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[SOVIET THEATRE ART IN 1917-1927] Teatralʹno-dekoratsionnoye iskusstvo v SSSR. 1917-X-1927. Vystavka v zalakh Akademii khudozhestv. Katalog [i.e. Theatrical and decorative art in the USSR. 1917-X-1927. Exhibition in the halls of the Academy of Arts. A Catalogue]

Item #2854

Leningrad: Izdaniye Komiteta vystavki teatralʹno-dekoratsionnogo iskusstva, 1927. 400, [8] pp., ill. 17.3x13 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated wrappers. Wrappers worn, but otherwise very good.

Scarce. First edition. 1 of 2,000 copies. With over 100 black and white illustrations. Text in Russian. Edited by E. Gollerbakh, A. Golovin, and L. Zheverzheev. Initials by the Latvian graphic artist Sigismunds Vidbergs (1890-1970). Wrapper design by the Soviet artist, graphic designer, and illustrator Evgeny Belukha (1889-1943). Belukha studied in the workshop of the renowned graphic artist Vasily Mate in St. Petersburg and subsequently attended the Art School of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1912–1913. During the 1920s, he designed several posters and worked as a porcelain painter at the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd/Leningrad. He died during the Siege of Leningrad in 1943.

An important contemporary analysis of Soviet theatrical and decorative art, published in connection with an exhibition held in the halls of the Academy of Arts in Leningrad in 1927. The exhibition brought together 119 artists, who presented more than 2,000 stage-design sketches and costume designs representing productions staged by Leningrad theatres between 1917 and 1927, as well as works from the Belarusian Second State Theatre, the Theatre of Opera and Ballet of the Tatar Republic (1918–1922), and the Tatar Theatre in Kazan. The exhibition also included designs for the decoration of Leningrad on the occasion of the first anniversary of the October Revolution and the Second Congress of the Communist International, drawn from the collection of the Museum of the Revolution.
The book covers the first decade of Soviet theatrical art, from 1917 to 1927, and contains essays by some of the period's most prominent theatre artists, directors, and critics, including the Russian artist and stage designer Alexander Golovin (1863–1930), Erich Gollerbach (1895–1942), A. Bartoshevich, Alexander Bryantsev (1883–1961), A. Yanov, and others. The essays address the role of the visual arts in theatre, the use of posters, the work of leading Soviet directors and stage designers, theatrical costume, revolutionary celebrations, the development of theatre in the provinces, etc.

Interestingly, the book exhibits relatively open attitude toward Futurism and other modernist tendencies, reflecting the experimental atmosphere of the 1920s before the increasing ideological restrictions of the following decade. Several essays praise the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, whose innovative theatrical methods and productions were widely discussed and admired at the time. Meyerhold would later become one of the most prominent victims of Stalinist repression and was executed in 1940.

The volume also contains an important article by the Soviet art critic Vladimir Okhochinsky, who praises Alexander Rodchenko for his contribution to the development of Soviet cinema posters and photomontage. Already in four years Okhochinsky was arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and espionage and sentenced to five years in labor camps. After his release, he was arrested again in 1937 as an alleged participant in a counter-revolutionary organization and died in custody.

The book is supplemented by biographical notes on leading Leningrad artists, information on productions staged at the city's state academic theatres for which new sets were created between 1918 and 1927, and historical descriptions of individual theatres. The final section takes the form of a catalogue of the exhibition, providing information on the organizing committee and participating theatres, as well as lists of theatres established and closed between 1912 and 1927, art schools, cinema enterprises, and related institutions.

The edition is illustrated with more than 100 black and white reproductions, documenting Soviet stage productions during the first post-revolutionary decade. Among the featured works are stage designs by Mikhail Levin for The Death of the Five (second act, State Bolshoi Drama Theatre); Alexander Golovin for The Barber of Seville at the Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, as well as a sketch for an unrealized production of Oedipus; Alexandre Benois for Act V of The Marriage of Figaro at the State Bolshoi Drama Theatre; Boris Kustodiev for The Flea (Act II, State Bolshoi Drama Theatre); Nikolai Akimov for La Bayadère at the Theatre of Musical Comedy; and Vladimir Shchuko for The Revolt and Don Carlos at the State Bolshoi Drama Theatre.

The illustrations also document cinema posters and stage designs from provincial theatres, including productions in Vitebsk, Tver, Sevastopol, Zhytomyr, and other cities.

Overall, a vivid snapshot of Soviet theatre and stage design on the eve of Socialist Realism and increasing ideological control.

Status: On Hold