The great looking exhibition Work and Play Behind the Iron Curtain at the GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design in central London (‘an exhibition examining the changing face of Soviet design from the 1917 Revolution to Perestroika… featuring works on loan from the Moscow Design Museum and AMO-ZIL’) finishes this weekend.
GRAD is a wonderful little gallery, and it’s recent Kino/Film: Soviet Posters of the Silent Screen show was excellent. I am very disappointed to have missed some of its other shows, including See USSR on early tourism propaganda; The Shabolovka Tower Model on the (more) recently ‘saved’ Shukhov (radio) Tower in Moscow; and Utopia Ltd, which featured 3D creations of ‘blueprints for change’ designed by Constructivists, including ‘Tatlin’s tower’, a monument to the Third International (which was also recreated in the courtyard of the RA for its ‘Building the Revolution’ show), and an amazing looking flying machine.
I won’t miss any future shows if they are this good!
