In the British Museum Victoria and Albert, an exhibition devoted to the art and design of the Cold War

September 25, in the British Museum Victoria and Albert Exhibition «Cold War Modernism: Design 1945-1970», on which visitors can see the most interesting works of art, the artists, designers, architects and film director, to create on both sides Iron Curtain. The exhibition will be presented over 300 works from the Soviet Union, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, France, East Germany, West Germany, Cuba and the UK.

Four years ago, when employees of the museum designed the exhibition, they could hardly suggest how relevant it will be at the time. In today's climate of political tension caused by the conflict in South Ossetia, which is strongly alienated relations between Russia and the West, an exhibition devoted to the Cold War, no doubt attract many visitors.

This was a time of strained relations and a constant fear of nuclear threat. But it can also be described as a period of great optimism and unprecedented technological development hitherto. The exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum reveals the deep impact that had on the field of art and design characteristic of the Cold War. It can be described as not only an ideological struggle between communism and capitalism, but the arms race, the achievements in space exploration and the introduction of new technologies in the consumer sphere.

Director of Museum Victoria and Albert Mark Jones (Mark Jones) said: «This is the first exhibition, in which we tried to find out how the post-1945 modernism was formed under the influence of the Cold War».

One can also see the propaganda posters, photographs, sculpture of West and East, the futuristic projects of urban transformation, furniture and clothes, the source of inspiration for which was a space theme, and much more.

opened exhibit of the post-war period. Then the main task was to restore the destroyed cities. Here are the new West building technologies, as well as art and architecture of socialist realism from the USSR.

Another interesting section of the exhibition is devoted to achievements in space exploration, which influenced the minds of creative people sixties. Here visitors can see these costumes cosmonauts in the vicinity of futuristic attire of Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin, unusual furniture «Space» (eg, garden chair in the form of eggs), as well as photographs and a model reminiscent of the missile telebashen, which were constructed at the time of throughout Europe (among them, and the Moscow Ostankino TV tower).

In the paintings and graphic works, posters, photographs and kinorabotah reflected the revolutionary theme, related to the events of 1968 in Prague and Paris, as well as the constant fear of nuclear threat, which is always present in the public consciousness.

Soviet Union and the United States competed not only in the quantities of nuclear weapons. The two superpowers sought to show, and their cultural superiority and tried to outbid «modernity» architecture, design, and even consumer products. A striking example can be called «kitchen debate» 1959 between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon (Richard Nixon) in the American National Exhibition in Moscow. The leaders of two countries, stopped at a booth with a model American kitchen in good American home, arguing about the country in which people live better and how this requires modern science and technology.

Subject introduction of advanced, including military technology in the consumer sphere is reflected in the work of Deputies of British Pop Art, Richard Hamilton (Richard Hamilton). In 1958, he created a piece called $ he, which showed the housewife in the kitchen next to the device, which is more like a weapon than to household appliances.

In addition to Hamilton's works, the exhibition will also be works of other famous artists such as Pablo Picasso (Pablo Picasso), Robert Rauschenberg (Robert Rauschenberg), Lucio Fontana (Lucio Fontana), as well as paintings, written by Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter), after his emigration to West Germany.

Close the first exhibition of photography of Earth taken from space, which is not simply as a source of inspiration for artists and designers, but also to make people understand how fragile is actually the planet.

Exhibition «Cold War Modernism: Design 1945-1970» last in the British Museum Victoria and Albert until 11 January 2009, and then go to the museum MART in the Italian town of Rovereto (28 March - 26 July 2009). From October to December of next year it will be visible to visitors of the Lithuanian National Art Gallery in Vilnius.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: artdaily.com , telegraph.co.uk , artinvestment.ru