Vive la Commune. May of 1933
Item #1510
[Moscow, Paris], 1933. [32] c.: ill. 42x30 cm. In original photomontage covers. Horizontal crease (due to folding copy in half), spine and tears to last leaf repaired, otherwise very good and clean. In French.
Soviet photomontage propaganda produced for the benefit of the French proletariat. It was announced as a special issue of the magazine (“Numéro spécial de regards édité en collaboration avec “L’Humanite”) but no information has been found on any other issues of such a periodical.
A noteworthy montage design combines photographs and drawings, diagrams and caricatures. It was primarily produced by Sergei Sen’kin (1894–1963), one of the prominent figures in Soviet propaganda art, representative of both the avant-garde and constructivism, and the creator of numerous photomontage designs. His works resemble the style of Gustav Klutsis and demonstrate the same high level of skill. In 1919, they met each other at the Free State Art Workshops where both studied under K. Malevich. Soon after the artists started to work together and founded the experimental studio of “new practical realism” which focused on agitational art. Together with Lissitzky and Klutsis, Senkin designed the Soviet pavilion at the International Press Exhibition in Cologne (1928) and contributed to the design of the Soviet pavilion at the 1939 New York World Exhibition.
This issue included photomontages promoting the triumph of the USSR in achieving the goals of the 1871 Commune and the principles of Karl Marx. These montages feature photographs of the Red Commanders Frunze, Voroshilov, and Budyonny, general pictures of White and interventionist allied troops, Soviet party leaders, slogans, crowd demonstrations, a young pioneers’ march, May Day military parades of armored vehicles, soldiers, and battleships, as well as civil demonstrations in Red Square.
The issue boasted of the equality of women and men in Soviet revolutionary events and demonstrations, and the involvement of all nations in the Communist organizations. In particular, Baku women who had joined the Bolshevik Party were shown in a group photograph. It starts a page of photomontage dedicated to Soviet women: they began their socialist activities as pioneers and then were engaged in various occupations, including politics.
The issue showed off the USSR’s electrification and industrialization in a photomontage combining pictures of a factory plant, tractors, construction sites, a meeting about the GOELRO plan and a portrait of its director, G. Krzhizhanovsky. Other montages showcased successful efforts in the eradication of illiteracy, the foundation of Soviet sanatoria and social institutions, the development of the Central Asian territories, and the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station as one of the main achievements of the first Five Year Plan.
The front cover contains a photomontage of Marx and Engels with participants of the Paris Commune drawn in, but the back cover photomontage is dedicated to the new leaders, Lenin and Stalin, and the proletarian masses that followed them.
The magazine also included a portrait of the politician Avel Yenukidze who was executed during the Great Purge, so the issue was doubtless later prohibited.
Not listed in Worldcat.
Price: $8,500.00
Status: On Hold