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Perestroika [Restructuring]

Poster
1989 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Poster with an image of a monstrous bureaucrat depicted as an engraged bull charging the red rag of perestroika. Accompanied by a short rhyme roughly translated as 'If only we can be in time to curb the bureaucrat. If not, we may never see a Perestroika'.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitlePerestroika [Restructuring] (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Colour offset lithograph
Brief description
Poster by the Battling Pencil group from a portfolio of 24 entitled 'Perestroika For and Against'. Russia, 1989.
Physical description
Poster with an image of a monstrous bureaucrat depicted as an engraged bull charging the red rag of perestroika. Accompanied by a short rhyme roughly translated as 'If only we can be in time to curb the bureaucrat. If not, we may never see a Perestroika'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 43.8cm
  • Width: 33cm
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
  • If only we can be in time/to curb the beuraucrat./If not, we may never/see Perestroika! (Rhyme in Russian accompanying the image on the poster)
  • Battling Pencil logo
Credit line
Given by Peggy vance
Historical context
The first poster in the 'Prerestroika [restructuring] For and Against' portfolio. The same same image is used on the front cover of the portfolio. It depicts a monstrous bureaucrat as an enraged bull charging the red rag of Perestroika.

The portfolio contains a series of 25 satirical posters by a group of Leningrad artists known as 'Battling Pencil' on the theme of the struggle to restructure communism in the new political atmosphere under the regime of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachov (b.1931), appointed general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, with text and images edited by A.M Murtov and V.I. Kiunap respectively.
Production
Attribution note: 5,000
Collection
Accession number
E.360-1990

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Record createdFebruary 18, 2009
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