Ukraine’s New Wave of Political Art

The so-called “Orange Revolution” that gripped Ukraine in 2004 and carried opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency had a profound impact on every facet of existence in the former Soviet republic. One side effect of the month of protests and confrontations was the emergence of a newly energized political art movement. “[The revolution] announced a new wave of Ukrainian artists, several of whom pulled off the neat postmodern trick of simultaneously appropriating, satirizing and extending the conventions of Soviet-style poster art from Stalin to Gorbachev.”