The collector: Dante, US.

The collection: Soviet Posters.

The story behind the collection...

As a child I was always collecting something. I collected anything from the fad collectables of Pogs and Crazy Bones to old bottles and postage stamps. I found my first 'wild' bottle in a marsh along the Delaware River near my old home in Bristol, Pennsylvania with my father. Since then I have always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, whether it be at flea markets or out in the dirt of an old dump.

Fads fade and I eventually lost interest in bottles. Then I moved to another small town along the Delaware River and my father gave me his stamp collection when I was in middle school. Even then I loved the bold graphics and colours of Russian stamps. Fast forward to 2008, my junior year in college, when I started compiling a large Russian and Soviet stamp collection. The problem I had was there was no really good way to display the stamps other than in a stamp album. I couldn't hang stamps on the wall and have them noticed. I quickly discovered the posters had the same bold graphics and slogans but made much more of a display statement. I am also fascinated by the use of art and symbolism in Soviet posters to convey political messages regardless of someone's ability to read Russian or read at all. Before I say anymore I'll add my personal disclaimer: I, the collector of these featured posters, do not necessarily agree with the slogans or endorse the political views presented and am NOT a member of the Communist Party or a Russian spy.

My collecting focuses on the time between the end of the second world war and the onset of Glasnost (1946 - 1985ish), since these posters tend to be more colourful and are often more financially accessible than their earlier counterparts. Currently I have 33 posters in my collection, but one is not shown as it is currently being restored by Chris Cloutier at Poster Fix.

My goal is at least one poster from each former Soviet republic. So far I have posters from Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia (Republic of). Despite the fact that their posters were printed in editions of 5000 to 450,000, they remain rather scarce. Many were destroyed after communism fell or destroyed in use as the paper is fragile. Many posters were repurposed and painting and drawing was done on the back or even the front, making them difficult to restore. Also, the posters were not made to be collected, and during their creation nobody thought they would be a valuable window into cold war history in the future.

Notable posters in my collection include the 1960 'Be Friendly' poster by Ruben Suryaninov, 1958 'Glory to Inspired Work and Science!' by the famous Viktor Koretsky, 1967 'Orange Aroura Sailor' by Viktor Ivanov who died a year after the poster was printed, and the two space race posters featuring the Vostok rockets. Soviet space posters are extremely popular, highly sought after and almost never come up for sale.

I am missing the first pages of two three-sheet posters shown on my Flickr page. It is common for some of the pages to be separated, The three-sheet posters are very large and were not printed until the mid-1970s. While not as sought after as earlier posters, I still love the sheer size and boldness of the multi-sheet posters. Four-sheet and six-sheet posters were also produced but are uncommon.

Unfortunately, I only have four posters framed and on display at this time. The rest are in what I call my 'poster pile'. My goal is to gradually have more linen backed and framed and do a large exhibition at Ursinus College, my alma mater.

Currently, I am working for a firm which designs and builds retail interiors for anything from gas station marts to supermarkets and tanning salons. My poster collection and other collections (glass insulators and minerals) show who I am and reflect my penchant for diversity and the unconventional. I am always designing and building and being creative. I've built guitar shaped street luge boards and a 15kv marshmallow roaster so far and would like to pursue a degree in industrial design.

Dante's websites

Soviet Poster Project - detailed information on socialist realism, poster collecting and researching poster artists.

Flickr - more of Dante's collection and other various creations.

Other Websites

www.plakaty.ru/

www.youtube.com/posterfix

www.redavantgarde.com 

Further Reading

Koretsky - The Soviet Photo Poster: 1930-1984 by Erika Wolf

Soviet Posters: The Sergo Grigorian Collection by Maria Lafont

Iconography of Power: Soviet Political Posters Under Lenin and Stalin by Victoria E. Bonnell

Revolutionary Soviet Film Posters  by Mildred Constantine

All images © Dante and used with kind permission.