Stefan Landsberger and Chinese Propaganda Posters

"Herdspeople love to read books by Lenin and Marx"
by Shao Hua and Shao Qinglin, 1976

One of the greatest collections of propaganda on the internet, Stefan Landsberger's collection is worth an hour or more of your time.   First, the details - you can see Professor Landsberger's complete collection at chineseposters.net, as well as its predecessor, the much more yellow original version which is preserved on the Internet Archive.

Secondly, there are a number ways in which the avid art historian or political psychologist can study Landsberger's collection.  The collection it demonstrates vividly the rules and principles of Chinese propaganda throughout the 20th and early 21st Century - the questions of which rules are static and which are dynamic alone are fascinating.  Additionally, Landsberger's exploration of "themes" is arguably the best exploration of Chinese communist iconography ever presented in the English language.  Finally, for decades in the People's Republic of China artists were enlisted as craftsmen - the impulse to create original work was entirely quashed by Chinese authorities.  This propaganda is, often, the only significant surviving testament to the survival of Chinese art in the midst of totalitarianism.  Chinese art history for decades is, essentially, a history of propaganda.

Landsberger's work is hosted by the Dutch International Institute of Social History.