?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
TEXT BY MAYAKOVSKY (1893-1930) IMAGES BY NEUENBERG ROSTA WINDOWS. Group of 4. Circa 1920. Sizes vary, each approximatley 18x15 inches. Condition varies, generally A-: creases in margins and image. Paper. In the years immediately following Russia's October Revolution, the avant-garde artists threw all of their creative efforts behind aiding the cause of the Bolsheviks. Their primary vehicle was posters they designed for the Russian Telegraphic Agency (ROSTA) that are familiarly referred to as Rosta Windows. Modeled after the traditional Russian lubok, wood block prints, these stenciled sheets were hung in stations on buildings and in empty shop windows. Their messages were news-related, but always pro-party and propagandistic. Generally the mini-series consisted of four images, but in some cases as many as twelve were used. Mayakovski recalled staying at the ROSTA offices for days on end trying to keep up with the demand for more designs; ultimately he designed about three thousand posters and six thousand captions. These four stenciled images describe a bread shortage and extol farmers to produce more in order to feed the workers. Panel 1 states "On December 28, 501099 poods of bread were required [a pood is a Russian unit of weight of 16kgs, equal to approximately 36.11 pounds]; panel 2 implores the famers to "Hurry to supply what is lacking,"; panel 3 "321,000 poods were received. Where is the rest?"; panel 4 "Farmer! In order to produce planters (seeding machines) for you, the workers have to eat!" All of the ROSTA windows were numbered: this is number 901. Bolshevik 76-80 (var).
