?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
VALENTINA KULAGINA (1902-1937) KUNST AUSSTELLUNG / DER SOWJETUNION. 1931. 49 3/4x35 5/8 inches, 126x91 cm. Wolfsberg, Zurich. Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins and image; horizontal folds. Best known as being the wife of Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina was an exceptional artist in her own right, working on exhibition designs, posters and book designs. She met her future husband in 1920 when she enrolled as a student at Vkhutemas, where he was teaching. Together they worked closely on photomontages, taking pictures at parades (and sometimes posing themselves) to help visualize the enthusiastic movement of the masses, which they needed to fulfill various assignments. At the end of the 1920s, she departed from the sole use of photographic material in her work and began to incorporate graphic elements within her montages. The giant red man that appears here also appeared in many of her other posters. This image promotes an exhibition of Russian Art in Zurich. For the image, Kulagina illustrates the USSR in construction (arguably a visible incarnation of constructivism itself). Kulagina was both shy and understated, as made clear from a diary entry on January 13, 1931 in which she writes "My poster for Zurich is printed already! Hooray! I am very glad . . . I can't wait to see how they'll turn out in reproduction. Somehow I have instantly joined the ranks of good artists. Too bad I'm not very active in speaking at meetings -- that would have helped me a lot" (Klutsis / Kulagina p. 198). In fact that shyness might have saved her life! After Klutsis' death at the hand of Stalin's regime sometime around 1938, Kulagina continued working as a state designer. Klutsis / Kulagina 139, Margadant p. 101, Hoffnung und Wiederstand 141.
