Art News

From the heart of the Cold War, advertising for a Communist future that never arrived

CHICAGO, IL.- The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art presents Vision and Communism, the first major museum exhibition to focus on the aggressive, emotionally charged work of Soviet artist and designer Viktor Koretsky (1909–1998). Featuring more than ninety posters, photographs, and maquettes—the majority of which date from the heart of the Cold War—the exhibition reveals a Communist vision of the world that is utterly unlike that of conventional propaganda. “Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Koretsky and his art remain largely unknown in the West,” said Anthony Hirschel, the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum. “But he created a powerful and provocative body of work that deserves close consideration because of the important questions it raises about the nature and emotional potential of visual communication in the Soviet