?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
ELENA SEMIONOVA (DATES UNKNOWN) AVIAXIM. 1926. 27 3/4x42 5/8 inches. Aviaxiama, Moscow. Condition B+: repaired tears in margins; creases in margins and image; vertical and horizontal folds. Photomontage was the primary graphic tool among Russian propagandists during the 1920s and 1930s. Almost without exception these montages were relegated to two colors. This poster stands out first for being more colorful than most, and secondly for not promoting a political agenda. Aviaxim was one of the three airline companies founded in Russia after 1918 (the other two were Dobrolet and Osoaviaxim). They were all merged together in 1945 to form Aeroflot. Here, in more of a montage than a collage, the peaceful use of aviation as a means of transporting goods from factories throughout the country is literally heralded by a worker shouting the news. The well-structured, symmetrical poster combines images, photographs and typography. It is an excellent document from a tiny window of near-capitalism in the early Soviet state. New Weapon p. 98-9.
