Restore What the Enemy Destroyed! (TASS Poster 1036)

ClassificationsPrinted Materials-advertisements

Artist Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vialov

Author Osip Maksimovich Brik

Publisher Tass News Agency

Date1944

Made AtMoscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia, Europe

MediumHand-painted stencil on paper

Dimensions56 1/2 × 47 7/8 in. (143.5 × 121.6 cm)

Credit LineBowers Museum Collection

Object number2019.14.3

DescriptionTitled “Restore What the Enemy Destroyed!” the poster was made in 1944 by artist Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vialov and author Osip Maksimovich Brik. Brik was originally one of the founders of LEF or journal of group Left Front of the Arts in 1922. As tides changed and leftist art fell out of acceptance in the official realm, Brik adapted and became a central critic in the Socialist Realist tradition. He was one of the first writers to join TASS studios, and was its main literary editor for a time. Vialov began designing posters in the 1920s before joining the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists in 1932, and becoming heavily involved in designing TASS posters during World War Two. The TASS News Agency, a Soviet government owned company originally formed in 1904, was the sole news outlet that had authority to gather and control information throughout the Soviet Union. In the poster a bridge is being rebuilt as a train continues to run. The text at the bottom discusses all roads and bridges being rebuilt even as they are destroyed by the enemy because they need to defend the front. While the specific historical context is not known, the poster likely references the need for continued efforts in rebuilding infrastructure as the Germans are being pushed further out of Soviet territory. The poster was made on short-fibered pulp paper; similar to newspaper quality, and then a stencil cut out was used to individually paint each copy by hand. Any additional pieces were glued on top of each copy.

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