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[YOUNG COMMUNIST CHINA] V novom Kitae : Zapiski i risunki khudozhnika [i.e. In New China. Notes and Sketches by an Artist]

Finogenov, K.

Item #1776

Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1950. 85, [30] pp.: ill., 2 portraits. 23x18 cm. In original illustrated cardboards and original blank dust wrappers with lettering on spine. Dust jacket with tears and stains, some fragments of edges lost. Slightly bumped, otherwise very good. Signed by author on front flyleaf.

First and only edition. One of 10 000 copies.

In 1949, during the proclamation of the People Republic of China, a delegation of Soviet cultural and scientific representatives visited the new state. They witnessed socialist celebrations:
street performances and demonstrations, night illumination; they gave speeches in various events. Among the delegates was artist Konstantin Finogenov (1902-1989). He graduated first
from the Stalingrad Art School, and then from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. During the Second World War, Finogenov contributed to TASS Windows. He released art series dedicated to his native Stalingrad, as well as Korea, China, Egypt, India.
In 1949, he was entrusted to depict the triumph of communists in another huge state. Finogenov portrayed leaders of the Communist Party of China, mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, palaces, soldiers and peasants, women and children, theatrical actors, and traditional dragon dance. In particular, the delegates visited the Shanghai textile factory where most employees were women.
Finogenov entirely devoted one of 17 chapters to “Chinese Gorky”, workers’ writer Lu Xun who passed away in 1936 but managed to influence Chinese socialist literature. He was highly
acclaimed after 1949, because Mao Zedong was a life-long admirer of Lu Xun’s writing. Another chapter is written on the Chinese writing system and contemporary education. In the last text, Finogenov gratefully recalled their translator, a socialist Chinese woman.

A significant section features reproduction of Chinese artworks – paintings, engravings, caricatures – and photos of sculptures.

Worldcat shows copies located in Columbia, Indiana, Princeton, Illinois, Stanford, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Chicago, Minnesota, Cornell, Rutgers, Fordham, Washington, McGill Universities, NYPL.

Price: $950.00