Saturday, August 16, 2014

Denmark 18.11.1976 – Glass Blowing - Danish Socialist Realism

The stamp on this FDC is one of a set of four stamps on Glass Blowing in Denmark.  Four different stages of the glass production at Holmegaard Glassworks. Design by Helle Jessen, and engraved by Cz. Slania.

Although the Danish Socialist Realism was never dictated by the government, there is no doubt that some of the Danish Socialist Realist artists were communists, and certainly approved the Soviet ideology in all its facets -- which is easy to do when one is not forced to, but has the artistic freedom of expression.  This is probably why the Socialist Realism in arts was to some degree maintained up to the 1970s by artists like Folmer Bendtsen (1907-1993, not represented on stamps) and his contemporaries.

The most blatant philatelic example I can think of in this style is in the set of stamps issued in 1976, showing glass blowers in various stages of their work, and idealizing the so-called society of workers and peasants.  

With the disintegration of the Communist Bloc in the late 1980s, Socialist Realism fell out of favour and instead began to be used ironically in some works as a means of attacking the old Communist system. 

Thank you Maria.

No comments:

Post a Comment