Aleksandr Deineka (1899-1969) : an avant-garde for the proletariat

Inventiveness in the Poster

1925

D34

Nikolai Tarabukin 

I. Features of the Theme

The theme of the poster is not a theme of “pure” art. 

You will not treat this theme with the old arsenal of art historical medications. Not 

only are the old methods of psychological aesthetics not suited for it, but neither 

is the updated theory of the “formal” method. Speaking of the poster, it is neces-

sary to forget discussion of some form of “pure” art in the usual understanding of 

this word, and to start treating the theme in a special manner from start to finish. 

The art of painting and mastery of the poster do not coincide due to their distinct 

social roles. Hence, the distinct technical methods of processing an essentially 

similar material and with similar tools of production. Speaking in art historical 

language, this is the source of their diff erent forms.

II. The Poster is a Weapon

The poster is not only a product of social consumption. Above all, it is a 

WEAPON 

OF 

MASS 

INFLUENCE. 

The easel painting is an object. Of course, it also has unique influence and is a con-

sumer product. Yet, there is no need to mince words. A painting acquires a certain

social significance namely as an object. Yet the poster functions like a weapon, as 

a means to achieve a goal that is located beyond its formal side. 

In the poster, there is not a single self-contained moment. The poster is “thick-

ened,” condensed

ENERGY,

        a charge, sent into the depths 

of a mass of people, the goal of which is by its explosion to create in the mass that 

eff ect intended by the munitions factory. 

III. The “Eternal” Painting and the Short-Term Poster

Easel art always counts upon a sustained eff ect of influence. Therefore, the con-

struction of easel painting forms is done as if it will last for centuries. 

The poster does not aim for sham “eternity,” hence it has a special attitude to-

wards its appearance. 

For the poster it is necessary to use material not in light of its durability, but in 

light of its maximum impact. The poster does not raise a constructive structure; 

it gathers energy in order TO PRODUCE A ONE-TIME MAXIMALLY POWERFUL IM-

PACT ON THE VIEWER’S PSYCHE, to disturb him, to remove from balance, from 

apathetic indiff erence and to call attention to itself.

IV. Impertinence

The poster is a surprisingly restless object against the backdrop of society. It digs 

itself in most often where it is not asked, where it is not expected, and it begins to 

shout at the top of its voice. You drive it out the door; it flies back at you through 

the window. It is impossible to run away from the poster—it will catch up with you 

and scream its slogan all the same.

This insolence or, if you want something “softer,” this impertinence, is a typical 

method that helps the poster fulfill its social function. 

V. Milestones

The question arises: from which milestones should our judgments proceed con-

cerning poster production? From those milestones that determine the social role 

of the poster. This role is conditioned by two basic factors: 

1) THE AIM OF THE POSTER

2) THE ENVIRONMENT FOR WHICH A GIVEN POSTER IS DESIGNED

VI. The Poster Has No Pre-Conceived Forms

THE POSTER IS THE PRODUCT OF STRUGGLE. 

The struggle on the market, the struggle on fronts: political, military, ideologi-

cal. The poster begins to live especially intensively in sharp moments of struggle. 

The intensification of a commodity crisis, an election campaign for parliament, 

war, revolution—they push onto the city streets a motley, goggle-eyed, clamorous 

battle of posters. 

AN OFFSPRING OF STRUGGLE—THE POSTER IS DYNAMIC.

Dynamic in its ideology, formal structure, conditions of production, and social 

role. The dynamism of the poster makes it an especially inventive art. 

THE POSTER IS THE MOST EXPRESSIVE FORM OF INDUSTRIAL INVENTION AND 

MASTERY.

As a product of production (and mass production), the poster does not have (and 

should not have) any sort of ultimate established form. 

THE FORM OF THE POSTER IS NEW EVERY TIME.

It appears not in a preconceived manner, but rather it is worked out in each new 

instance based upon experience. It is the result of three conditions:

1)

Of the purpose of the poster (the social-targeted moment);

2)

Of the technical resources, material, means of creativity and so

forth (the production moment);

3)

Of the conditions of perception of the environment and the condi-

tions of influence upon it (the social-psychological moment).

