David King (designer)

David King (30 April 1943 – 11 May 2016) was a British writer, designer and historian of graphic design who, in the course of his research, assembled one of the largest collections of Soviet graphics and photographs. From this collection, he created a series of revelatory books unfolding the history of the Russian Revolution, and its associated art and propaganda. King developed a special interest in Leon Trotsky and the subsequent doctoring of revolutionary photos and records. Part of King's collection is housed on the fourth floor of Tate Modern, London.

King was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, and studied typography at the London School of Printing. His tutor Robin Fior introduced King to Soviet Constructivist revolutionary graphics and political art. King worked in advertising agencies and then became the art editor of The Sunday Times from 1965 to 1975. While working for The Sunday Times, King made his first research trips to Mexico and the Soviet Union in search of photos and graphics from the revolutionary period. He uncovered many unknown images of Trotsky and, with writer Francis Wyndham, King created his first book: Trotsky: A Documentary. Wyndham commented that after an apparent dearth of Trotsky images, " there were now more photographs of Trotsky than there were of Marilyn Monroe."

King devoted his career to uncovering and chronicling the art of the Soviet and the Constructivist periods, developing a special interest in the doctoring of photographs and the accompanying process of historical revisionism. King published the result of his research in The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia in 1997, and Ordinary Citizens: The Victims of Stalin in 2003. King’s book became the basis of an audiovisual collaboration with composer Michael Nyman, who created a soundtrack to The Commissar Vanishes, which was first performed at the Barbican Centre, London, in 1999.

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