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Gustav Klutsis Poster Collection 1930–37 1 for Sale from Productive Arts Gustav Klutsis Poster Collection 1930–37 1 For Sale from Productive Arts This collection of historically important posters by Gustav Klutsis are excep- tional examples of how the avant-garde artist and celebrated graphic designer pioneered the use of photomontage in Soviet political poster design. Howard Garfinkel and Larry Zeman of Productive Arts became interested in avant-garde art and design after traveling to Russia as students in 1971. Productive Arts was formed in 1989 to offer Constructivist and Soviet-era posters, graphics, illustrated books, journals, and photobooks. In 2008, they became members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). The twenty-three posters featured in this catalog are one of the largest accu- mulations owned by private hands. Four posters in the group were included in the comprehensive exhibition Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina: Photography and Montage After Constructivism at the International Center of Photography, New York City, 2004. The collection is sold en bloc. All posters are in very good, original vintage condition. Price, additional photos and detailed condition reports are available upon request. !PRODUCTIVE ARTS! Howard Garfinkel and Larry Zeman [email protected] www.productivearts.com 216.262.0578 2 3 Gustav Klutsis Poster Collection 1930–37 Published between 1930 and 1937, the collection of Gustav Klutsis (Latvian, art (drawing, painting, engraving), with backward technique and methods of 1895–1938) posters featured in this catalog span the period from the early work, turned out to be inadequate to the mass agitation of the Revolution”. years of Joseph Stalin’s Five-Year Plan and end shortly before the artist’s Instead, Klutsis declared photomontage to be the new art form for socialist arrest and execution in 1938. Together, these posters not only complement industry and it was quickly supported by society and government. the critical policies supporting new government initiatives, but also illustrate how the aspiration of one artist responded to the confluence of utopian Klutsis and his wife and collaborator, Valentina Kulagina (Russian, 1902– objectives and ideological struggles of the proletariat in the shadow of 1987), often photographed themselves as peasants, coal miners, and repressive doctrines. Klutsis’ masterful handling of photomontage in poster members of the proletariat and utilized these images as elements in their design confirms his role as one of the most prominent 20th-century revolu- photomontages. By placing themselves in the posters, as staged workers and tionary artists. next to images of actual workers, they demonstrated how photomontage prac- titioners were integral to the technological revolution as much as factories, The earliest posters of this collection exhibit the daring graphic language agricultural systems, coal mines and heavy industry. of Constructivism and reflect the modern, industrialized Soviet Union which broke away from the traditional art of the past — dynamic compositions using This collection reveals Klutsis’ gradual, visual shift away from Constructivism, scale, contrast and repetition; heroic imagery; revolutionary colors; promi- toward depictions coinciding with the adoption of “Socialist Realism” as the nent diagonals; bold sans-serif typography and asymmetry. Klutsis’ unique official Soviet style of art and literature. The once-celebrated photomontage poster design process combines these avant-garde Constructivist principles was met with irritation by the government as being too inaccessible, monoto- with multi-layered and fragmented photomontages featuring images of farm nous and ambiguous. Beginning in approximately 1932, heroic images of the equipment, factories, workers, peasants and other contributors of the new all-powerful Stalin towering above the masses begin to replace the proletar- economy. As a result, the posters convey the ambitions and praise for agricul- ian worker. The typography is no longer energetic or arranged with purpose; ture, industry, technology, labor and the proletariat. Klutsis further empha- blocks of color are replaced by red banners; symbolism is overshadowed sizes these visual messages by using political slogans and policies of Stalin by naturalism. It is unclear how much Klutsis subscribed to Stalin’s cult of such as: “We will Repay the Coal Debt to the Country”, “Building of Soviet personality or whether the State Publishing House of Fine Art [Izogiz] contrib- Farms and Collective Farms is the Building of Socialism in Rural Areas”, and uted to his change in style. Undoubtedly, there were questions regarding “The USSR is the Shock Brigade of the World Proletariat”. Klutsis’ loyalty. He was accused of participating in a Latvian fascist