Munich

The bloody tear identified with the date 21. 8. 1968 was the central motif of a poster by the Czech graphic designer Václav Ševčík (*1932), who was making an immediate comment on the act of Soviet occupation. Ševčík, a member of the Czech creative group Placard, was one of the few graphic artists who dared to comment openly on official state policy. That held true only for a moment, however: in the routine of normalisation the artist’s freedom and integrity were no longer cherished.

Even in such a bastion of conservatism as the propagandist poster, however, change was not excluded. If we move onwards in time a few years, to 1971, we see that the peculiarly archaic rhetoric and empty figures of ideological massage were quietly beginning to recede. The poster by Ondrej Zimka (*1937), working with an almost identical motif of a weeping face, moves in the secure territory of ideologically suitable themes, without any discrediting flavour of anti-Sovietism. And yet this is a well-considered and high-quality execution of an artistic purpose, with a discreet trace of text, rendered with civility and empathy.

The design won a large politically-informed competition, prepared as an introduction to the normalisation period and dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The works from this exhibition were never seen pasted up on streets; as in other fields of design, they were more like comprehensively refined camouflages, serving to preserve the regime’s legitimacy.

Viera Kleinová ● “Seven Things About…” propaganda in the Collection of Posters and Graphic Design (medium.com)