Russian avant-garde and tradition: books and ephemera of the 1920s

27 January 2004. An illuminating lecture from Catherine Cooke explored the everyday items from anonymous designers that made up the bulk of printed material in 1920s Russia. This period of great social upheaval is known to the wider world of art and design as a paradise of abstraction; bold colour, stark contrasts and visual simplicity that are explored by well-known figures such as Rodchenko, Lissitzky and the Stenberg brothers.

These famous names are representatives of a much larger body of forgotten designers who worked for the state to produce a stream of popular magazines, books, posters and ephemera. Catherine showed many examples of this work that supported a young regime with its vibrant typography and page layout. The work reinforced the contrast between the old world of peasantry under the Tsars and the new world in which all were encouraged to read and learn about technology and the brighter world of the future.

We were reminded that pre-revolutionary Russia had a rich visual heritage; seeing pre-revolution copies of magazines compared with their Soviet counterparts reinforced the power of the starkly abstract block colours and sanserif letters.

Prestigious publications, celebrating topics such as the history of the Komsomol (the youth wing of the Communist Party) could be found in the worker's institutes for communal reading. These works made careful use of radical typography: multicolour print, line setting rather like concrete poetry and a variety of type sizes articulated the text created a vibrant and surprisingly delicate effect that impresses many years later. Catherine expressed her preference for such work (in this case by Solomon Telingater) over that of El Lissitzky and Rodchenko, who were essentially painterly or 'posterly' in composition: perhaps that is why they are so appealing to those of us who are unable to read the words and decide whether the display reflects the written message.

Catherine gave an enjoyable lecture with a wealth of fascinating illustrations, which amply demonstrated the number of forgotten hands across a great land newly awoken; the breadth of talent and the range of approaches that we are apt to group together as 'avant-garde'.

Russian graphic design: from tsarism and the avant-garde to perestroika

Curated by Catherine Cooke, this exhibition features a surprisingly diverse collection of vividly printed and imaginatively designed pieces and packaging. The production methods range from lithographed concert bulletins and early political postcards to revolutionary chapbooks and crudely printed handbills, all of which were designed with innovative approaches in mind. The works featured are from a variety of designers, some of which are commonly known in the graphic design profession, such as Rodchenko, Lissitsky, and the Stenberg brothers. Other names will be new to most viewers.