Surreal Yugoslavian Sci-Fi Art from the ’70s/’80s

The incredible blog 50 Watts recently published a collection of illustrations by artist Nikolai Lutohin. Will at 50 Watts writes:

Milena and Vlada, the duo behind Yugodrom—a new blog focused on “graphic aesthetics from ex Yugoslavia”—have been unearthing gems from seventies and eighties issues of the science magazine Galaksija.

They wrote to me suggesting that the “surrealistic, sci-fi-sh, serigraphic and absolutely amazing” illustrations of Nikolai Lutohin would be suitable for 50 Watts, and I am inclined to agree. The Russian artist Lutohin was born in Yugoslavia and did many illustrations for Galaksija. I’ve included ten below.

I also love the magazine’s covers and for this post selected a handful from the 136 covers inYugodrom’s flickr set. See more of my favorite covers in a companion post on But Does it Float.

The YUGODROM Tumblr is a treasure trove of beautiful covers, adverts, logos, typography and fashion from the former Yugoslav republics. In addition to much of the retro sci-fi goodness, there is some sexy (sometimes in a creepy way) photography mixed in.

Posted by Nadya Lev on November 30th, 2011
Filed under Art, Cyberpunk, Magazines, Sci-fi, Surreal

3 Responses to “Surreal Yugoslavian Sci-Fi Art from the ’70s/’80s”

  1. M.S. Patterson Says:
    November 30th, 2011 at 6:11 pm

    That first picture reminds me of Mer.

  2. Анна Says:
    December 1st, 2011 at 1:03 am

    Our sci-fi/fantasy/horror scene was really cool and I’m happy and proud to say that my father worked, directly or indirectly, on some of those books/mags/what have you :) .

    You might also like the work (Dobrosav) ‘Bob’ Živković did for them.
    He also does a lot of children’s illustration – that’s how most of us comes into contact with him – but his work on alter pictures, in magazines like Znak Sagite and Emitor, is excellent.
    His cover for Stephen King’s IT gave me nightmares of going into my family library and it’s probably one of the best cover in the world for that book.

    I love the artwork of our collection of old mags and books, and I’m so grateful that my parents were into them – they definitely made me take the path of alternative culture.

  3. Dawid Michalczyk Says:
    April 19th, 2012 at 2:58 am

    I really like the second piece, very well done.