Best of 1950s Soviet Design

"Work and Play Behind the Iron Curtain" at the Gallery for Russian Arts and Design in London brings together more than 50 key design objects from the 1950s. Part of GRAD's ongoing exploration of Russian design history, this show tackles a relatively unknown yet prolific period that produced designs that were quirky, colorful and often charming.

A Soviet take on beverage vending machines, these ubiquitous dispensers offered only two choices: fizzy water or fizzy water flavored with syrup of a dubious provenance. One kopek would get you the first, while the second option cost three kopeks, but it was much more satisfying to trick the machine into dispensing free soda.

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Best of 1950s Soviet Design on Show in London

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Soviet Buran Spaceship Moved From Gorky to VDNKh

Sophia Schorr-Kon / Courtesy of GRAD

Soviet women were soon being promised their own share of the Space Age, with cutting-edge domestic goods that would improve their quality of life. Designs reflected this new age of cosmic exploration. One vacuum cleaner was called the Seagull and resembled a speeding rocket. Another model was shaped like the planet Saturn, even with a ring surrounding it.

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Best of 1950s Soviet Design on Show in London

See our previous Photo Gallery:

Soviet Buran Spaceship Moved From Gorky to VDNKh

Sophia Schorr-Kon / Courtesy of GRAD

These unusual records produced on recycled X-ray scans were part of an illegal practice by Soviet dissidents, begun in the late 1940s.

The just-visible grooves on the surface were made by pressing an original master recording against a heated and exposed X-ray film.

'Music on bones' as it was known was literally made on recycled X-rays of spinal cords, chest cavities and limbs taken from hospital bins and archives.

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Best of 1950s Soviet Design on Show in London

See our previous Photo Gallery:

Soviet Buran Spaceship Moved From Gorky to VDNKh

Sophia Schorr-Kon / Courtesy of GRAD

A bourgeois luxury once upon a time, perfume was rehabilitated with the rise of synthetic ingredients thanks to the the development of the Soviet chemical industry during Khrushchev's Seven-Year Plan.

The New Dawn factory produced a wide range of goods such as the 'Stone Flower' fragrance, with a decadent Faberge inspired box.

Read the full story:

Best of 1950s Soviet Design on Show in London

See our previous Photo Gallery:

Soviet Buran Spaceship Moved From Gorky to VDNKh

Sophia Schorr-Kon / Courtesy of GRAD

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