Bookvica

[MODERNISM] Rzhevskiy opytnyy zavod pervichnoy obrabotki l'na. Rozpol izbavit vas ot lishnego truda [i.e. Rzhev Experimental Flax Processing Plant. "Rozpol" Will Save You Unnecessary Labor]

Item #2832

Moscow: AIZ, late 1920s. Color lithographic poster (53 × 69 cm [20 ⅞ × 27 ⅛ in.]). Edition of 500 copies. Unbacked. Overall in very good condition.

An exceptionally scarce advertising poster promoting the mechanization of flax processing in the Soviet countryside during the years of agricultural modernization preceding collectivization. The poster advertises the Rzhev Experimental Plant for the Primary Processing of Flax and its "Rozpol" machine, encouraging peasants to deliver freshly harvested flax straw directly from the fields without the traditional labor-intensive stages of retting, breaking, and scutching. The text promises that farmers would receive the same financial return per desyatina as they would by processing and selling the flax fiber themselves, while eliminating much of the manual work.

The three monumental female figures retain strong echoes of the Russian avant-garde's treatment of the peasantry, recalling the stylized rural types of artists such as Kazimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova. Their simplified volumes, sculptural poses, and restrained palette elevate ordinary agricultural labor into an almost timeless symbol of rural strength and dignity. Although the designer of the present poster remains unidentified, its visual language clearly reflects the lingering influence of the modernist tradition, demonstrating how elements of the Russian avant-garde continued to shape Soviet commercial and industrial graphic design well into the late 1920s.

Status: On Hold