ‘the colours’. For the period 1907–14, at least twenty-two WSPU shops were listed throughout London.
Pank-a-Squith 1908
Board game
The title of this board game can be read as ‘Pankhurst vs. Asquith’, for Prime Minister Henry H. Asquith was deeply opposed to women’s suffrage and became one of the WSPU’s main targets. Board games, card games and a range of toys were produced to help spread and support the movement. This game involved miniature metal suffragette playing pieces which, on a roll of the dice, attempted to journey from their home to the Houses of Parliament, while overcoming various difficulties. First available in 1908, from the shop of The Woman’s Press, it is a good example of shrewd propaganda; it showed the suffragettes had a sense of humour and could laugh at themselves, which would have enhanced their popularity and disarmed their critics.
Suffragettes in replica prison clothing 1908
Postcard
Suffragettes released from Holloway Prison, but dressed in replica prison clothing and badges, and riding in an open-top vehicle.
Emmeline Pankhurst arrested by Chief Inspector Rolfe outside Buckingham Palace 21 May 1914
Photographer unknown
Photograph
This is one of the most commonly viewed photographs representing suffragette activities. It shows the arrest of Mrs Pankhurst (in front of Buckingham Palace) on 21 May 1914 while trying to present a petition to King George V. It was part of a volatile demonstration: 200 suffragettes attempted to break through the line of 1,500 police surrounding Buckingham Palace. Notice the formal dress and angry faces of the men surrounding the diminutive Pankhurst.
The ‘From Prison to Citizenship’ Procession 1910
Photographer unknown
Photograph
Alongside their use of processions and demonstrations for the purpose of image-building and public interface, the WSPU was also constantly pushing for recognition and action in the political sphere, through its wide range of militant activities. This included pestering politicians at home, canvassing against unsympathetic government candidates at elections, creating disturbances outside the House of Commons, heckling politicians (including the prime minister) at public meetings, chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows of government offices and commercial properties, stone throwing and sending deputations to the king and prime minister. Most of these actions ended in violence with the police, arrests and imprisonment. When imprisoned suffragettes went on hunger-strike, the government retaliated with the tactic of forcible feeding (force-feeding) as early as 1909. Again, the suffragettes fought back by parading their martyrdom with dignity. In processions women carried long poles or sticks topped by broad arrows to signify they had been imprisoned; they wore medals of honour as a tribute to their courage; they carried banners marked with the names of hunger-strikers. The procession shown here is moving through Fleet Street on 18 June 1910, in full dress uniform, with ex-prisoners carrying broad arrows on staves. The effect must have been stunning; 617 ex-prisoners marched in this procession. Such tactics sustained morale, while impressing the public with the women’s courage.
Modern Inquisition 1910
‘A. Patriot’ (Alfred Pearse) Poster
The suffragettes’ militant activities often resulted in their imprisonment, followed by hunger-striking and often accompanied by force-feeding. Introduced as early as 1909, it was regarded by militants as a form of state torture. It was, in fact, a hellish procedure. In short: women were held down, a long tube was inserted through the nose and pushed down about 20 inches, then a liquid of milk or milk and egg was poured down the other end of the tube (which had a funnel attached), causing much wretching and pain. The sacrifice was great: after repeated visits to prison, a certain amount of body-breakdown was inevitable. Consequently, the WSPU rewarded prisoners’ bravery and sacrifice. Great attention was paid to ritual and ceremony. Released prisoners were met by delegations and (often) a marching band; processions and banners were used to display martyrdom; prisoners received illuminated Emancipation Certificates signed by Emmeline Pankhurst; and there were medals of honour for hunger-strikers and Holloway (prison) badges and brooches. This poster was published by the WSPU for the January 1910 general election; it represents one of the few times the WSPU depicted force-feeding. The WSPU seldom used violent imagery for fear it might brand women as victims or, even worse, allow sadistic viewers to see women ‘getting what they deserve’.
Prison badge c. 1909
Medal
The WSPU would have awarded this badge to a suffragette who had endured a prison sentence; the woman’s initials would also have been inscribed on the back, with a date.
