Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky was created by Kazimir Malevich in 1914. Executed as a lithograph, this piece falls under the classification of Illustrated Book material, highlighting its origin within a broader publishing effort during the critical period of World War I. The postcard format served as an immediate and widely distributed form of Russian visual and textual communication, designed to mobilize public sentiment during the opening stages of the conflict.
The significance of this piece lies in the potent collaboration between two giants of the Russian avant-garde. Malevich, then exploring fragmented Cubo-Futurist forms, provided the visual component, while the radical poet Vladimir Mayakovsky contributed the accompanying patriotic verse. This collaboration reflects the willingness of Futurist artists to directly engage with mass media and contemporary geopolitical events in 1914, positioning the avant-garde not just as cultural innovators, but as participants in the political sphere. The use of lithography allowed for quick, low-cost dissemination of these powerful propaganda prints across the population.
This work serves as a vital historical artifact demonstrating the intersection of artistic modernism and early wartime communication efforts. Though Malevich would soon abandon representation for the purity of Suprematism, the aggressive visual language present in this piece showcases his stylistic flexibility during the shift toward abstraction.
The inclusion of the lithograph in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art ensures its recognition not only as an important example of Russian propaganda but also as a fundamental piece in understanding the artistic trajectory of Malevich before his later seminal works. The history of this and similar Patriotic propaganda postcard with verse by Vladimir Mayakovsky prints offers key insights into the dynamics between the arts and state communication in the pre-revolutionary era.
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