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Art & Design

Soviet Arts Experience brings more than five exhibitions about the art of the USSR to Chicago this fall.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Block Museum and Smart Museum host shows about 20th-century Soviet posters and more.

By Lauren Weinberg

Viktor Koretsky, Africa fights, Africa will win!, 1971.

Process and Artistry in the Soviet Vanguard at the Smart Museum of Art: photo gallery

Valentina Kulagina, May 1 USSR (detail), c. 1930s.

Gustav Klucis, Long Live Red Army of workers and peasants – faithful guard of Soviet borders! (detail), 1935.

Gustav Klucis, Design for poster Long Live Red Army of workers and peasants – faithful guard of Soviet borders! (detail), 1935.

Gustav Klucis, Untitled (Stalin and Lenin Heads) (detail), 1933.

Valentina Kulagina, May 1 USSR (detail), c. 1930s.
Photo: Courtesy of the Ne boltai! Collection342.ar.Process1.jpg149383911
Gustav Klucis, Long Live Red Army of workers and peasants – faithful guard of Soviet borders! (detail), 1935.
Photo: Courtesy of the Ne boltai! Collection342.ar.Process2.jpg149383932
Gustav Klucis, Design for poster Long Live Red Army of workers and peasants – faithful guard of Soviet borders! (detail), 1935.
Photo: Courtesy of the Ne boltai! Collection342.ar.Process3.jpg149383953
Gustav Klucis, Untitled (Stalin and Lenin Heads) (detail), 1933.
Photo: Courtesy of the Ne boltai! Collection342.ar.Process4.jpg149383974

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Valentina Kulagina, May 1 USSR (detail), c. 1930s.

Photo: Courtesy of the Ne boltai! Collection

09/09/2011

“Process and Artistry in the Soviet Vanguard”
Smart Museum of Art, through January 22.
What it’s about
Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina used photomontage to make Stalin look good in posters like Long Live Red Army of Workers and Peasants (1935).
Why you should see it
The innovative Constructivist couple even photographed themselves, dressed up as industrial workers, for use in their posters.
Where to learn more
Curator Kimberly Mims speaks at the Agitation! symposium Friday 14.