Reflecting on poster mastery, it is impossible to speak about impressionist, ex-

pressionist, constructivist and other posters. This is because a naked abstract-

conceptual form of poster, into which you can “pour” any given content, cannot 

exist. 

VII. Design of the Poster

How does the process of the invention of a poster form occur (when a master is 

consciously aware during all stages of work) or how should it occur (when a mas-

ter is not able to display the demanded consciousness)? 

In order to answer such a question, it is necessary to look not at the artist-easel 

painter, but at the engineer-producer. Creating and evaluating the poster’s form 

as a product of mass production may be done by means of its comparison with 

the more typical products of mass industry. Practically any product made for the 

market is an instrument or a means towards a defined end. Any weapon or means 

is a social object, not having an independent existence. 

THE SOCIAL-ECONOMIC AND FORMAL-PRODUCTIVE CONTENT OF THE PROD-

UCT OF MASS INDUSTRY SERVES THE PURPOSE OF THE OBJECT.

The form of such an object is dictated by its purpose and material. It should be 

expedient and utilitarian. The purpose of the object takes into account the sphere 

of its social distribution. For example, printed textile, of varying color and design, 

takes into account the social composition of the consumers and the place for 

which it is intended. 

Consequently, the engineer, designing a thing of mass consumption, has in mind: 

1)

THE DESTINATION of the thing, its CONSUMER FUNCTION;

2)

THE ENVIRONMENT of its social DISTRIBUTION;

3)

THE MATERIAL, subjected to processing;

4)

THE TECHNICAL RESOURCES, which may be available during the

processing of a thing;

These four moments, in their turn, exert an influence upon:

a)

The labor cost of the product, i.e., the normal or average quantity

of labor which in given social, economic and technical conditions

is required for the manufacture of a product;

b)  The consumer value of the product or its social utility in the process 

of consumption;

The actual cost of a product is not of importance to us here, because posters are 

not sold. 

The role of the master-poster artist is pretty much identical to the role of the 

engineer-constructor. Both of them are inventors of the form of things, of form 

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not having an independent existence but serving the purpose of a product. Con-

sequently, setting about the construction of a poster, a master should take into 

account all of the aforementioned conditions. Only by adhering to the results 

of these conditions may an original form of poster be created for each given 

instance and only for that given instance. The production position, which the 

master-poster artist obtains, truly understanding his role, derives from the very 

essence of the production of a given type of product. 

VIII. Impact

The master-producer, receiving an order for a poster, takes into account while 

creating a form: 

THE CONSUMER FUNCTION OF THE POSTER AND ITS PURPOSE TO PRODUCE A 

ONE-TIME MAXIMALLY POWERFUL EFFECT AND SHARP BLOW ON THE VIEWER’S 

PSYCHE.

In musical terminology, there is the expression 

accord plaque, which means an 

even, one-time blow of all the notes of a chord. The poster form in a similar man-

ner gathers together maximum expressivity in a single focus. The consumer func-

tion of the poster, due to this striking eff ect, is distinguished from the function 

of things of mass consumption by the sharp predominance of the psychologi-

cal moment over the material. Large-scale industry in manufacturing the form of 

objects of mass consumption strives towards the standardization of these forms 

(electrical fixtures, telephones, etc). This uniformity of form brings about an ease 

of replacement of something that has become worn out by another similar thing, 

and mass manufacturing methods also become identical. In contrast, the mas-

ter poster artist, taking into consideration his shock task—maximal eff ect on the 

psyche of the viewer by means of the visual creation of the most catchy expres-

sion—is obliged to strive not towards a standard, but towards

 

    ORIGINALITY.

An established form, quickly familiar to viewers, stops having an eff ect on them, it 

becomes unnoticed, i.e., the poster loses its meaning—to be appealing. 

The demand for a striking eff ect, flowing from the purpose of the post-

er, entails two conditions, necessary for inventiveness of poster form:

 

ORIGINALITY AND WIT.

