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Nina Vatolina

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Nina Vatolina
Нина Николаевна Ватолина
Born1915 (1915)
Kolomna, Russian Empire
Died2002 (aged 86–87)
Moscow, Russia
Spouses
  • Nikolai Denisov (1934–1945)
  • Max Avadevich Birshtein (m. 1945)

Nina Nikolaevicha Vatolina (1915–2002) was a Soviet Russian poster artist. Active from the late 1930s into the 1960s, she has been called "formidably prolific"[1] and credited with "some of the best" Soviet poster design in the era.[2]

Her work is held at the Tate Modern[3] and the Victoria and Albert Museum.[4]

Biography

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Vatolina's 1941 poster, "Ne Boltai!" ( "Don't chatter! Gossiping borders on treason")
Stamp featuring Vatolina's art

Vatolina was born in Kolomna in 1915.[5] She attended Ogiz Technical School for Arts (1932–1936) and the Moscow Art Institute (1937–1942).[5][6] She also studied under Viktor Deni[5][7] from 1935 to 1939.[6] She had married Deni's son, Nikolai Denisov, in 1934, and the two studied together at the Moscow Art Institute while it was evacuated to Samarkand.[5][6] The two would collaborate on posters for the duration of their marriage.[5][6] Following her graduation, Vatolina returned to Moscow to produce posters, despite discouragement from authorities given the wartime conditions in the region.[5]

Vatolina began making posters in the late 1930s, some of which encouraged participation in elections.[6] During World War II, she and Denisov produced a number of posters for authorities. Her two most famous images, both produced in 1941[2] may be "Ne Boltai!" (English: Don’t Talk! or Don't Chatter!), which discouraged gossip to protect national security, and "Fascism, the Most Evil Enemy of Women", produced in reaction to the Nazi invasion of Russia.[5][7] The poster featured a defiant woman based on Vatolina's neighbor.[7][8] It was reprinted in 1942 to address a potential Nazi invasion of Azerbaijan, with the art undergoing edits to better represent Azerbaijani women.[7] She continued to also work on posters promoting political unity and Stalinism for the remainder of the war.[6][9]

In 1945, Vatolina divorced Denisov and married painter Max Avadevich Birshtein.[5][6]

In the decades after the war, Vatolina produced posters to promote a variety of government initiatives, including those related to agriculture,[5] children's lives and education,[5][6][10] health and eugenics,[1] industrialization and post-war reconstruction,[5][11] international relations,[12][13] and the development of Siberia.[5] According to art critic Evgeny Peremyshlev, Vatolina often based the female figures in her art on herself.[6]

Towards the end of her life, Vatolina said in interviews that she had always preferred painting over her post-World War II poster work, which she had produced out of obligation rather than passion.[5][6]

Exhibits

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She had solo exhibitions of her work in Moscow in 1957 and 1968.[5]

In the English-speaking world, Vatolina's posters were brought to light by British graphic designer and art collector David King, who donated a number of Soviet posters, among them Vatolina's, to the Tate Modern.[14] Her posters were also featured in the Tate's 2017 exhibit, "Red Star Over Russia: A Revolution in Visual Culture 1905–55".[15][16]

Publications

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  • We Are Posters (1962)[5][6]
  • Walking the Tretiakov Gallery (1976)[5][6]
  • Landscapes of Moscow (1983)[5][6]

References

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  1. ^ a b Balina, Marina; Rudova, Larissa; Kostetskaya, Anastasia (30 November 2022). Historical and Cultural Transformations of Russian Childhood: Myths and Realities. Taylor & Francis. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-000-78067-3.
  2. ^ a b Gosling, Lucinda; Robinson, Hilary; Tobin, Amy (25 December 2018). The Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857–2017. Chronicle Books. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-4521-7001-5.
  3. ^ "Nina Vatolina 1915–2002". Tate. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  4. ^ Vatolina, Nina (1965). "COMMUNISM IS THE START OF THE SOVIET UNION". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Vatolina, Nina Nikolaevicha". Poster Plakat. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Ватолина Нина Николаевна (1915–2002)". tramvaiiskusstv.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Sherwin, Skye (8 December 2017). "Nina Vatolina's Fascism, the Most Evil Enemy of Women: stirring propaganda". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  8. ^ Reckitt, Helena (1 November 2022). The Art of Feminism (Revised ed.). Chronicle Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-7972-2038-3.
  9. ^ Pisch, A. (2013). "Stalin Takes Care of Each of Us from the Kremlin: Obligation and Gratitude in Stalinist Political Posters". Новейшая история России. 3 (8): 37–54. ISSN 2219-9659.
  10. ^ Goscilo, Helen (2022). "From Double-Voiced to Univocal: Devious, Desirous, and Declarative Childhoods in Soviet Posters". In Balina, Marina; Rudova, Larissa V.; Kostetskaya, Anastasia (eds.). Historical and cultural transformations of Russian childhood: myths and realities. Children's literature and culture. New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-003-27422-3.
  11. ^ Samuelson, L. (26 July 2011). Tankograd: The Formation of a Soviet Company Town: Cheliabinsk, 1900s–1950s. Springer. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-230-31666-9.
  12. ^ Gordon, Eric A. (4 February 2022). "'The Wayland Rudd Collection': When state power was harnessed to combat racism". People's World. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  13. ^ Samudzi, Zoé (6 June 2022). "An Object Not Meant to Object". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  14. ^ Heller, Steven (22 August 2012). "If You Have a Revolution, You Gotta Have Posters". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  15. ^ Cumming, Laura (12 November 2017). "Red Star Over Russia: A Revolution in Visual Culture 1905–55 review – a momentous show". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  16. ^ "Painting politics: The art behind Russia's revolutionary uprisings". Huck. 14 August 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
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