Art
Uncovering the Queer Histories of Workers' Movements
As bodily autonomy and workers’ rights remain under constant and often intertwined threat, The Work of Love, the Queer of Labor reminds us of what is still at stake.
communism
Books
New Book Reveals the British Security Service's Surveillance of Major Artists
Red List lists a vast range of painters, sculptors, filmmakers, writers, and academics who were tracked by the MI5 for their perceived political affiliations.
Film
Dora García Documents Networks of Feminist Survival in Mexico City
In two shorts showing as part of García’s exhibition at Amant, she explores the unfinished revolution of diplomat Alexandra Kollontai.
Books
The Elegant Minimalism of Soviet-Era Swimming Pools
Photographer Maria Svarbova focuses on the Communist-era swimming pools of her native Slovakia.
Books
The Graphic Persuasiveness of 20th-Century Communist Posters
The first major survey of communist poster art considers the visual legacy of propaganda graphic design in nations around the world.
Books
Communist China's Cheery Propaganda Posters
In the thousands of propaganda posters produced in China between the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 and the early 1980s, the beaming face of Chairman Mao Zedong watches over a surreal utopia.
News
Soviet Symbols Going Up and Coming Down
It’s been nearly a quarter century since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the physical reminders of Central and Eastern Europe’s communist past are still provoking controversy.
Books
The Bleak Banality of Shopping in Communist Europe
"In a cityscape largely without commercial seduction, the banality of the shop windows underscored a real cultural difference between East and West," photographer David Hlynsky writes in his introduction to Window-Shopping Through the Iron Curtain.
Art
Picturing a Communist Revolution in the US
Different artists disagree as to how communist convictions are best or most effectively visualized, and the best part of The Left Front is the methodological tension that underwrites the varied approaches on display.
Opinion
Artists Confront the Uncomfortable Legacy of Lenin
This week, two men made headlines when they doused the tomb of the Soviet Union's first leader Vladimir Lenin with holy water while reportedly shouting "Rise up and leave!"
Books
How Hungary's Painted Homes Rebelled Against the Socialist System
As a reaction to the bleak uniformity of suburban housing in post-war Hungary, many homeowners painted their houses in vibrant designs.
Art
Memories of China: Yang Fudong's Nostalgic Disillusionment
BERKELEY, Calif. — Yang Fudong is known to chronicle contemporary China’s affluent and disaffected urban youth in atmospheric works that evoke Shanghai cinema of the 1930s golden age.