Like a deadly sin, the poster should avoid clichés: of subject, creativity, emblems, 

text, etc.

From the demand that the blow be short and powerful follows the condition of 

 

LACONISM AND ECCENTRICITY.

The poster is grasped in a flash. It must talk not in a speech, for passersby sel-

dom stop before it, but yell out a short slogan-appeal. A poster should yell out 

its slogan in the most eccentric manner, so that its voice will be audible amid the 

numerous urban impressions. 

The notion of the eccentricity of poster form is entirely conditional and relative. 

Each time and every place imposes on human activity its “varnish.” Of course, 

even posters cannot escape it. In their general “style” we distinguish the Ameri-

can poster from the German, the French from the English, and the poster of the 

1900s from the contemporary. 

THIS GENERAL STYLE OF POSTERS OBLITERATES THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF 

EACH OF THEM.

The first appearance in Moscow of the so-called “constructive” theater 

posters had great eff ect. Subsequently, when practically all posters 

became “constructive” (whether for good or for bad), the same individ-

ual poster stopped drawing particular notice to itself. No matter how

the poster shouted, for if the posters surrounding it all shouted, then 

its shout was submerged. Hence, in the practice of the American ad-

vertising poster such methods are encountered: amid the most per-

sistent posters appears a blank sheet. This white patch, like an eye-

sore, draws attention to itself, and the interested viewer finds in the 

corner of this sheet the text of an advertisement, composed in small 

typeface. 

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IX. Inventiveness

These circumstances bring us back once again to the main principle of poster 

art—to inventiveness. The master poster artist does not have the right to be an ex-

clusive “ascetic” or an “Olympian” artist. He should study the condition and char-

acteristics of the poster market in each given moment of invention. The originality 

itself and the wit of the poster are conditioned by the poster market. It could be 

said that INVENTIVENESS IS INHERENT TO THE NATURE OF THE POSTER.

Without inventiveness the poster dies. If in the course of a number of years, for 

example, the shape of shoes ceased changing, they still would find consumers; 

but should inventiveness cease in the poster, it would die, losing its meaning.

The inventiveness of the poster artist carries an utterly diff erent character from 

the inventiveness of the artist-easel painter. In the presentation of the easel paint-

er inventiveness acquires, like many other things, an “absolute” meaning. The art-

ist in his art usually aspires to “immortality” and to acquiring “eternal” meaning. 

The artist-easel painter understands inventiveness as the self-disclosure of his 

personal “originality,” as the discovery of some sort of “method,” never before 

used by other painters, which now “takes shape in form” and is canonized in the 

form of a defined “style.”

The master poster-artist is a dialectician. He understands his inventiveness not 

absolutely, but relatively, conforming to the conditions of the poster market and 

its demands on the present day.

X. “Creation” and Work

The artist-easel painter “creates” in his cell-studio, often being a recluse, like an 

ascetic. The master poster-artist cooks in the juice of contemporary social work-

day life, breathes its air, and moves according to the rhythm and tempo of his day. 

The artist-easel painter from the cell-studio carries his “creations” to the muse-

ums, where they are judged by artistic archivists from the viewpoint of “formal” 

achievements. The master poster-artist throws his product onto the market, into 

the living mass of his contemporaries, pinches them for a short instance on the 

nerves, and obtains the same appreciation not according to the laws of the “for-

mal method” but according to the degree of having touched “a live wire.”

The artist-easel painter is studied in universities, academies and institutes. Ex-

alted monographs are written about him. His works are protected in museums 

and sometimes the rehanging from one nail to another raises the “question” of 

social significance. The master poster-artist is seldom known by name, except 

to the enterprise that ordered the poster from him. His posters are cruelly torn 

down and destroyed, for they pass as a short term “topic of the day.” Certainly, no 

one thinks about monographs on poster-artists, and if they write, then it is about 

“the poster in general.” Because the easel painter creates a “thing” (“please don’t 

touch”), but the poster artist produces “energy,” which beats upon the nerves and 

reaches the brain. 

