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[ART IN WORKERS’ CLUBS] Edinyi khudozhestvennyi kruzhok: Metody klubno-khudozhestvennoi raboty [i.e. United Art Club: Methods of Art Club Work]

Item #552

Leningrad: Knizhnyi sektor GUBONO, 1924. 44 pp., 1 pl.: ill. 23x16 cm. Publisher’s Constructivist oversized wrappers. Very good. Wrappers rubbed, small tears of the lower margin of the wrappers, underlinings in text (pencil).

First and only edition. Very rare. One of 5000 copies. This edition is a collection of articles on United Art Clubs including works by M. Brodsky (“Art as a Part of United Club’s Work”) and Adr. Piotrovsky (“Basics of Amateur Art”) with a short bibliography at the end and a visual scheme of Club’s work. The articles come with guidelines on how to organize work of each section being a part of whole organism of the Club.
The originality of amateur art in the USSR was largely determined in the period of its formation in the 1920s and 1930s - the time of the breakdown of various ideologies and radical changes in the artistic life of the country and in society. The idea behind united art club was to combine every aspect of club work and life into one - art, literature, drama, sport, choir and put political section in charge of it. “United Art Club was a form of organization and functioning of art work at workers’ clubs. It was developed by theoreticians of cultural mass work in years from 1920 to 1925. This popular among methodists and political workers concept was nevertheless perceived negatively and scepticaly among those who practiced amateur art mostly for its impracticability and lack of social, personnel and material basis for its realization. The idea of the inspirers of the club was torn between the utopian idea of creating synthetic spectacular forms and the extremely utilitarian task of uniting and directing the work of all club teams to design social and political actions. … The theory of such clubs lost its relevance by 1925. Although it’s important to note that uniting collectives and groups in order to create dramatizations for special occasions was widespread for a long time”. (Sukhanova, T.A. Amateur artwork in Russia of the 20th century)
Overall a very valuable source of rare materials for studying history of life and art of clubs and proletariat against the background of changing society and fights between politics and art.
WorldCat locates a copy at the University of Chicago.

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