It is the year 1917. The Bolsheviks are celebrating their newfound power in the streets of Russia. The Tsar, now dethroned, can only witness the revolutionary communist regime taking over the country from afar. The royal family and their former imperialistic ways have become only a figment of history, but one remnant of the old order still remains on the outskirts of St. Petersburg’s streets: The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory.
As a symbol of Russia’s new radical rule, the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin’s command, renamed it the State Porcelain Manufactory. They saw a great opportunity for the “new socialist era” in this simple pottery wheelhouse, and thus, the IMP was reformed into a canvas for avant-garde artists with their utopian ideals and propaganda. It was as if, journalist Deborah Nicholls-Lee says, “this delicate, bourgeois material” was given “an unexpected, almost contradictory, second life.”
Under the instruction of lead artist Sergei Chekhonin, the IMP transformed into an exhibit of pottery works featuring communist motifs. Many previous ceramic works were painted over with the Soviet Union’s symbols, such as the sickle and hammer, emblems of the Soviet flag, and smoking factory chimneys.
The creators of these revolutionary dishes and teacups decorated them with effigies of Vladimir Lenin and “calls to action”, or in other words, propaganda. Works portraying emancipated workers taking up arms as “noble engines of industry, striding towards a radiant future” took the center spotlight, as seen in the works of Mikhail Adamovich (1921) and Anton Komashka (1923).
However, despite the delicate geometric and abstract designs, these porcelain works rarely ever fell into the hands of the working class. The revolutionary messages they were supposed to convey only spread throughout the network of wealthy collectors, and the teacups and plates were too clumsy and artistic for practical use.
Dr. Sjeng Scheijen, historian and guest curator of the Hermitage exhibition, states, “They were real, independent artworks. If your only look at them from a utilitarian aspect, either as a [table] service or as a service to the state, you do them an injustice.”
Link: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220629-how-teapots-were-used-to-spread-russian-propaganda
As a symbol of Russia’s new radical rule, the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin’s command, renamed it the State Porcelain Manufactory. They saw a great opportunity for the “new socialist era” in this simple pottery wheelhouse, and thus, the IMP was reformed into a canvas for avant-garde artists with their utopian ideals and propaganda. It was as if, journalist Deborah Nicholls-Lee says, “this delicate, bourgeois material” was given “an unexpected, almost contradictory, second life.”
Under the instruction of lead artist Sergei Chekhonin, the IMP transformed into an exhibit of pottery works featuring communist motifs. Many previous ceramic works were painted over with the Soviet Union’s symbols, such as the sickle and hammer, emblems of the Soviet flag, and smoking factory chimneys.
The creators of these revolutionary dishes and teacups decorated them with effigies of Vladimir Lenin and “calls to action”, or in other words, propaganda. Works portraying emancipated workers taking up arms as “noble engines of industry, striding towards a radiant future” took the center spotlight, as seen in the works of Mikhail Adamovich (1921) and Anton Komashka (1923).
However, despite the delicate geometric and abstract designs, these porcelain works rarely ever fell into the hands of the working class. The revolutionary messages they were supposed to convey only spread throughout the network of wealthy collectors, and the teacups and plates were too clumsy and artistic for practical use.
Dr. Sjeng Scheijen, historian and guest curator of the Hermitage exhibition, states, “They were real, independent artworks. If your only look at them from a utilitarian aspect, either as a [table] service or as a service to the state, you do them an injustice.”
Link: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220629-how-teapots-were-used-to-spread-russian-propaganda
