Emil Gruber
How to Spot a Communist (USA, 1950s), leaflet from the collection of Emil Gruber
The struggles of 20th-century politics but also the rise of consumer culture created an unprecedented paper trail. Leaflets, posters, cartoons, booklets, and pamphlets containing useful instructions were produced en masse as a way of winning hearts and minds, or at least influencing them. Emil Gruber’s massive collection of print products with many magazines and ephemera shows the intense political struggles of the 20th century.
Emil Gruber (1959, Leoben, Austria – 2021, Graz) was an artist, curator, freelance journalist, and photographer with a focus on the transformation of urban life. He was also a passionate collector who accumulated a vast archive of materials on topics in European cultural history of the 20th and 21st centuries with a focus on private photography, gender roles in the media, and political caricature. Gruber was a board member of Forum Stadtpark and Intro-Graz-Spection, and a partner in the publishing house Hirnkost (formerly Verlag für Jugendkulturen), Berlin.
Materials from the collection