heathenhistory.co.uk

If you click  you here you will get to the front page for Tate Modern’s Red Star over Russia exhibition. It opens tomorrow and is explained as follows…

“Rebellion brought hope, chaos, heroism and tragedy as the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union, endured revolutions, civil war, famine, dictatorship and Nazi invasion. A new visual culture arose and transformed the fabric of everyday life.

The core of this exhibition comes from the extraordinary collection of photographer and graphic designer David King (1943–2016). He started his collection of over 250,000 items relating to this period while working for The Sunday Times Magazine in the 1970s. The collection was acquired by Tate in 2016.

This show is an opportunity to see the rare propaganda posters, prints and photographs collected by King – some bearing traces of state censorship. Including work by El Lissitzky, Gustav Klutsis, Dmitri Moor, Aleksandr Deineka, Nina Vatolina and Yevgeny Khaldei, it is a thrilling journey through a momentous period in world history.”

It would make an excellent afternoon out during the Christmas holidays. The Independent’s review can be found by following the link.

Mr Kydd.

A couple of nice enrichment articles from the BBC to mark the centenary of the October Revolution.

• If you click here you get a small video asking the question – is the Russian Revolution something celebrate or regret?
• If you click here you will get to ten propaganda posters from 1917.

If you click here you will get to the Evening Standard’s summary of the recent release of the 2,800 new Kennedy documents. If you click here you will get the BBC’s analysis. Of course, they do not settle the conspiracy debate either way (see the two videos below) – but perhaps they are most useful to us as they reflect paranoia and fear of the post-Cuban Missile Crisis Cold War. Both sides seemed to fear that the assassination was a precursor to a nuclear attack from the other side.

Have a read / watch and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.