May 19, 2022 - Sale 2605

Sale 2605 - Lot 42

Price Realized: $ 8,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

GUSTAV KLUTSIS (1895-1938)

[COMMUNISM IS SOVIET POWER PLUS THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY]. 1928.


28 1/2x20 1/4 inches, 73 1/4x51 1/2 cm. State Publishing House, Moscow.
Condition A-: minor tears, repaired tears, creases and abrasions at edges; minor creases in image. Paper.

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 thousands of Latvians. Power of Images p. 126, Juan March p. 38.