Soviet Textiles [Paperback]

Pamela Jill Kachurin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

Between 1927 and 1933, as the new Soviet Union emerged and the Communist party struggled to transform an agrarian country into an industrialized state, a group of young artists pitched in by designing fabrics depicting tractors, smokestacks and symbols of collective modernity, cloth with which to mold its buyers into ideal Soviet citizens. Few of these designs ever saw mass production, and the experiment failed as propaganda--comrades clung to their traditional floral motifs--but it yielded bold and intriguing new designs. Soviet Textiles: Designing the Modern Utopia presents some 40 of them, and analyzes the political and artistic context in which they were made. Pamela Jill Kachurin identifies major themes and motifs, including industrialization, transportation, electrification, youth, agriculture and collectivization, and sports and hobbies, and analyzes the work both as propaganda and as graphic art, in this, the only English-language book to treat them from that perspective.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: MFA Publications (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878467033
• ISBN-13: 978-0878467037
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Social, political and artistic history., November 6, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soviet Textiles (Paperback)

Between 1927 and 1933 a rare experiment in textile making took place in the Soviet Union, with political changes encouraging a group of designers to create thematic textile designs which mass-produced symbols of modernity for the average person -- symbols intended to encourage the ideal soviet citizen idea. While the experiment failed, the artistic results of the idea linger in bold and different designs now chronicled in SOVIET TEXTILES. Color photos of textiles accompany social, political and artistic history.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch