Red Star Over Russia: Revolution in Visual Culture 1905-55

by Natalia Sidlina (Editor), Matthew Gale (Editor)

David King (1943–2016) amassed one of the world’s largest collections of Soviet political art and photographs. In exploring the intersection of art, politics, and society, few collections in the world can compare with the David King Collection, now part of Tate. King was not only a passionate collector, but also an artist, designer, and historian, and he produced revelatory and award-winning books on Soviet design history. Here, every step of the Soviet journey is documented with visual media, photomontage, photographs, paintings, handwritten notes, books (signed with annotations and marginalia), enclosures, and ephemera. Published to accompany an exhibition, this accessible and highly illustrated publication features key pieces from the collection, accompanied by short explanatory texts that bring this exceptional era in design history to life.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Russia

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 27, 2018

Reviews

[Kriegslok · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very good catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition by the same name at the Tate Modern. I just wish it had been published in a larger format to do justice to the content some of which is really too small (presumably cost was the determining factor). Still, it is a very good record of David Kings unique collection and the accompanying text while brief is interesting and informative.

[David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Tate Modern booklet, which is almost more an extended programme for an exhibition than a book in its own right.
Seems a little odd though. This booklet is 100 pages plus change, and the "actual" book (with the same title) is 300 pages plus change.
Why not just sell the "real" book at the exhibition?
That said, it's nicely written and (for me) absolutely fascinating in its content. All it means now is that I've got to find and read the "full" work.

[Jack McRavey]

just an art/history exhibition put into book form. there's a very good breadth of works here that really shows off the diversity and innovation of visual language in the ussr, and how it made some of the propaganda so effective. some of the photomontage stakhanovite stuff is seriously engrossing. i do wish there was some more detail and context or analysis in the descriptions, but i guess that isn't really the point of an exhibition

[Sharon Lun · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing book documenting a monumental period of time in Russia. I hope I will be fortunate enough to see the exhibition in the future.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit sparse on details but made up for by the wonderful photos of monumental soviet art.