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Truth Prevails

Poster
1989 (designed and printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The text 'Truth Prevails' was the presidential motto in pre-communist Czechoslovakia and a proverb rooted in the country's history and mythology. Together with this slogan, the photograph of a young man proudly holding the Czechoslovak flag can be read as a symbol of the re-emergent independent spirit of the nation. The Bratrstvo (Brotherhood) was a multi-media group of photographers, painters, writers and musicians modelled on the romantic artistic brotherhoods of the past (particularly the nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood). Their work drew on fairytale and mythology, but also on 1950s socialist realist art. The socialist realist overtones of the figure in this photograph introduce an element of ambiguity into the poster.


Designed, printed and published in former Czechoslovakia

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Truth Prevails (generic title)
  • Pro-democracy Poster Collection (named collection)
  • Pravda Zvítězí
Materials and techniques
Offset lithograph in black and red printed on paper
Brief description
Václav Jirásek, 'Pravda Zvítězí' (Truth Prevails), Prague, 1989
Physical description
Poster
Dimensions
  • Height: 64cm
  • Width: 40.4cm
Production
Designed, printed and published in former Czechoslovakia
Summary
The text 'Truth Prevails' was the presidential motto in pre-communist Czechoslovakia and a proverb rooted in the country's history and mythology. Together with this slogan, the photograph of a young man proudly holding the Czechoslovak flag can be read as a symbol of the re-emergent independent spirit of the nation. The Bratrstvo (Brotherhood) was a multi-media group of photographers, painters, writers and musicians modelled on the romantic artistic brotherhoods of the past (particularly the nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood). Their work drew on fairytale and mythology, but also on 1950s socialist realist art. The socialist realist overtones of the figure in this photograph introduce an element of ambiguity into the poster.


Designed, printed and published in former Czechoslovakia
Collection
Accession number
E.2035-1990

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Record createdFebruary 23, 2009
Record URL
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