The famous slogan of
the USSR, “Workers of the
world, unite!” is one of the most widespread rallying cries for communism. In
this poster Vietnam’s own struggle for independence and unity, is set against
Ho Chi Minh’s greater vision for the uprising of the working class across the
world.
In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the ...
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In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the next three decades, as the country fought against the French, the
Americans and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese ‘art force’ played an
essential part in relaying the government’s message to a difficult to reach
population. Amid bombing campaigns and land battles, the artists cycled their
posters to villages across Vietnam. Despite these brutal conditions they
created works of striking originality, pieces that combined 1960s Soviet art
with Vietnam’s own folk art traditions.
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