"Darker Shades of Red: Official Soviet Propaganda from the Cold War" is currently on display at the Handwerker Gallery. The exhibition provides an opportunity to revisit the Cold War era through an exploration of the Soviet Union's official imagery. Strikingly graphic in its socialist imagery, the collection reveals the economic, social, and political ideology of the Soviet Union from the 1940s to 1991.
The work on display is drawn from the private collection of Gary Hollingsworth, a Florida-based art restorer who traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union. Drawing a wide variety of native Russian sources, the posters, banners, children's books, sculpture, pins, and other objects in this collection reinforce Communist beliefs and offer an unique snapshot of life in a totalitarian society.
Tours and class visits of this exhibition can be scheduled by e-mailing Genevieve Kocienda, Handwerker Gallery outreach coordinator, at [mailto:gkocienda@ithaca.edu].
There will also be a screening of Battleship Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein's dramatized version of the 1905 uprising of the Potemkin, introduced by Patricia Zimmerman, professor in the Department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts, on November 12, at 6:00 p.m.
Later in the semester, Karen Kettering, vice president and specialist of Russian works of art at Sotheby's New York, will deliver a talk entitled "Darker Shades of Red: Socialist Realism and Official Soviet Propaganda from the Cold War Era." The date and time of this event will be published upon confirmation. (This event was postponed from an October 2008 date.)
This exhibition is cosponsored by the Departments of History and Art History, and will remain on display until December 12, 2008.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20081027134952716