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[BORIS EFIMOV: SOVIET CARTOON ICON] Two handmade albums of newspaper clippings

[Efimov, B.E.]

Item #443

Vol.1: [52 leaves: 1924-1936]. Vol.2: [52 leaves: 1937-1938]. 384 images. 29,5x21,5 cm. Cardboards with leather labels on spines with gilt lettering. Bindings with rubbings, occasional foxing, one clipping is lacking fragment. Otherwise very good.

Handmade albums of Efimov’s caricatures that were printed in Izvestia and other newspapers during these 14 years. The albums were made by Efimov himself in late 1930s to save the works he did for the newspapers. Some bear his handwritten dates when the caricatures were printed.

Boris Efimov (1900-2008) the founder of the Soviet caricature school with Deni and Kukryniksy is considered the most productive of them all. His works featured in periodicals like Izvestia, Pravda, Krokodil, Chudak, etc.

The watershed in his career occurred in 1938 when his brother Mikhail Koltsov, the editor-in-chief of Pravda, was arrested and executed. Efimov was fired from all the leading newspapers and had to change his pen-name to continue being published. However after Stalin’s death Koltsov was rehabilitated (only around that time Efimov found out for sure what happened to his brother), Efimov was allowed everywhere and soon he was celebrated as an instant classic of Soviet political grotesques.

Around 1960s the term ‘positive satire’ was introduced by Soviet art critics - the style that Efimov helped to develop along with Kukryniksy. Among rich Efimov’s legacy the work he did for the newspapers is the most elusive. His posters, illustrations for books and magazines were reproduced in many anthologies. But not all of the newspaper images were preserved. Probably that was the thought behind him collecting some of the clippings in late 1930s. We can also presume that it was done in 1938-1940 the years when Efimov was not allowed to print in any periodicals so for him it was a chance to commemorate the illustrations created for himself as he was not sure he would be allowed to be back.

Most cartoons ridicule the agenda of to-day. No question their message was important when the paper went out, but sometimes even the next day it was no longer
of current interest. Most of these caricatures have the focus on foreign affairs, the majority of them are anti-Nazi.

Rare artifact of the period.

Price: $5,000.00