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[LUNACHARSKY’S ART WRITINGS IN PRE-SIEGE LENINGRAD] Stat'i ob iskusstve [i.e. Lunacharsky, A. V. Articles about Art]

Lunacharskiy A.V.

Item #2554

Moscow; Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1941. 664 pp., 1 plate: ill. 22,1x17,5 cm. In original publisher’s full-cloth binding. Binding slightly worn at the edges, light soiling of the front board, but otherwise in a very good condition.

Scarce. First posthumous edition. 1 of 3,000 copies. Text in Russian. With ca. 100 black and white illustrations throughout.
Provenance: Inscribed on the front free endpaper: Dorogim zashchitnikam nashego lyubimogo goroda Leningrada ot komsomol'tsev Leningradskoy Obl. Sberkassy. Pozdravlyayem vsekh s prazdnikom 1oye maya 1943 goda [i.e. To the dear defenders of our beloved city Leningrad, from the Komsomol members of the Leningrad Regional Savings Bank. Congratulations to everyone on the holiday of May 1, 1943]. As follows from the inscription, the book was likely gifted during the height of the Siege of Leningrad to the city’s defenders—soldiers, militia, or civilians—as a gesture of solidarity and celebration on May Day.
Extremely rare and the earliest comprehensive collection of Anatoly Lunacharsky’s writings on art, published in Leningrad shortly before the siege. Although the edition had a print run of 3,000 copies, most were lost in a warehouse fire, leaving only a few surviving examples.
Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875–1933) was a Russian Marxist thinker, writer, and the first People’s Commissar of Education after the 1917 Revolution. A close associate of Lenin, he played a key role in shaping Soviet cultural and educational policy, promoting both mass literacy and the arts as essential to building socialism.
The book was compiled by Igor Sats (1903–1980), a Soviet writer and critic who served as Lunacharsky’s literary secretary. In the foreword, Sats notes: “Lunacharsky’s merit lies in his struggle against the decay and disintegration of art. This struggle had two aspects: the critique of contemporary manifestations of this decay, and the promotion of positive artistic ideas.”
The volume brings together four of Lunacharsky’s key early essays and speeches: Lenin about Culture and Art, Art in the West, Russian Artists of the Early 20th Century, and Soviet Art and the Artistic Policy of the Soviet Government. In these writings, he evaluates the cultural legacy inherited by the Soviet state and outlines his vision for the future of socialist art.
The essays cover a wide range of subjects, including Picasso, Marc Chagall, Titian, Rembrandt, Cubism, David Shterenberg, Soviet art exhibitions, the Union of Russian Artists, the caricaturist Viktor Deni, questions of architecture, and the problem of pornography in art. Lunacharsky condemns bourgeois art for its decadence, individualism, and detachment from social life, while championing art rooted in collective values and revolutionary purpose.
Particularly interesting are Lunacharsky’s reflections on modernist tendencies. He reproaches early Constructivists for lacking ideological substance, arguing that their “mathematical” and “geometric” paintings are unconvincing without a guiding social idea. His critique of Futurism is equally sharp: he sees it as a cultural expression of the bourgeoisie’s imperialist ambitions, cultivating aggression and vitality in preparation for war.
Lunacharsky also reflects on the reception of new Russian artists in the West. While he acknowledges their undeniable success abroad, he notes that such acclaim alone holds little significance for socialists. He is particularly critical of the Mir Iskusstva circle and Diaghilev’s exhibitions, which “presented a selective, decorative image of Russian art to European audiences.” In contrast, the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants) and other realist artists were largely ignored, with Western audiences praising stylized formal qualities rather than substantive social and cultural engagement. He criticizes émigré Russian art as overly decorative, pseudo-folk, and disconnected from contemporary Russian life, describing it as a “pestrous, ethnographic, nationalist, decorative” mix of peasant motifs and academic mannerism.
Another notable topic is the Berlin exhibition of 1922, the first major Soviet art show abroad, organized by the People’s Commissariat for Education. It featured works by both established and avant-garde Russian artists, including Suprematists, Constructivists, and newer “leftist” painters. Lunacharsky praises the exhibition’s political and diplomatic success and its favorable reception by German audiences and critics, but he also offers controversial observations. He notes that the exhibition favored “leftist” artists, who were willing to sell their works cheaply, while more traditional or “right-leaning” artists withheld their best pieces. Lunacharsky emphasizes that the exhibition did not fully reflect the richness of Soviet art, giving Germans the false impression that leftist tendencies dominated and realist traditions were fading.

Overall, interesting collection of Lunacharsky’s articles published shortly before the blockade of Leningrad.

Price: $350.00