About this Exhibit

This collection is part of the rediscovery of a larger body of creative resources ranging over novels, poetry, films, drama, musicals, songs, sculpture and other such endeavors. Many of these works have been analyzed from administrative perspectives, public and private, in a growing body of scholarly works. In the field of public administration this analysis dates at least to Waldo's The Novelist on Organization and Administration (1968); Holzer, Morris and Ludwin's Literature on Bureaucracy (1979); and Goodsell and Murray's Public Administration Illuminated and Inspired by the Arts (1994). That dialogue continues on a regular basis in the journal Public Voices and through the Section on Humanistic, Artistic and Reflective Expression (SHARE) of the American Society for Public Administration.

The cartoons in this exhibit are illustrative of work in the XIX Century, and the first half-century of the Soviet Union. They were collected at the initiative of Marc Holzer of Rutgers University and through the endeavors of Pavel Makeyenko and Helen Lvova of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The posters were purchased from the artists by Holzer with the assistance and facilitation of Liudmila Kouznetsova of St. Petersburg University, and "exported" to the United States in their personal possession. Before the publisher destroyed virtually the entire stock of posters, the artists were permitted to salvage what they could, and the salvaged stock was then stored in their apartments, often under beds or in closets. The artists, and in some cases their widows, were appreciative of our interest in their art and in the possibility of sales for U.S. dollars. Despite having discarded prints of the posters as of no further interest, the publisher was similarly eager to sell negatives ("transparencies") of some posters for dollars as well; some of the prints in the exhibit were made from those negatives.

In terms of translations, we have attempted to be as literal as possible. Although we are not poets, we have attempted to rhyme verses, where possible, to reflect the original style. We have provided commentary for some, rather than all of the posters, in order to illustrate the context and purpose of the posters as a group. The translations were done under the auspices of the National Center for Public Productivity at Rutgers University-Campus at Newark. The following people have worked on this project:

	Marc Holzer and Vatche Gabrielian, Graduate Department of Public Administration, Rutgers University--Newark
	Liudmila Kouznetsova, Department of Sociology, St. Petersburg University
	Ray Schwartz, Van Houten Library, New Jersey Institute of Technology
	Pavel Makeyenko and Helen Lvova, Institute for Systems Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
	Oleg Grimalovsky and Sasha Doroshenko, Muskie Fellows, Rutgers University
	Felicia Owens, Journalism Program, Rutgers University--Newark
	Ned Drew, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Rutgers University--Newark
	Kathryn Cramer, Cramer Communications

We have organized the exhibit into three sub-themes, each of which is arranged chronologically.

19th Century Russian Art: Social Commentary on Bureaucracy
Over-centralized and very often corrupt, bureaucracy was not very popular in the nineteenth century Russia. Because of censorship, however, critical social commentary on bureaucracy was not widespread. We provide several samples of "restrained" commentary-- satirical cartoons from mid-century satirical magazines and Russian luboks (prints), often portraying the quiet desperation brought about by provincial stagnation and officialdom.

Cartoons from the Soviet Press--1920s-1970s As in every society, cartoons in Soviet newspapers attacked societal ills. Despite censorship, Soviet artists exhibited enough imagination and skills to portray some of the hot topics of the day with great irony and sharp bite. One of their favorite targets was bureaucracy--dwelling on the twin images of the faceless and nameless official who makes decisions strictly by the book, and the crooked official who exploits loopholes and engages in phony reporting. Related targets were, of course, loss, bribery, corruption, embezzlement, etc.