Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky

The Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky was created by Kazimir Malevich in 1914 during the initial fervor of World War I. Executed as a lithograph, this piece serves as a crucial example of how leading figures of the Russian avant-garde, known later for abstraction and radical experimentation, actively engaged with contemporary political and military demands. Classified as an illustrated work, this postcard reflects the immediate, nationalistic response of artists to the outbreak of the global conflict.

This specific work documents a vital collaboration between two foundational Russian modernists: Malevich, who designed the visual imagery, and the Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who contributed the accompanying patriotic verse. Malevich’s design, produced using the lithography technique, was intended for mass production and circulated widely as part of a significant series of propaganda prints aimed at mobilizing public support for the war effort against the Central Powers. The medium allowed for rapid dissemination across the populace.

Unlike the non-objective Suprematist paintings that would define his later career, Malevich’s imagery here is explicitly figurative and narrative, designed to deliver a clear and easily digestible message to the masses. This piece falls within a brief but important period in the artist's output where he applied his graphic skills to traditional subject matter rooted in Russian culture and history.

Historically significant, this 1914 work provides insight into the complex relationship between artistic Modernism and state ideology in Imperial Russia during the Great War. Such propaganda efforts, though commercial and mass-produced, are vital documents detailing the cultural atmosphere of the period. Today, this important lithograph resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. As early, widely circulated prints, materials related to this series are often within the public domain, allowing historians and scholars worldwide to study this early facet of Malevich’s versatile career.