Soviet Postcards

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Some pictures from the exhibition of Yuri Vasnetsov’s original autolithographs. Being a fan of Soviet school of book illustration, especially children’s book illustration, Yuri Vasnetsov is a legend for me. I feel so lucky to have a chance to see his original works, many of which I know and love from books and postcards.

We were shown a film of the process of making lithographs, and I gotta say it’s unreal. So complex! There’s a special flat stone that you have to prepare a certain way and then the artist paints directly on its surface using one color only. The printer makes a print, then the prep, then the artist paints onto the stone using another color and the printer prints it over. The process repeats itself with each additional color used in the artwork. Usually it’s a team that does it, an artist and a printer. And Vasnetsov made it all by himself - hence the name autolithograph. And he has plenty of colors in his works, too! I cannot imagine the amount of hard work that went into each illustration. Wow.

Most of the exhibited works I was familiar with, but there were a few that I’ve never seen before. I will post them separately.

Also, I considered stealing the bear print from the first picture. It would look so good on my wall!

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