May 10, 2004 - Sale 2006

Sale 2006 - Lot 26

Price Realized: $ 27,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 40,000
STENBERG BROTHERS / VLADIMIR (1899-1982) & GEORGI (1900-1933) [IN THE SPRING.] 1929.
41x29 inches.
Condition B+: restored losses in margins and along vertical and horizontal folds. Japan.
With their innate sense of design, and a photomontage technique they devised whereby film frames were projected onto canvases and drawn around, the Stenberg Brothers revolutionized the concept of the movie poster in the 1920s. Utilizing a progressive artistic freedom that seems so out-of-place within the early years of the new Soviet state, they were the first to abandon realistic depictions of movie scenes on posters. "This documentary [directed by Mikhail Kaufman] follows the gradual change from winter to spring in the Ukraine. The runner in the poster is symbolic of a track meet, one of the traditional activities that occur every spring to celebrate the end of the harsh Russian winter. This poster's inspired approach to design, its bold lines and angles, its simplicity in the use of photomontage represent the best of the avant-garde period." (Pack p. 262). This important poster represents the Stenbergs at their very best, a visual masterpiece based on constructivist principles but comprised of deconstructivist themes. Pack p. 263, Revolutionary Soviet Film Posters p. 77.