Political Photo Montage

Alexander Zhitomirsky was the leading Russian artist of political montage from 1941 through the mid-1970s. As publisher of the central office of the Artists’ Association of Revolutionary Russia, his style as a typographer and art editor came to the fore in the 1930s journals We’re Building, Socialist Industry and Illustrated Newspaper. During World War II his anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets, which were printed in editions of one million, reached vast numbers of German soldiers, and were so effective that German Minister of Propaganda, Josef Goebbels, included Zhitomirsky on the Third Reich’s “most wanted” enemy list. Zhitomirsky’s work was published extensively throughout the Cold War as well, earning him the title of National Artist of the Russian Federation at the height of his career.

Despite exhibitions in Russia and Europe, Zhitomirsky was virtually unknown in the United States. In 1994, the Robert Koch Gallery presented the first United States exhibition and catalog featuring Zhitmorsky’s original collages. Published concurrently with an exhibition at Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, September 8 – October 29, 1994