The laconism and eccentricity of the expressive means of the poster apply to the 

drawing, color and text. Detailed drawing, nuanced color, and lengthy text lose 

sense in the poster, for they remain unnoticed, as the viewer usually perceives the 

poster at some distance and commonly more or less in a flash. 

The poster requires suff icient space for the viewer’s orientation to its graphic 

means. The poster’s graphics should not be cumbersome and congested. 

Yet the demand for the lack of detail in drawing is ignored, quite legitimately, 

in film advertising posters. Here photographs, representing individual fragments 

from the advertised cinema picture, are shown directly. However, these cinema 

showcases usually combine a catchy part of a poster, perceived from a distance, 

and a detailed part of advertisement, which demands deliberate close examina-

tion. 

The purpose of a poster determines its classification:

1) THE COMMERCIAL POSTER (trade, industrial);

2) THE IDEOLOGICAL POSTER (political, military, educational, etc.).

XI. The Sphere of Social Distribution

The sphere of social distribution of the poster, just like its purpose, determines 

in turn the form of the poster. As a general rule, the poster should be accessible. 

This is why the need for accessibility is always necessary for the poster.

Yet the intelligibility of the poster is relative. Studying the social sphere 

for which the poster is intended for distribution, the master makes his 

forms more complex or more simple. The poster intended for the vil-

lage should be clearer than that for the city. Its visual and textual side 

may be more extensive, because the villager, of course, does not look 

at the poster in passing, but arrests attention upon it several times. 

General understandability may be requisite for a poster of broad dis-

tribution. Yet in the poster for a special purpose, calculated for the 

specific, limited sphere of this or that profession, the understandability 

may be interpreted in a much more limited manner. 

The inventor of a poster’s form must also take into account the place where the 

poster will hang. The city square, always full a movement, demands a maximally 

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flashy poster. An enterprise (a factory), visited by the same staff  of workers, who 

view the poster everyday, may have more modest demands concerning the post-

er’s expressiveness. It is possible to encounter situations when the sharp expres-

sivity of the poster will be a minus for the inventor. For example, in a poster for 

school premises, something irritating to sight and obtrusively flashy is unneces-

sary, when a quiet and calm voice could be heard. 

XII. Material

The word root 

plaqu’, common to quite a few words, indicates a close connection 

with the flatness of the poster form: 

plaque means plate, plaquer—to lay over, pla-

queur—a wallpaper hanger. Experience shows that the poster form is mainly flat.

XIII. The Method of Visual Interpretation

The question of a purely flat solution to the visual aspect of a poster does not have 

a straightforward solution. True, we call such a form connected with flatness a 

poster, contrasting it to advertisement, which possesses in this sense great free-

dom in the choice of means for expression. However, the visual side of the poster 

should not necessarily be solved in a flat style. The demand for flat graphics, put 

forth in a categorical form, reveals an easel painting approach to the poster. The 

poster in this given instance is equal to the decorative fresco. Yet decorative 

painting is an art of ornamentation, whereas the poster is an art of agitation. In 

posters, which have a purely decorative meaning, the question about the flat so-

lution of the visual elements has more of a foundation than in agitational posters. 

The agitational poster does not decorate but summons. Therefore, 

if this summons achieve a greater eff ect when presented in an illu-

sionistic form, then, of course, the master should give preference pre-

cisely to this illusionistic representation. Perhaps, with the successfully 

found method of “breaking through” the plane deep down the poster 

may be singled out from a number of other forms, which employ a 

flat graphic form. In such an instance, the poster artist will not be cor-

rect to disregard this means of expression. Straightforward defense of 

the flat graphic form in the poster is inconsistent with that tendency, 

which we briefly designated as inventiveness.

If we take the basic thesis of poster mastery—a maximum of eff ect by 

all means available to the master—and set forth from the proposition 

that there are not and cannot be any sort of normative conditions in 

poster art, then there will be no straightforward resolution concern-

ing the necessity of upholding principles of flat graphic design in the 

poster. 

