Stenberg Brothers (Vladimir, 1899-1982; Georgi, 1900-1933)

In his cinematic masterwork, Battleship Potemkin 1905 (1925), Sergei Eisenstein uses the revelatory potential of film to recall and expose the historical event of the Battleship Potemkin mutiny, during which the ship's defiant crew found themselves crushed beneath the weight of Tsarist brutality. Here, film becomes a propagandist tool, extolling the revolutionary spirit of the proletariat and denouncing the bourgeois values of Tsarist regime. In their poster, produced to accompany Eisenstein's film, Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg transfer the overall mood of the film into the lithographic medium. Visually, the work echoes the diagonal compositions favoured by Suprematist artists, with the ship's interlocking guns creating a network of balancing beams reflective of Soviet Russia's tenuous political atmosphere. Metaphorically recreating Eisenstein's vision, the Stenberg brothers contrast the sailor, who stands tall atop the ship's artillery, with the overthrown officer, who plummets helplessly toward the sea. In both form and content the poster creates an image of revolutionary spirit, supporting the power of the masses and encouraging optimism for the future of the Soviet state.