group and was killed as part of Stalin’s Great Purge (1938). Klutsis had a profound commitment and enthusiasm for Agitation Art (agita- tion–propaganda or agitprop) — a form of propaganda promoting Communist This significant collection of posters are visual proof of Klutsis’ prolific achieve- policies and information. In 1931, Klutsis wrote “Photomontage as a New ments to avant-garde design and are an expression of his creativity and Problem in Agitation Art”, published in Art-Front: Class Struggle on the Visual passion in the midst of changing ideological struggles. Arts Front [Izo-front: Klassovaia bor’ba na fronte prostranstvennykh iskusstv] by the October Art Group, whose members included Klutsis, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Sergei Senkin. He wrote “The old kinds of visual 4 5 Selected Milestones 1915 Kazimir Malevich pioneers a new art movement 1916 Dadaists in Berlin including John Heartfield, 1917 The Russian Revolution, marked by the 1918 Klutsis enrolls at VKHUTEMAS or ‘Higher in his manifesto From Cubism to Suprematism. George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, Raoul February Revolution and the October Art and Technical Studios’, the state-run Similarly, Vladimir Tatlin develops a new Hausmann and Hannah Höch begin Revolution abolishes the monarchy of Tsar school in Moscow specializing in avant- approach named Constructivism. Both methods experimenting with photomontage. Nicholas II. Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks garde art. Malevich is one of his professors. focus on geometry, form and contrast. form a new Communist government. Valentina Kulagina, Klutsis’ future wife and Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the collaborator, is also a student at the school. The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Lenin, photo by Grigori Petrovich Goldstein, catalog, 1915 Germany, collage by Hannah Höch, 1919 1919 Klutsis and Kulagina photomontage by Kulagina, 1922 1920 Klutsis joins the Russian Communist Party. His 1922 Erste Russische Kunstausstellung Berlin, the 1923 Both Klutsis and Rodchenko design publi- 1924 Revolutionary leader Lenin, whose heroic early work of this period reflects Constructivist first exhibition of Russian art takes place. 167 cations using photomontage techniques. image is frequently used in Klutsis photo- and Suprematist influences from VKHUTEMAS artists are featured including Klutsis, Malev- Rodchenko designs LEF journal by the montage designs and propaganda posters, combined with political ideas and photomontage. ich, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and group Left Front of the Arts and Pro Eto. Ei dies. Joseph Stalin succeeds him. Klutsis, He creates his first photomontage Dynamic City Tatlin. Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy i Mne, both done in collaboration with poet Rodchenko, and Sergei Senkin publish The in 1919. His designs for publications consist of attend and subsequently introduce new ideas Vladimir Mayakovsky. Young Guard: For Lenin [Molodaia gvardiia. geometric and architectural forms. about art and industry to the Bauhaus. Leninu] with 17 photomontage illustrations. Six Years of the Red Army, photomontage by All-Russian Union of Poets: Second Collection of Erste Russische Kunstausstellung catalog, Klutsis (from the journal Smena), 1924 Photomontage by Klutsis (from the journal Poetry, cover by Klutsis, 1922 cover by El Lissitzky, 1922 Molodaia gvardiia), 1924. 1927 All-Union Printing Trades Exhibition [Vsesoi- 1928 International Press Exhibition [Internationale 1929 Following the launch of Stalin’s first Five- 1931 Klutsis article “Photomontage as a New uznaia poligraficheskaia vystavka], featuring Presse-Ausstellung] is held in Cologne. Klutsis Year Plan in 1928, Klutsis begins work on a Problem in Agitation Art” is published in Soviet poster design, takes place in Moscow. and Senkin contribute preliminary designs poster series to promote the new economic Art-front [Izo-front]. In it, he proposes the Klutsis has a large number of posters on but the final Soviet Pavilion is organized by policies around industrialization and agricul- methods, processes and ideologies of display and assists Lissitzky in organizing the El Lissitzky and receives attention for its ture. His posters from this period represent photomontage. The same year, the Foto- exhibition. groundbreaking design. The main attraction a high point of Soviet photomontage design. montage exhibition takes place at Staatliche is a photomontage by Lissitzky that is over 23 Museen, Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. All-Union Printing Trades Exhibition, poster by meters long showcasing modern Soviet life. We Will Repay the Coal Debt to the Country, Solomon Telingater and Alexei Kravchenko, poster by Klutsis, 1930 Art-front,
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