Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941–1945
July 31–October 23, 2011

During World War II, the Soviet Union’s news agency, TASS, enlisted artists and writers to bolster support for the nation’s war effort. Working from Moscow, this studio produced hundreds of storefront window posters, one for nearly every day of the war. Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941–1945 is a monumental exhibition centered on these posters, which have not been seen in the United States since the Second World War. Impressively large—between five and ten feet tall—and striking in the vibrancy and texture of the stencil medium, these posters were sent abroad, including to the Art Institute of Chicago, to serve as international cultural “ambassadors” and to rally allied and neutral nations to the endeavors of the Soviet Union. In Windows on the War, 250 posters will be on display, with the rich historical and cultural context of US-USSR relations illuminated through photographs and other documentary material.