Contemporary Lubok

Contemporary Lubok (Segodnyashny lubok) was a publishing house established by G. B. Gorodetsky shortly after the outbreak of the First World War (1914). Over a period of three months, it produced a range of propaganda posters and postcards on patriotic themes. Several of the avant-garde artists supported the war effort by working for the publishing house, among them Kazimir Malevich, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ilya Mashkov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burliuk and Vasily Chekrygin. Dating back to the traditions of Russian folk woodcuts, their lithographs were generally printed in four colours with deliberately simplistic contour drawings and verse inscriptions written by Vladimir Mayakovsky.