Basic HTML Version
GUSTAV G. KLUTSIS (1895-1944)
57
•
[WE WILL TURN THE FIVE - YEAR PLAN INTO A FOUR - YEAR PLAN.] 1930.
41x28
3
/
4
inches, 104x73 cm. Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo. Moscow.
Condition B+: restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; restored losses and repaired tears in margins,
some affecting image.
A classic Klutsis design, in that it serves to promote the Communist cause using industrial imagery in
a photomontage, a red background, and dynamic use of the diagonal, all elements which Klutsis used
to such great effect in his best images. The typography, asymmetrically arranged and forming creative
angles with the cranes, is also archetypal of Klutsis’ design style. The text between the cranes carries the
stated message of the poster; increase the size of the Soviet workforce during the upcoming year from
12.2 million to 13.3 million, so as to raise productivity by 25%, lower manufacturing costs by 11%,
thereby raising real wages an average of 12%. Klutsis had used the motifs of the cranes at least once
before in another poster, “Building Socialism under the Banner of Lenin.” MOMA 362.1937, IVAM
p. 84, Collective p. 61.
[10,000/15,000]