Hunger-strike medal c. 1909–12
Medal
This medal was awarded by the WSPU to members who endured hunger-strikes or force-feeding while imprisoned. A name and date was usually inscribed on the back, and sometimes more silver bars were added to signify force-feeding (with dates engraved on the back of the bars).
Holloway brooch c. 1908
Silver brooch
Designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, this silver brooch had a convict’s broad arrow in purple, white and green enamel sitting on a silver portcullis (fortress or prison gate). It was awarded to suffragettes who had endured a prison sentence.
The Cat and Mouse Act 1914
Anonymous
Poster
Published by the WSPU, this poster would have drawn attention for its use of violence. The ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ (as it was commonly known) was devised in 1913 and allowed the early release of prisoners suffering from ill-health due to hunger-striking or force-feeding, and then rearrested them once they were recovered in order to finish their sentence. The Act largely failed in its purpose; when released from the ‘cat’ (the prison authorities), the suffragette ‘mice’ were nursed or went into hiding, after which many of them committed even more militant acts. The typographic message is blasted out, loud and clear, in a call to arms: ‘Keep the Liberal Out!’
Futurism Breaks with the Past
Zang Tumb Tumb 1914
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Book
Marinetti’s ‘The founding and manifesto of Futurism’ appeared on the front page of Le Figaro (Paris) on 20 February 1909, and was immediately translated into other languages for other newspapers. It launched Futurism, a movement driven by the energy of a new century and which venerated speed, the machine, and the power and violence of war. Marinetti’s following manifestos, as well as his poetry, were intended to be recited and performed with exaggerated sounds, gestures or intonation. In his poetry on the printed page, words were set free from their traditional roles of arrangement, composition and even syntax. They became ‘parole in libertà’ – words in liberty, or ‘free words’ – and therefore able to combine to make new sounds and associations. This demanded new, revolutionary, typographic treatment, as exciting as the oral delivery. (And Zang Tumb Tumb was more in tune with events, as it tells the story of the Siege of Adrianople, 1912, when aerial bombing was used, possibly for the first time – and which Marinetti covered as war correspondent.) Typography therefore transformed into a new visual language: typefaces mixed with other typefaces and sizes, words changed in size and positioning, flying off the page or adopting energetic angles for dynamic effect. Words were divorced from their original function, instead appearing to merge vision and sound, appropriate for the explosions and nightmare visions that were awaiting Italy as it entered the First World War.
Il Pleut (‘It’s Raining’) 1916
Guillaume Apollinaire
Calligramme for journal or magazine
Marinetti was one of a number of artists and poets intent on experimentation with language, type and sound (often derived from oral performance). Both Marinetti and French poet Guillaume Apollinaire wished to simplify language, ridding it of adjectives and other ‘useless words’. Apollinaire, however, also wanted to abolish syntax, punctuation, the tenses and persons of verbs, and the structures of poetry. Literature would instead consist of free words), new words, onomatopoeic expressions and a mixture of languages.
Words in Liberty 1919
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
One page from the book
Marinetti’s later book of Futurist poetry, Words in Liberty, does not sustain typographic manipulation throughout the entire book, as in Zang Tumb Tumb. Words in Liberty contains both pages of typographic dynamism as well as fold-out sheets of drawings or collages. He again concerns himself with the destruction of syntax, and divorces letters from their role in written language, using them for their visual appearance and dynamic effect. The poem shown here dates from 1915, and begins: In the evening, lying on her bed, she read again the letter from her artilleryman at the front. The explosions and sounds of war hang above her, perhaps an expression of her imaginings.
Dadaism and its Graphics
Dada 3 1918
Tristan Tzara
Journal
In 1916 Dada was born in the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich with the provocative performances (poetry readings, manifestos, riots) of the thoughtful, restrained Hugo Ball and the fiery Tristan Tzara. Dada was an outright protest against the insanity and bloodshed of the First World War, translated into an outright rejection of everything. It was anti-war, anti-order, anti-society, anti-art and it turned the known conventions of art, performance, writing and typography upside down. Photography and particularly photomontage proved to be its most valuable weapons. Ball and Tzara were joined by other young artists and writers, and soon the spirit of Dada had networked its way to artists in Berlin and other European cities, as well as an independent anti-art movement developing in New York. Although others in the Zurich group contributed, Tristan Tzara’s extraordinary energy and enthusiasm meant that he was inevitably responsible for the editing, direction, design and administration of the periodical Dada, shown here.
Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Höch at the International Dada Fair, Berlin 1920
Photograph
Berlin was a ‘hotter’ place to be than Zurich (politically) and a Berlin Dada group soon evolved that included Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, George Grosz and others. The Berlin group’s innovation of photomontage was its most powerful weapon, and suitable for tactics involving shock, protest, absurdity and violence. (The inventor of photomontage remains hotly contested, as Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann were experimenting with it at the same time as John Heartfield and George Grosz.) The first International Dada Fair of 1920 included work by the Berlin group. The highlight of the Fair was a stuffed dummy, dressed in a German officer’s uniform with the head of a pig, which led to prosecution for defaming the German Army. Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Höch are shown here; Höch’s photomontage ‘Cut with the Cake-Knife’ can be seen to the left of Hausmann.
Cut with the Cake-Knife c. 1919
Hannah Höch
Photomontage
The full-length title of this photomontage is Cut with the Cake-Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany (as listed in the catalogue for the First International Dada Fair, 1920). It is a large photomontage (114 × 90 cm, 45 × 35 in) and an incredible hodge-podge of carefully juxtaposed images. For Höch excels at social satire and, as with much of her work, the closer one gets, the more worrying it looks. Large bodies have small heads, men with beards have babies’ bodies, and symbols of industry (cogs and wheels) seem to be mashing it all together. There is something ill-fitting and deadly about it all. Bearing in mind the year (1919), one year after the end of the First World War, when maimed and ill soldiers had returned home and inflation was climbing, it may be a suitable portrait of the Weimar Republic of 1919–33.
Photomontage and Social Critique
Fünf Finger hat die Hand (The Hand has Five Fingers) 1928
John Heartfield
Poster
The full-length title of this photomontage poster is The hand has five fingers. With five you seize the enemy. Vote List Five, Communist Party. John Heartfield joined the German Communist Party, along with his brother Wieland Herzfelde and George Grosz at the end of 1918. Ten years later this poster is encouraging people to vote for the Communist Party in an upcoming election (the Communist Party is List 5 on the electoral list). As powerful as this poster is, with its hand projecting out over the typography as if to grasp the viewer, it did not achieve its goal. Within a few years, Germany began to see the rise of the Nazi Party. The poster could be seen as a desperate attempt to avoid that future.
Früh um fünf Uhr (Five a.m.) 1921
George Grosz
Cartoon
George Grosz was an outstanding satirical cartoonist of the Weimar period, and a close friend and working partner of John Heartfield. The main outlet for Grosz’s books and cartoons was the publishing house, Malik Verlag, founded by brothers Wieland Herzfelde and John Heartfield during the First World War. The book in which this cartoon appeared, Das Gesicht der Herrschenden Klasse (The Face of the Ruling Class) was published by Malik Verlag in 1921 and was one of the first examples of a picture book designed specifically to encourage class consciousness from a Marxist-Leninist perspective.
Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles 1929
John Heartfield
Book jacket
John Heartfield’s attempts to produce a new form of revolutionary graphics using photomontage led him into designing posters, magazines, newspapers, calendars, pamphlets, book jackets and, as shown here, an experimental book. In collaboration with the writer Kurt Tucholsky, Heartfield produced Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles, a new type of satirical photo-text book as well as the jacket for the book.
The Constructivist Style
A selection of covers from LEF and New LEF 1923–28
Alexander Rodchenko
The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution provided artists with the opportunity to undertake a central role in the building of the new Soviet state and its culture. The artists of Constructivism produced work that was driven by the ideas and actions of ‘construction’. They then moved towards Productivism: designing for the functional needs of the new society, such as workers’ clothing. They produced work across a wide range of disciplines and, unusually for that time period, women played a central role in the movement. Leading practitioners were Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky (graphic design, photography, typography) and Varvara Stepanova (textile, theatre and graphic design). Some of the most vibrant examples of Constructivist graphics were covers for LEF, the journal of a group of Constructivist artists and Futurist poets known as ‘Left Front of the Arts’. It was founded in 1923 by the revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (also editor-in-chief). Alexander Rodchenko designed covers, illustrations and layouts, and Varvara Stepanova worked on the production. In 1925, LEF was terminated by the State Publishing House following accusations that it was incomprehensible to the masses. It was resurrected by Mayakovsky in 1927 under the title New LEF, but it proved unpopular and ceased in 1928.
