May 25, 2017 - Sale 2449

Sale 2449 - Lot 52

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
GUSTAV KLUTSIS (1895-1938) [THE USSR IS THE SHOCK BRIGADE OF THE WORLD'S PROLETARIAT.] 1931.
56 1/2x40 3/4 inches, 128 1/4x103 1/2 cm. Izogiz, Moscow.
Condition B+: minor restored losses in margins and image; repaired tears, creases and overpainting in margins and along vertical and horizontal folds; color attenuated. Two-sheets. Framed.
Born in Latvia, Klutsis studied at the influential Svomas/Vkhutemas art school under Malevich and Pevsner, and then went on to become a founding member of "October," a group of artists dedicated to serving the needs of the proletariat throughout the USSR. Klutsis became the Soviet Union's most prolific photomontage virtuoso, designing emblematic posters to inspire the Communist cause throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, despite his exceptional work for the cause, Stalin had Klutsis arrested and executed along with other Latvians. This extremely powerful image utilizes photomontage within a sophisticated layout and progressive typography, which conforms to angles in the image. Utopia cover and p. 55, Power of Images p. 83, Clash of Ideologies p. 101, The Poster 221, Klutsis / Strasbourg p. 109.