Red Wealth. Soviet Design 1950-1980

On 26 September the exhibition ‘Red Wealth. Soviet Design 1950-1980’ opens at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. Featuring over 360 objects the exhibition highlights the best examples of Soviet design, from charming retro products and graphic designs to prototypes that represent a systematic, functional and social approach to design.

The exhibition illustrates the history of Soviet design in a fascinating overview starting in the 1950’s when consumer culture was still a stranger to communism. A richly diverse range of products related to the automobile industry, youth, sport, space travel, domestic design, fashion and music provides insight into the everyday lives of people in an era when material wealth was still in its infancy.

Moscow Design Museum
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Kunsthal Rotterdam and the Moscow Design Museum. Founded in 2012 as the first cultural institution in Russia specifically dedicated to design, the Moscow Design Museum focusses on the popularization of national design at home and abroad, the collection and preservation of Russia’s design heritage and the introduction of Russian viewers to the best examples and main schools of international design.

In 2013, the museum collaborated with the Dutch design company Droog in the exhibition NEW LUXURIES: LESS + MORE IN AN AGE OF AUSTERITY. In 2014, the museum presented a series of documentary films for TV Channel ‘Culture’ on Dutch design titled “Holland – territory of design”.

The exhibition Red Wealth. Soviet Design 1950-1980 runs from 26 Spetember 2015 to 14 February 2016.