GUSTAV KLUTSIS (1895-1938). THREE PHOTOMONTAGES

(1) Politburo or Secretariat. 1935 Unique collage maquette for a photograph or poster (not executed) Gelatin silver print, Stamp, signed (lower right), Counter-signed by artist’s son on reverse 9 x 12.7 cm (irregular shape) Exhibited: Essen, Germany, Glaube Hoffnung Anpassing, Museum Folkwang, 1995, p. 79 (illustrated).* Valencia, Spain, Utopia, ilusion y adaptation, Valencia International Museum of Art, 1996, p. 103 (illustrated). (2) ‘The Party with the Backing of the Masses’ 1933 Unique collage maquette for a photograph or poster (final version of the montage. unexecuted) Stamp signed and dated ‘1933’ (lower right) Counter-signed by artist’s son on reverse Gelatin silver print 17.8 x 12.7 cm Exhibited: Essen, Germany, Glaube Hoffnung Anpassing, Museum Folkwang, 1995, p. 79 (illustrated). Valencia, Spain, Utopia, ilusion y adaptation, Valencia International Museum of Art, 1996, p. 103 (illustrated). (3) Politburo circa 1935 Unique altered photograph (study for photograph or poster, not executed) Gelatin silver print. Counter-signed by artist’s son on reverse 10 x 15 cm Provenance: Son of the artist Purchased from the above by Jack Banning, Paris, late 1970s Ubu gallery, New York, ca 1980 Ida Genstein estate *Published in error as “1938” in catalogs, according to Professor Typitsyn who has verified the authenticity of the works in conversation. In the front row: Anastas Mikoian, Mikhail Kalinin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze. In the back row: Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar, Mikhail Tomsky, Pavel Postyshev, Grigori Petrovskii, Andrei Zhdanov, Robert Eikhe, and Nikolai Yezhov. The cut-out figure is Jānis Rudzutaks, a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician who in 1937 was expelled from the Central Committee. After torture, confession of being a spy, and then a retraction of this confession, Rudzutaks was given death penalty. Figures who fell from grace under Stalin were deleted from visual records.