František Zelenka (1896 – 1942) was a Czech architect and stage and graphic designer. He was born in Prague. Zelenka’s career in the theatre was initiated by K.H. Hilar, the National Theatre director in Prague in 1926.Read More →
Aleksandr Rodchenko was a commercial as well as a fine artist. He was a proponent of the Russian constructivist art movement. The term ” constructivism” came about because the artists claimed they riveted the images together in the manner of engineers not artists. In the early years of the RussianRead More →
In the early days of the Bolshevik revolution artists in their teens and early twenties passionately connected themselves to the collectivist goals of communism. Their motives certainly combined idealism with opportunism – a chance to ride the aesthetic revolution to fame on the political upheaval. The book “Art Into Life”Read More →
One of the 20th century’s most influential movements amounted to nothing less than an attack on art. In 1922, a Russian artist named Aleksei Gan penned a manifesto that began with words in glaring uppercase: “WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!” The Russian Revolution had taken place five years earlier,Read More →
Propaganda today may come in a much more subtle and insidious form, but once not too long ago, nationalistic messages were sent out to the public loud and clear. The eye-catching graphic design of early 20th-century Soviet propaganda is an especially memorable example, and currently in the spotlight at TheRead More →
