It's not just for Communists anymore

April 28, 2007 5:38 AM

Chinese Public Art The Workers' Paradise has always produced propaganda artwork. Lately, though, the subjects are sometimes at odds with tradition.
posted by Kirth Gerson (13 comments total)

I love the iconic style of this stuff. The Soviet posters, with the steel workers, gazing boldly towards the future informed a lot of recent (ironic) American design work, and it's interesting how some of the WPA stuff from the 30's & 40's came so close in syle to the communist propaganda. But the big wads of money are just WTF?
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:31 AM on April 28, 2007

It is a good cat so long as it catches mice.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:12 AM on April 28, 2007

Personally, I find those socialist realist posters scary. They are "iconic," but they scream "We are not free here." Perhaps there was a time and place when they didn't (WPA?), but now they do. I put them in the same category as the swastika. Well, may be not, but close.
posted by MarshallPoe at 8:29 AM on April 28, 2007

Fantastic post. This stuff is amazing.
An artist painter faithfully reproduces the poster you like, with you in place of the socialist hero. An original canvas, entirely oil painted.
Wicked awesome. I want my two kids on the science poster. I am so going to do that.
posted by Methylviolet at 8:50 AM on April 28, 2007

Last Fall, my daughter and I visited Shuangxiu Park in Beijing. In among the gardens and rides was a low building with a sign that said "Jackson Hole," with a picture of a cowboy on a bucking bronco. I wondered if this was some kind of museum or funhouse with a Western theme, so we walked in. It was a showroom selling lots in a McMansion development called Jackson Hole, somewhere on the outskirts of the city. There was a diorama in the middle of the room depicting the development, which was going to cover a low hill. The salesman who met us apparently thought we weren't suitable prospects for one of his offerings, and invited us to leave. Maybe I should've worn my Stetson, or held handfuls of greenbacks.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:52 AM on April 28, 2007

MetaFilter: I dream of being in the blue.
posted by Methylviolet at 9:07 AM on April 28, 2007

I went to first and second grade in Hong Kong and memories of the Chinese style of art and calligraphy are embedded deep within a pleasure center in my brain. Certain shades of red or gold will always make that pleasure center activate, and large doses may make me drool. So cool kirth, you just gave me a little braingasm.
posted by vronsky at 9:11 AM on April 28, 2007

Socialist Realism is so passé; all the cool kids are into embarrassing health service ads from the public toilets these days. I mean, c'mon, circular slicing techniques from Korea (via bokane).
posted by Abiezer at 9:33 AM on April 28, 2007

The images in that last link just scream to me 'someone please slap an obey sticker on me'.
posted by louie at 9:41 AM on April 28, 2007

They are "iconic," but they scream "We are not free here."

Funny, this is the same feeling I get as I pass through U.S. passport control.
posted by three blind mice at 12:19 PM on April 28, 2007

I submit that this one, featuring rockets and capes, sassy meteorological instruments and a field telephone, (#0669-001M) is one of the best. Sans caption, it reads like a tribute to our glorious first-strike capabilities. Pity it's not for sale.
posted by mumkin at 1:09 PM on April 28, 2007

posted by Tlogmer at 12:01 AM on April 29, 2007

Well, shit. It showed up on preview.

It just reads better with an image link.
posted by Tlogmer at 12:03 AM on April 29, 2007