VALENTINA KULAGINA (1902-1987) [COMRADES - COAL MINERS!] 1933.
40x28 1/4 inches, 101 1/2x71 3/4 cm. Ogiz-Izogiz, Moscow.
Condition B+ / B: replaced loss, staining and overpainting in upper left corner and edge; repaired tears at edges, some into image; creases at edges. Mounted on Chartex.
'We will take the coal industry onto the Bolshevik road of victories!' Valentina Kulagina, best known as the wife of Gustav Klutsis, was an exceptional artist in her own right, working on posters and book and exhibition 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 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. Rare. Klutsis / Kulagina p. 208.