In 1999, students from the Design Department of the Ulyanovsk State University created a series of posters for the exhibition “140th Anniversary of the Oblomov Novel”. At that time, the department only existed for four years, so this series became one of its first major projects.
Three of those posters are on permanent display in the hall “Oblomov’s novel in the modern world”. The hall room used to be a stationery and music store, which was opened in the late 19th century in the Goncharov’s house and belonged to the Simbirsk merchants Yurgens. The hall also houses Russian and foreign editions of “Oblomov”, books by contemporary writers that make use of the novel’s plot, as well as pictures and sculptures depicting the novel’s characters. It also holds a large collection of illustrations to Oblomov, made by both Goncharov’s contemporaries and the 20th-century artists.
In the poster “The Universe of Oblomov” by K. Sokolsky, Oblomov’s whole world is shown as a sofa with the sun, the moon, rain clouds, houses, and plants depicted on its surface.
The poster was created in a caricature style. Oblomov’s figure looks massive and imperfect, but at the same time there is a certain vulnerability to it: it was the artist’s idea that this image should arouse sympathy and affection towards the character. Still, Sokolsky depicted someone who does not fit in the real world and can only exist in the dream-like reality created in his mind. A literary historian Ivan Pyrkov wrote,
Three of those posters are on permanent display in the hall “Oblomov’s novel in the modern world”. The hall room used to be a stationery and music store, which was opened in the late 19th century in the Goncharov’s house and belonged to the Simbirsk merchants Yurgens. The hall also houses Russian and foreign editions of “Oblomov”, books by contemporary writers that make use of the novel’s plot, as well as pictures and sculptures depicting the novel’s characters. It also holds a large collection of illustrations to Oblomov, made by both Goncharov’s contemporaries and the 20th-century artists.
In the poster “The Universe of Oblomov” by K. Sokolsky, Oblomov’s whole world is shown as a sofa with the sun, the moon, rain clouds, houses, and plants depicted on its surface.
The poster was created in a caricature style. Oblomov’s figure looks massive and imperfect, but at the same time there is a certain vulnerability to it: it was the artist’s idea that this image should arouse sympathy and affection towards the character. Still, Sokolsky depicted someone who does not fit in the real world and can only exist in the dream-like reality created in his mind. A literary historian Ivan Pyrkov wrote,
