While war rages on the battlefield, Ukrainian artists have used their skills to create a nonlethal form of combat. “Posters right now are a cultural weapon,” Olena Speranska told a Harriman audience last fall, in a presentation about Wartime Posters 2022–2023, a book she curated with 450-plus posters by Ukrainian artists, graphic designers, and illustrators. Wartime Posters showcases images created since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The posters “work against Russian propaganda,” said Speranska, an art curator and social activist from Zaporizhzhia.
Some posters emphasize national culture, threatened by war and Russian disinformation. Others express a fierce defiance: heroic faces of fighters, or an image of hands gripping Molotov cocktails. Many compare Russia and President Vladimir Putin with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. A particular favorite among Ukrainians, said Speranska, features a black swastika on a red background. One arm droops down from the swastika to form the letter Z, used as a patriotic symbol in Russian propaganda.
Combining such strong images with minimal text “can tell much more than news you can watch on TV,” said Speranska, who has organized dozens of exhibitions of these war posters throughout Ukraine and internationally (in the United States, some of the posters have been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Colorado Springs).
As the war persists, Ukrainians continue to craft their messages in poster art. But Speranska isn’t planning to curate another collection. “I wouldn’t like to make a second book,” she said. “Because we all want the war to stop.” ◆
All the images and credits used are from the book Wartime Posters 2022–2023 by Olena Speranska.
Images (clockwise from top-left):
- Zakentiy Horobyov (Kyiv, Ukraine), “Mariupol” 2022
- Mykyta Shylimov (Kharkiv, Ukraine), “Hey Ruzzians!? Your ‘Z’ is unstuck!” 2022
- Andriy Yermolenko (Kyiv, Ukraine), “A United Front!” 2022
- Oleg Gryshchenko (Kyiv, Ukraine), “Cheers” 2022
Featured photo: Nikita Titov (Kyiv, Ukraine), “Together!” 2022
