Blog Archives

Soviet Life

Posted by Periodicals/Reference Librarian

Soviet Life
May 1968-May 1981 (incomplete)

In 1956 the U.S. and Soviet governments agreed to a mutual propaganda plan modeled on Life. From them we got The USSR which became Soviet Life which became Russian Life. From us they got Amerika which became America Illustrated. “Soft” propaganda for a Cold War. Gentle cultural competition. Achievement, progress, beauty, tourism. Soviet Life could celebrate the cosmonauts and the construction of a dam as though ballistics and explosives were signs of society’s liberation. One can just imagine what Amerika looked like.

Somewhat relatedly, the U.S. Information Agency, which seems to have had a hand in all this, also employed Chermayeff & Geismar (which later added & Haviv) for a traveling Russian-language exhibition that showcased American design. Featured among the designer portraits, which can be found in the Milton Glaser Archives, was none other than Milton Glaser.

Find Soviet Life bound in green in the back near the bathrooms.

Intercosmos: Orbits of Cooperation, April 1981

Perhaps the Hardest Part is Waiting, April 1981

Kutaisi, This Wonderful Town, May 1981

The Festival for Everybody, May 1981

Marx and Lincoln, May 1968

Women Take Over Men’s Jobs, May 1981

What is Kreshchatik to the Man on the Street?, July 1968

Blast Saves a City, June 1968

Posted in Periodicals, Photography (Periodicals)

Magazine Covers – 1970-1979

Mar 4

Posted by Periodicals/Reference Librarian

This post continues to look at Magazine Covers throughout the decades. 1970-1979 contains hundreds of items and as usual it was difficult choosing these few to feature.

I begin with this gem from 1970, the beautifully produced, polite propaganda, Soviet Life. We have a number of full issues in our periodical collection from the late 60’s, early 70’s, and early 80’s.

Portrait of Lenin, a woodcut done in 1968 by Andrei Goncharov

And from the idealism of Lenin we move onto the eroticism of Lennon in Avant Garde magazine which is also available in our periodicals no.1(1968:Jan.)-no.14(1971:summer).

This cover features the Lithograph "Lotus" by John Lennon

Cover by Jean-Pierre Fouchet

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, by Giovanni di Paolo (1402 or 1403 - about 1482), Italian (Siena). Tempera on wood, 17 3/4 x 20 1/2 inches. Photograph: Malcolm Varon. From the Robert Lehman collection.

Richard Serra "Base Plate Hexagram, Right Angles Inverted, Webster Ave. & 183rd Street, Bronx."

From the table of contents: "Cover: The snapshots on the cover were taken by the Editor at Borobudur and Prambhanan in Central Java and on the island of Bali. They depict the original setting of the Indonesian art works recently shown at the Asia House Gallery in New York."

From the table of contents: "The Cover: A whale breaching--or leaping from the water to roll onto its back--is a sight few landsmen can expect to encounter. Artist Alan E. Cober, a leading American illustrator, depicted the whale on our cover..."Few people even know what a whale looks like," says Cober. "I have rendered the marine life realistically, but the realism is my own."

Performance (May/June 1973)

Arts in Society (Summer/Fall 1973)

Novum Gebrauchs Graphik (February 1978) Cover by Young Su Lee

Novum Gebrauchs Graphik (March 1978) Cover: Wenzel Schmidt

Novum Gebrauchs Graphik (August 1978) cover by: Christian Josef

Novum Gebrauchs Graphik (November 1978) cover by: Kondow Satoshi

Audubon (September 1977)

This is a strange one, the “urban renaissance” issue of this defunct inflight magazine from US Airways. “Mainliner Magazine” sounds like something for the heroine chic crowd.