Political Images. Soviet Photographs 1918-1941
23 Oct 2009 - 31 Jan 2010
Political Images. Soviet Photographs 1918-1941.
The Daniela Mrázková Collection/ Rudolf Herz. Lenin on tour
"It is our duty to experiment!" Alexander Rodchenko stated in 1924, in order to explain the great responsibility of photography in the creation of the new social order in the Soviet Union and to urge people to become active. Many photographers followed his example of resolutely abandoning the classical traditions in favour of a media-specific visual language for the revolutionary transformation of Russia into the Soviet Union. They chose unusual views, worked with extreme perspectives, and discovered "new subjects" in the industrial development of the country, life in the big cities, and the many ethnic groups of the Soviet Union.
From the end of the 1920s onwards, however, the creative potential of this avant-garde was highly regulated and increasingly forced to conform to the ideological propaganda of "Socialist Realism". In this process of radically reorganising all areas of life, photography played an outstanding role as an artistic medium, as documentary photography, and as a medial means of propaganda which had to reach, above all the, vast number of illiterates. There are hardly any pictures by Soviet photographers represented in German collections. But in the 1960s and 70s, publicist and curator Daniela Mrázková from Prague assembled a collection of the most important Soviet photographers. At the very height of the cold war, she wanted to give a voice to "the other Russia". Now the purchase of the "Mrázková" Collection, with its focus on "Russian Avant-Garde of the20th Century", has been concluded and is proving a welcome addition. With this collection the "Political Images" exhibition presents not only photographs by Alexander Rodchenko, but also more than 200 photographs taken by his many fellow photographers and contemporaries who, for decades, were ostracised in the Soviet Union. At the same time numerous, until now completely unknown film documents from the "Hartmut Kaminski Archive" will be shown at this exhibition.
The Daniela Mrázková Collection/ Rudolf Herz. Lenin on tour
"It is our duty to experiment!" Alexander Rodchenko stated in 1924, in order to explain the great responsibility of photography in the creation of the new social order in the Soviet Union and to urge people to become active. Many photographers followed his example of resolutely abandoning the classical traditions in favour of a media-specific visual language for the revolutionary transformation of Russia into the Soviet Union. They chose unusual views, worked with extreme perspectives, and discovered "new subjects" in the industrial development of the country, life in the big cities, and the many ethnic groups of the Soviet Union.
From the end of the 1920s onwards, however, the creative potential of this avant-garde was highly regulated and increasingly forced to conform to the ideological propaganda of "Socialist Realism". In this process of radically reorganising all areas of life, photography played an outstanding role as an artistic medium, as documentary photography, and as a medial means of propaganda which had to reach, above all the, vast number of illiterates. There are hardly any pictures by Soviet photographers represented in German collections. But in the 1960s and 70s, publicist and curator Daniela Mrázková from Prague assembled a collection of the most important Soviet photographers. At the very height of the cold war, she wanted to give a voice to "the other Russia". Now the purchase of the "Mrázková" Collection, with its focus on "Russian Avant-Garde of the20th Century", has been concluded and is proving a welcome addition. With this collection the "Political Images" exhibition presents not only photographs by Alexander Rodchenko, but also more than 200 photographs taken by his many fellow photographers and contemporaries who, for decades, were ostracised in the Soviet Union. At the same time numerous, until now completely unknown film documents from the "Hartmut Kaminski Archive" will be shown at this exhibition.