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[THE GREATEST OF ALL THE BLUE BLOUSE ISSUES] Al’bom. Siniaia bluza S.S.S.R. [i.e. The Album. Blue Blouse of the USSR] #71/72 for 1927

Item #970

Moscow: Trud i kniga, 1927. 112 pp.: ill. 26,5x18 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Restored, slightly soiled, few pencil marks, otherwise very good.
One of 7000 copies. Very rare in this condition. Photomontage illustrations throughout. This is a special issue focusing on visual side of The Blue Blouse performances and the magazine co-created by troupes together.
The ‘Blue Blouse’ rallied the agitprop theater collectives in 1923-1933, promoting revolutionary art and contraposing themselves to the professional stage. To this issue, there were 5000 troupes with more than a hundred thousand actors involved; five troupes had traveled across Germany and got success. The 5-year triumph of the movement was marked by publishing this striking album.
This cove was designed in constructivist style but relatively ordinary because the most attention was paid to internal design. It is full of photomontages, photographs of different performers, authors, directors, artists, composers, photographs of productions and advertising posters created or spread abroad. The main artist of this periodical, Elena Semenova (1868-1986) graduated VKHUTEMAS and was close to A. Rodchenko, V. Stepanova, the Vesnin brothers and Lavinsky. This edition features, in particular, a photomontage poster she had made for foreign events. Apart from that, costume designs by artists V. Sakhnovsky and N. Aizenberg were included. Still the spotlight was on Blue Blousists themselves, their pyramids, acrobatic and dance performances. Most of them were signed by city or factory name: for example, there is curious ‘The Blue Blouse Jazz Band from Voronezh’ on p. 81.
Worldcat shows the only copy in NYPL.

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