XIV. The Poster and Advertising

The opinion exists that figuration (understood as objective figuration) is inalien-

ably inherent to the poster, and that the purely textual poster belongs to advertis-

ing. The diff erence between the advertising and the text poster is not in the text 

as such, but in the character of the connection of this text with flatness. When this 

text does not only have a conceptual influence, but also arrests attention on the 

visual-expressive side, and when it is organically connected with the flat sheet, 

as a separate form—then we call this a poster form. The text of such a poster is 

usually minimal.

On the contrary, when the text plays an exclusively conceptual role 

and acts only upon consciousness, then the text itself loses its visual 

eff ect, that is, the painterly function in the poster ceases and only the 

literary acts. Such a form is not a poster, but an advertisement. Usu-

ally the text for an advertisement is extensive. Newspaper announce-

ments, press releases of factories, trade and industrial enterprises, 

etc., should be put in this category. If it is a matter not of commercial 

agitation but of political propaganda, then such sheets abundant with 

text are called either proclamations, when they are exclusively textual, 

or lubki,

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 when furnished with a picture. 

It is possible to draw the distinction between an advertisement and a poster by 

also studying the degree of activity of the psychological eff ect which both these 

forms of art attempt to create. The poster is always obtrusive, persistent. It acts 

forcibly. It asserts its truth, demands submission to it. The advertisement often 

only announces, only states fact. 

There are examples in practice of advertisement in its pure form, where elements 

of the poster creep in. From this it gains in its qualitative eff ectiveness. On the 

contrary, when features of the advertisement penetrate the poster, its actual 

power is diluted. 

XV. Forms of Expression

In outward form of expression the poster may be: a) objective-figural (posters 

about the famine); b) figural-textual (the majority of the revolutionary posters of 

Moor, Deni, etc.); c) abstract-textual (suprematist forms and slogans); d) only tex-

tual.

XVI. Technical Resources

The technical resources available to the poster artist are reflected in the form of 

the poster in a decisive way. 

The master of the poster, drafting his project, like an engineer building a model 

of an object, should keep in mind that he is not creating something unique but 

an object of mass production, which reaches the consumer not in that form in 

which it was created by the hands of the inventor (as an easel painting), but in a 

mechanically reproduced form, going through the stages of machine production. 

The master should take into account this circumstance. He should know the tech-

nical resources of the client and the extent of possible execution. 

Capitalists spend large sums of money on commercial advertisement. A diff erent 

relation towards the cost of the poster arises with the creation of an ideological 

poster. The monetary sums spent on the production of the ideological poster do 

not provide return on an investment even in an indirect way, as occurs with the 

commercial advertisement. Therefore, the cost for such a poster should be put 

entirely to the debit of the organization, party, enterprise, publishing the ideo-

logical poster. The ideological poster seldom has long lasting significance. Most 

often, it is a poster of temporary import, calculated for a short period of eff ect. 

This already forces us to treat more economically the expenditure of labor and 

material on its production. Furthermore, sometimes the time of production of 

such a poster is also limited. In the history of the revolutionary poster there were 

instances when, in a sharp moment of struggle, a poster prepared within 48 hours 

arrived late.

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 The events had superseded it. 

More often than not, the time for the production of the commercial poster-adver-

tisement is also limited. For example, the theater poster. It should not be complex, 

in order to avoid dragging out the time to its release. Printed text must be limited, 

as there is no time to set type and it is expensive. It cannot be multi-colored, for 

each separate color requires another rolling of the machine, and consequently it 

delays the time of production. Thus, sometimes even if there are technical pos-

sibilities, circumstances impose on the poster artist a number of limitations. 

Bearing in mind the production conditions for the design and manufacture of the 

poster, we will determine its labor cost. Studying the degree of its psychological 

action on that social environment for which it was calculated, we will weigh up its 

consumer value. The correlation of these two quantities gives us the possibility 

to calculate the exchange value of the poster, expressed not in money but in the 

quantity and the quality of the psychological eff ect achieved by the appearance 

of the poster in the social environment. 

THE DEGREE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POSTER IS THE MOST 

ESSENTIAL CRITERION FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF ITS SPECIFIC SOCIAL WEIGHT.