The images we choose for our desktops are special, aren’t they? I generally choose carefully and only put up images that I really adore because I tend to leave them up for a while.
I thought it would be fun to share what’s on my desktop periodically because it’s always such a beloved piece of imagery for me.
Recently, I put up this Soviet textile by E. Nikitina. I could look at this swatch for ages. So much movement and strength—there’s always a new interaction of shapes and figurative references to see!
I also love that you can easily see that this is a textile from the texture so clear in the photo. That just adds to the impressiveness of it. There’s not another country in the world that would have created this pattern and actually produced it, it seems to me. It is quintessentially Soviet. It was from a very distinct time, of course, and it’s not as if all Soviet women wore these kinds of fabrics—but it is certainly a part of a larger collection of works on along these lines and I think it’s such a clever (and stylish!) way to build patriotism (let’s pretend it was not a corrupt government).
If you enjoy this, you’ll love the book I found it in: Soviet Textile Design of the Revolutionary Period, by I. Yasinskaya.
