Tate Modern Review

'Poetry and Dream': Russian Revolutionary Posters



Figure 1.

The name of the exhibition that I visited was ‘Poetry and Dream’: Russian Revolutionary Posters found on level 2 in room 5 at the Tate Modern. The exhibition shows a range of different posters taken from the David King collection; the author of The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia (1997) and Ordinary Citizens: The Victims of Stalin (2003) and numerous other books on Soviet subjects. Within this exhibition there is a variety of posters with very different styles, they show the response of the Bolshevik leaders on the topic of the revolution. The theme throughout this exhibition is ultimately the Russian Revolution, however the posters also suggest themes of heroism, chaos and terror as can be seen in figure 1, which shows a small selection of the posters portraying these different themes.


Matthew Gale curated this exhibition that allows you to reflect on the ideals and illusions of the Russian Revolution and Soviet Union, it also shows the history of Russia as was experienced by the citizens. The posters show similar styles, for example the colours used such as the colour red which can be seen very prominently in figure 2; I find that these posters portray quite violent images and the use of the colour red enhances this as it is often a colour associated with danger and fear which I think is very clear in some of the posters in this exhibition. Although this exhibition is displaying posters for the same era/event it is not laid out in a very chronological order as there are quite big gaps between many, for example, 1915-2002 which shows they are also from different artists.


Figure 2.

My immediate impression of this exhibition was that it was striking and bold and also very cultural/historic, there was also lots of the colour red and black which added to the boldness of the posters creating a contrast. I understood that the work was representative to the Russian Revolution and how it would impact on the citizens which made me psychologically empathetic towards the them and the struggles and problems they faced. Physically, I felt aware as the posters imitated warning signs which suggest a dangerous nature and lead on to the types of messages that I received from the work. For example, danger and sorrow as well as questioning what it is they stand for, who is good/who is bad and how this has impacted Russia today. I think it is important to have an open mind with this exhibition because it allows you to explore the different aspects of the art and the various meanings it portrays.

This relates to me as a practitioner because it shows the use of multi-media by using print and photography, I am also interested in the history and culture behind this art, however not directly to the work itself, although I would be interested in using the various styles within my own work. These posters would also help me graphically and inspire me to use similar ways of presenting my work e.g. posters and adding text.