Dmitri Moor

Dmitri Moor (Russian, 1883-1946)

Dmitrii Moor was one of the main founders of Soviet political poster design. His posters and illustrations served as an important weapon of Bolshevik class warfare. Moor’s early political posters were allegorical, often including images of the grim reaper and monstrous dragons signifying capitalism. Moor produced many anti-religious works, subverting the visual vocabulary of traditional icon painting to create critical images that were accessible to a semi-literate readership (for a broad selection of Moor’s works of this kind, see our online exhibition Early Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda: 1921–1931). The artist was strongly influenced by the German satirical magazine Simplicissimus (Munich, 1896–1944; 1954–1964) and its leading cartoonist, the Norwegian artist Olaf Leonhard Gulbransson (1873–1958). Aside from satirical art, Moor also created posters for advertisement, cinema, and concerts, as well as book illustrations.  - Berman Collection