Vladyka mira — Kapital, Zolotoi Idol [The World Ruler — Capital, The Golden Idol], a poster published without an attribution, but based on a design by František Kupka (1871–1957). Published by VTsIK Publishing, 1919. 53 x 35 cm.

This poster reproduces an early work of the famous Czech/French artist František Kupka. Nowadays, Kupka is hailed as a pioneer of the abstract art movement, but before his turn to Abstractionism, the artist was “a regular contributor to Cocorico, La Vie en Rose, and Les Temps Nouveaux, in which, through allegory and derision, he criticized injustice, the excesses of capitalist society, the corruption of power, ideological servility.” (Cited from the webpage announcing the exposition “Towards a New Era: Kupka, Graphic Works, 1894–19” at the Musée d’Orsay). While there is no evidence of Kupka’s direct ties to revolutionary Russia, his graphic works were clearly familiar to erudite post–revolutionary Russian propagandists.

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