Politicians are famous for making extravagant campaign promises. But
there are few promises as powerful--or as idealistically utopian--as
those put forth by state-sponsored propaganda. Collected here are
colorful images of political ideology created and disseminated by the
political regimes of Europe, the Soviet Union, and China from the 1920s
through the '70s.
State leaders of the twentieth century were highly conscious of the need
to present a unified national image during a time of serious political
transition in Europe, and state-sanctioned art performed a key function
in an attempt to consolidate a country behind an idea. These spectacular
images provide a rare opportunity to witness how abstract political
ideas were rendered as visual picture for a mass audience. Fifty
compelling postcards, held in the collection of the Bodleian Library,
from the former Soviet Union, China, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Albania, reveal that despite national
differences there are surprising similarities in political expression
and the idealized images presented by each government. An introduction
that contextualizes the images within a broader understanding of the
ideologies and political powers of the time is provided by European
historian, Andrew Roberts.
Taken together, the images in Postcards from Utopia offer a striking
look at the art of power and its mythical representation at a time of
great political upheaval and experiment.
