Propoganda posters:

Propaganda art has been used throughout history as tools to promote and publicise war, social unity or protest.  This collection of reproduction posters were amongst the official propaganda of the Vietnamese communist regime. Propaganda posters were used by the Vietnamese during French colonialist times up to the present day. The reproductions in this exhibition are mostly from the Vietnam war era.

The artistic style was initially very similar to Soviet art but Vietnamese propaganda soon established it’s own voice and approach. This entailed a more naturalistic style, more restrained and to the point, although the reality was often quite different from what the images displayed. The medium of the poster allowed the messages to reach the masses easily.

As well as the military imagery and heroic struggle depicted in some of these posters, there is a strong focus on the importance of farming and peasant life. The Communist party realised that they needed to woo and raise the moral of the peasant population. As a predominantly rural country, the government relied heavily on the production of farmers so they attempted to present an image of happy,  healthy people working the land in the hope of increasing the agricultural quota.

A recurring theme is the use of women, unlike the Russian and Chinese soviet depictions of strong, often masculine-looking women these Vietnamese posters show beautiful, feminine characters. The lone woman or the woman holding a baby was seen as a symbol of the nation, and the importance of family values. A number of the examples here also show women wearing checkered scarves, this was a symbol used for South Vietnamese women, so we can derive that these posters were used to promote the unity of the country and the idea that both the North and the South Vietnamese would want it.