‘Knigi’ (Books – For Every Branch of Knowledge) 1925
Alexander Rodchenko
Poster
Due to its bright colours and dynamic composition, this poster remains one of the most recognizable and best-loved of all Constructivist posters. It was designed by Alexander Rodchenko for the State Publishing House Gosizdat and made for its Leningrad branch as part of a literacy programme, announcing that books would be freely available to all. (The woman shouting is Lily Brik, actress and wife of the critic Osip Brik: both were friends of Rodchenko.) A large part of the population at the time was illiterate, and therefore simple, impactful propaganda posters were better able to communicate their message.
Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge 1919
El Lissitzky
Poster
El Lissitzky’s poster is considered to be one of graphic design’s great icons of the Constructivist period. It is an abstract composition depicting the victorious Red Army (symbolized by a large red triangle) invading and crushing the White Russians (a large white circle, unable to stop the invasion of its black defences). It is now relatively easy to understand and make sense of this early, pioneering, visual interpretation of a confrontation of both people and ideas. However, its ability to communicate a political message to the semi-illiterate population, at the time it was made, could be questioned.
Tractors 1930
Sergei Burylin
Indienne
The young Soviet state, desperate to promote economic reconstruction, did not deal solely in abstract designs. As time went on new propagandist themes were born, shown here in a textile design, based on representations of industrialization and involving subjects such as dockyards, factories, aeroplanes and sport. The designs appeared particularly dynamic on lightweight cotton fabrics such as indienne. Such ‘propagandist’ fabrics (agittekstil) were considered representational, both in style and as a genre, but were still heavily influenced by Constructivism and particularly by the styles of Varvara Stepanova and Liubov Popova. Despite limited technological facilities and no more than two or three colours, the designs stand out for the dynamism of the composition and the way that movement is realized, so that tractors and other vehicles or objects do seem to actually travel or move across the material.
Scum
Spreads from For the Voice, a book of verses by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1923
Design and typography: El Lissitzky
Selected double-page spreads
Leftward March
Be Kind to Horses
El Lissitzky was arguably Constructivism’s most pioneering, experimental typographer. This book of poems, written by Vladimir Mayakovsky, was intended to be recited or read out loud. Lissitzky used only the material from a compositor’s type case, and the exquisite positioning of those materials in relation to the page (and to each other), to create the emotion and expressiveness of the voice or sound to be made as well as the spoken words. A thumb index at the side allows easy location of each poem. Three spreads – one poem per spread – are shown here, out of a possible dozen.
Kino-glaz (Cine-Eye) 1924
Alexander Rodchenko
Film poster (lithograph)
Alexander Rodchenko’s poster for Dziga Vertov’s Cine-Eye film employs the usual Constructivist elements of geometric structure and bold lettering, but his introduction of photomontage into the poster is dramatic and meaningful. A staring human eye represents the (all-seeing) eye of the camera gazing at its audience; the camera and boy’s head, mirrored and looking upward, refer to Vertov’s use of high-angle shots.
Man with a Movie Camera 1929
Georgy and Vladimir Stenberg
Film poster (lithograph)
Documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov produced Man with a Movie Camera in 1929. A film without a spoken narrative, it documented the life, moods and rhythms of the city through inventive use of montage. It was fast-paced, full of experimental methods (multiple exposures, split-screen imagery, unusual camera angles), and was made to awaken Soviet citizens to their emerging new life. It is therefore suitable that this poster was created by the Stenberg brothers, Vladimir and Georgy, both Constructivist artists. Here they capture the movement and breathless quality of Vertov’s film through the angled perspective of the buildings, the backward arch of the woman and the typography that seems to whirl around her.