?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
ANONYMOUS USSR DANCE FESTIVAL. 1936. 38 5/8x27 3/8 inches. Veneshtorgzdat, Soviet Union. Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins; abrasions in image. In the mid-1930s, the Russian State Travel Agency, Intourist, decided to reach out and attract foreign tourists (and their money) by organizing major cultural events. These included an annual Festival of the Arts, a Theatre Festival (see Swann Modernist Poster Auction # 2039, lots 106-108) and a Dance Festival. To promote these events, the Russian authorities commissioned posters designed in an international Art Deco style, drastically different from the prevailing social realism that Stalin imposed on domestic advertising and propaganda. This clean, stylized image perfectly advertises the solo performance of a classic dancer, a field in which the Russians always excelled.
