Gender aspects of women visualization in Ukrainian Soviet posters of the 1940-1980s (based on the 20th ct. Ukrainian printed posters collection of the Fine Arts Department of the Institute of Book Studies of VNLU)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the critical review of representation of visual women’s images in Ukrainian printed posters of the period of the 1940-1980s, when a woman’s social role in the Soviet society was conditioned by specific ideological requirements. Ukrainian printed posters distinctively and immediately created a legitimate example of a perfect “socially beneficial” Soviet woman. Although in different social political moments of the country’s history meaningful accents shifted toward current events. Thus, during the World War II in the compositional space center there were placed three women’s figures representing the wide-scale heroism of female workers, female combats and female peasants. On Ukrainian posters of the 1970s women were depicted joyful and happy, which had an ideological implicative denoting a visual demonstration of Soviet people life improvement. Still women always had secondary positions in the compositions also depicting men, which secured a non-priority role for women in the Soviet social hierarchy.

Keywords

• Ukrainian Soviet printed poster of the 1940-1980s, woman image, gender aspect, Fine Arts Department of VNLU.