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[INDUSTRIAL ART ] Na Kolomenskom zavode. Vystavka rabot brigady khudozhnikov chlenov AKhR i chlenov Kolomenskogo filiala AKhR [i.e. At the Kolomna Locomotive Plant. The Exhibition of AKhR Artists and Members of Kolomna’s Branch of AKhR]

Kolomna: Vsekokhudozhnik, 1931. Item #1426

20 pp., 15 ill. 17,5x13 cm. In original printed wrappers with minimalist design. Two small closed tears of the wrappers, tear of the lower part of the spine, light sunning of the front wrapper, otherwise very good.

Very rare. One of 1500 copies.
The catalogue is accompanied by 15 full-page black and white images of the works exhibited in 1931 in Kolomna (Moscow region) where one of the oldest and biggest plants in USSR was (and still is) situated. There were 143 works by 13 artists in all (some of the works were presented in Moscow): V.V. Zavyalov, B.A. Zenkevich, E.A. Katsman, V.V. Komissarov, N.A. Komarov, P.A. Kryzhanovskiy, N.A. Lebedev, I.N. Pavlov, V.N. Perelman, P.A. Radimov, A.M. Solodkov, P.I. Taezhny, H.A. Ushenin. Reproductions in the catalogue depicting workers, workshops and shipyards of the plant.

The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR, later AKhR) was an art group in 1922-1933. Diverse members of the group gained favor as the legitimate bearers of the Communist ideas into the world of art, formulating framework for the Socialist realism style. The group formed within the Peredvizhniki movement, that held their last public exhibition in 1922, and clearly placed itself in opposition to avant-garde art. Despite its revolutionary title, it successfully united artists of the ‘old school’ like Abram Arkhipov, Aleksandr Makovsky, Nikolay Kasatkin, Konstantin Yuon and the younger ones like Sergei Gerasimov and Isaak Brodsky.
In introduction to the catalogue there is a definite turn to ideologically correct agenda of depicting real life, workers and ‘the struggle of the proletariat for the socialism’. The avant-garde art is mentioned as ‘a daub of different leftist types: futurists, cubists, etc.’ but only once and negatively referring to museums like Tretyakov gallery which not so long ago ‘were buying only such daub and didn’t allow any realistic works’.
This catalogue is interesting for its industrial subject and because it is of the pre-1932 era which means presented at the exhibition artists belonged to an independent art group - a phenomenon which ceased to exist already next year, in 1932 (even Communist AKhR).

Worldcat locates two copies (Getty and Stanford).

Price: $900.00