Bookvica

[SATIRE] One-topic wall newspaper. Ne kurit’ [No Smoking]

Item #1726

[1930-1940s]. 53x67 cm. Very good.

Most likely, the only copy was produced. A hand-crafted poster collecting satirical writings in verse and prose, a few drawings and photographs glued. Among them: seven epigrams
that call to give up smoking or initially stay away from cigarettes; a story on murderers who were paid in cigarettes (excerpt from ‘The Good Soldier Švejk’ by J. Hašek); one of Mayakovsky’s last poems “I’m Happy” (1929) promoting smoking cessation.
The center of the poster features a drawing with a caption “This horse has smoked”. Below it, there is a selection of three pictures: a comparison “smoker’s fist and non-smoker’s hand”, a picture of a cigarette butt taken by a Photo-eye and a photo of a man who couldn’t carry a bag of fruits with a caption “Clear as an orange – having smoked, bastard”. Under Mayakovsky’s poem, a photograph of a car is mounted with a caption written over it: “Quit smoking and you would be an owner of this car in 10-15 years”.

Most likely, the poster was created by caricaturist Nikolai Muratov (1908–1994). Born in the Chita province, he studied in the Leningrad Art and Pedagogy School. Since the 1930s, he became
known widely as a satirical artist. Muratov collaborated as a cartoonist in the newspapers and magazines ‘Rezets’ [Cutter], ‘Iunyi proletarii’ [Young Proletarian], ‘Chizh’, ‘Pushka’ [Weapon’,
‘Begemot’ [Hippo], ‘Smena’ [Shift], ‘Literaturnyi Leningrad’ [Literary Leningrad], ‘Leninskie Iskry’ [Lenin Sparks’, also designed children’s books. In 1939, the artist became a founding member of an art group “Fighting Pencil”.

Price: $1,250.00