?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
VALENTINA KULAGINA (1902-1987)
[THE ROAD TO OCTOBER]. 1929.
41 1/4x29 1/4 inches, 104 3/4x73 1/2 cm. State Publishing House, Moscow. Condition A- / B+: small replaced losses at lower left edge; minor repaired tears in margins; unobtrusive horizontal fold in bottom right image; minor restoration in image; small pin hole in bottom right corner.
Best known as being the wife of Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina was an exceptional artist in her own right, specializing in posters and book and exhibition design. 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 capture 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. This was unique at a time when photography had been unofficially adopted as the primary tool of the graphic propaganda machine. V&A E.1274-1989, Klutsis & Kulagina 133, Power of images p. 142.
![VALENTINA KULAGINA (1902-1987). [THE ROAD TO OCTOBER]. 1929. 41¼x29¼ inches, 104¾x73½ cm. State Publishing House, Moscow.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//869\794869.jpg)
