Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945

I like the book, very informative. the seller I got mine from just stuffed it into an oversized usps envelope and tossed it in the mail. consequently the spine of the book arrived damaged..unfortunate...

powerful idea poster book.

I spent half a day at the Art Institute's exhibit and didn't begin to absorb it all, so extensive were the posters and information about them. (TASS did at least a poster a day for the entire war.) Fortunately, it's all in this tome of an exhibition catalog, which the book description aptly summarizes.There are, of course, wonderful posters that caricature Hitler, but equally interesting are those that feature the Hun. Others focus on specific events, such as the blockade of Stalingrad. And as was the case in the USA, the Soviets also had their posters selling war bonds. What I'd never seen before were the posters that resembled comic strips, often with satirical statements. Whatever the poster and subject, the translation is excellent as is the explanation of its historical context. There are also sections on the stenciling process and on the TASS artists.Interesting, too, is the story of how this exhibition came to be, a story related not only in the catalog but also in "Propaganda on Parade," an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune which I've reprinted in the first comment.As for just what a treasure this book is-- A good friend of mine who has little interest in art but loves WWII history borrowed it for a week and studied it from cover to cover. "Terrific," was his comment when he returned it. If you are interested in this exhibition catalog but don't feel you can afford it at the moment, you could do as I did, which was to recommend that the local library purchase it. It is, after all, an important publication for both art and history.Sept. 2015 update: I finally bought the book!

I just went to see the TASS exhibit at the AIofC and I was blown away! It was not like a lot of art you see in museums; it was not neat and polished, nor was it in ornate frames. You could see people had written on some of the posters, while other posters had been folded and/or wrinkled.Although you cannot see that in the pages of this book, "Windows on the War" still displays the works beautifully along with copious amounts of information regarding their history, manufacture, and the effects they had on the people of Russia.Also, there are translations throughout the book for those of you like me who do not read a lick of Russian.

The sheer size of this book, along with the number of images and quality of production make this a really excellent buy. The essays are also very interesting and insightful into the operations of the Tass studio and it's impact on the greater design community of the 1940s. I was very impressed by this book.