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Brutal Bloc Postcards - by Fuel (Hardcover)

Brutal Bloc Postcards - by  Fuel (Hardcover) - 1 of 1
$17.99 sale price when purchased online
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About this item

Highlights

  • Brutalist hotels, avant-garde monuments and futurist TV towers: rare and previously unpublished vintage postcards from the Eastern BlocBrutal concrete hotels, futurist TV towers, heroic statues of workers--this collection of Soviet-era postcards documents the uncompromising landscape of the Eastern Bloc through its buildings and monuments.
  • Author(s): Fuel
  • 192 Pages
  • Photography, Subjects & Themes

Description



Book Synopsis



Brutalist hotels, avant-garde monuments and futurist TV towers: rare and previously unpublished vintage postcards from the Eastern Bloc

Brutal concrete hotels, futurist TV towers, heroic statues of workers--this collection of Soviet-era postcards documents the uncompromising landscape of the Eastern Bloc through its buildings and monuments. These are interspersed with quotes from prominent figures of the time, which both support and confound the ideologies presented in the images.

In contrast to the photographs of a ruined and abandoned Soviet empire we are accustomed to seeing today, the scenes depicted here publicize the bright future of communism: social housing blocks, palaces of culture and monuments to comradeship. Dating from the 1960s to the 1980s, they offer a nostalgic yet revealing insight into social and architectural values of the time, acting as a window through which we can examine cars, people and, of course, buildings. These postcards, sanctioned by the authorities, were intended to show the world what living in communism looked like.

Instead, this postcard propaganda inadvertently communicates other messages: outside the House of Political Enlightenment in Yerevan, the flowerbed reads "Glory to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union"; in Novopolotsk, art-school pupils paint plein air, their subject a housing estate; at the Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute students stroll past a 16-foot-tall concrete hammer and sickle. These postcards are at once sinister, funny, poignant and surreal.



Review Quotes




"Brutal Bloc Postcards" plays on nostalgia while exploring Brutalism's social ideas and the ambitious scale of Soviet urban planning.--Marianna Cerini "CNN"

In rather stark contrast to the documentation of Soviet architecture commonly showcased today, this surreal collection of images consists of scenes depicting what was considered the bright future of Communism.--Milly Burroughs "AnOther Magazine"
Dimensions (Overall): 6.5 Inches (H) x 7.8 Inches (W) x .9 Inches (D)
Weight: 1.35 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Sub-Genre: Subjects & Themes
Genre: Photography
Number of Pages: 192
Publisher: Fuel
Theme: Architectural & Industrial
Format: Hardcover
Author: Fuel
Language: English
Street Date: August 28, 2018
TCIN: 84284510
UPC: 9780995745520
Item Number (DPCI): 247-23-8625
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details

Estimated ship dimensions: 0.9 inches length x 7.8 inches width x 6.5 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1.35 pounds
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