Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stenberg Brothers Moma - Catalogue - 250 - 300063174
Stenberg Brothers Moma - Catalogue - 250 - 300063174
Author
Mount, Christopher
Date
1997
Publisher
ISBN
0870700510, 0810961733
Exhibition URL
www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/250
The
L
Museum
of
odern
Art
Archive
MoMA
1775
Stenberg Brothers
*** ***
by Christopher Mount
with an essay by
Peter Kenez
The Museum
of Modern Art,
New York
Distributed by
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
New York
ur
M
y'/
Stenberg Brothers:
Constructing a
Revolution in Soviet
Design
Christopher Mount
10
Early Soviet
Cinema Culture
Peter Kenez
22
Plates
34
Chronology
Compiled by
Natasha Kurchanova
92
Acknowledgments
94
Trustees of The
Museum of Modern Art
96
The Museum c»
Suffering a fate common to many of the
artists and designers working in the Soviet
Union in the 1920s, Vladimir and Georgii
Stenberg are little known today. Like that of
many members of the postrevolutionary avant-
garde, their work fell into disfavor in the 1930s,
when Josef Stalin decreed socialist realism to
be the official mode of artistic representation.
FOREWORD
through his gift of key works, he has lent a
great many of the posters in the exhibition.
Mr. Matsumoto also underwrote the costs of
the exhibition's organization and development,
i as well as the costs of producing this catalogue.
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"Ourprimarydevice
is montage. . . [but]
wedonotneglect
Construction.Ours
are eye-catching
posterswhich,one
mightsay,are
designedto shock.
CaJ
Wedealwith
thematerialin a
freemanner. . .
disregarding actual
proportions ...
turningfigures
upside-down; in
short,weemploy
everythingthatcan
makea busy
passerby stopin
1 theirtracks."
-Vladimir Stenberg (1928)
STENBERG
RROTHER
10
HEEARLYSOVIETYEARSin Russia- 1 Elena Barkhatova, Russian
Constructivist Posters, trans.
roughly the period encompassed by Elena Bessmertnaya (Paris:
the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 Flammarion, 1992), pp. 6-7.
and the onset of the Stalinist purges
in 1934—were marked not only 2 A. Zaitseva, "Creators of
by social and economic upheaval, Monumental Art and Design,"
in 2 Stenberg 2 (Moscow:
but also by a revolution in the arts.
Moscow Section of the Union
Art and design, and their new of Artists, 1984), p. 40.
practitioners, the "artist-engineers,"
acquired for the first time in history
a conspicuous role in the building
of a new society. Vladimir and
Georgii Stenberg were prominent members of
this group, which was centered in Moscow and
active throughout the 1920s and early 1930s.
The Stenberg brothers produced a large body
of work in a multiplicity of mediums, initially
achieving renown as Constructivist sculptors
and later working as successful theatrical
designers, architects, and draftsmen; in addi
tion, they completed design commissions that
2 ranged from railway cars to women's shoes.
Their most significant accomplishment, howev
er, was in the field of graphic design, specifi
cally, the advertising posters they created for
the newly burgeoning cinema in Soviet Russia.
by Christopher Mount
ll
1 Alma Law, "A Conversation Born in Moscow to a Swedish father and a an exhibition of their spatial paintings and
with Vladimir Stenberg," Art
Russian mother, Vladimir Augustovich in 1899 constructions, they co-authored, with
Journal 41 (Fall 1981), p. 227.
8 and Georgii Augustovich in 1900, the Stenberg Constantin Medunetsky, a manifesto titled
4 Author's interview with brothers shared from an early age an unusually "The Constructivists Address the World."
Victoria Stenberg, daughter strong fraternal bond. They were inseparable, This short text is the first published statement
of Vladimir, Moscow, both in their work and in their lives. As of some of the underlying principles of
Summer 1996. Vladimir recalled in 1981: "We did everything Constructivism. It begins:
together. It was this way from childhood. . . .
5 See Paul Wood, "The
Politics of the Avant-garde," [In] the second grade I was kept back because Constructivism will enable humankind to
in The Great Utopia: The I was sick a lot, and when my brother entered achieve the maximum level of culture with
Russian and Soviet Avant- school we sat together at the same desk. It was minimum expense of energy. Before retreating
garde 1915-1932 (New York: that way until the end. ... If we, for instance,
Solomon R. Guggenheim
into his shell, every individual born on this
were decorating a square working in bad planet can learn the quickest way to the factory
Museum, 1992), pp. 1-21.
weather at night and I caught a cold, he caught that is developing the earth's one and only
3 6 The Constructivist aesthetic a cold too." Although it is frequently noted organism. To the factory where a gigantic
arose from the Futurist cult that Vladimir was the more analytical in nature trampoline is being created for the leap into
of the machine, and was first and Georgii the more artistic in temperament, universal human eulture-the name of the way
expressed in Vladimir Tatlin's while designing the film posters the Stenbergs
Relief Constructions of 1913—
is Constructivism. The great corrupters of the
17. It assumed the status of
regularly worked on the same piece simultane human race, the aesthetes and artists, have
a movement in 1922, when ously, quickly alternating turns in the rush to destroyed the stern bridges along that way and
4 there was a split between complete it. After 1923, they began signing replaced them with a huge dose of sugar sweet
Muscovite abstract painters, their work 2 Stenberg 2, deliberately fostering opium—art and beauty. It is uneconomical to
some opting for the principle the impression of the objects as the products
of "pure art" and others, like
expend the essence of the world, the human
of a collective rather than individuals. They brain, on reclaiming the marshes of aesthetieism.
the Stenbergs, for utilitarian
and propaganda work. The
continued this practice throughout their joint After weighing the facts on the scales of an
latter group became known career, their close partnership reflecting in honest attitude to the earth's inhabitants, the
9 as Constructivists, or artist- its equality the idealism of the "new society" Constructivists declare art and its priests illegal.
engineers. In their attempt to proposed by the Bolsheviks.
overcome the isolation of the
artist from society, these
In the accompanying exhibition, held at the
artists entered the fields of
When the revolution occurred, the Stenbergs Poets' Cafe in Moscow, the Stenbergs and
industrial design, theater, were in their teens. Inspired by the sense of Medunetsky exhibited thirty-one pieces,
film, and architecture. extraordinary possibility the revolution engen including the brothers' experiments with three-
dered, the brothers experimented freely, eagerly dimensional forms and volumes collectively
7 After 1918, a number of embracing the fundamental change that had
10 art schools were changed to
called Constructions for Spatial Structures.
occurred in the relationship between the frne These works, made of various rudimentary
State Free Art Workshops,
in which a student chose a
and the applied arts. It was believed that for this materials including wood, metal, glass, and
workshop master to whom he new society to succeed, art must be integrated wire, were intended as spatial studies that
apprenticed, moving freely into everyday life, thus serving the needs of the might eventually have a practical application
between classes in different proletariat. The avant-gardists, the Stenbergs in architecture, or perhaps in civil engineering,
disciplines-an attempt at among them, rejected representational painting
11 replicating the Renaissance
such as bridge building. The Constructions
system of master and
as old-fashioned, bourgeois, and ultimately demonstrate the Stenbergs' concern for process
apprentice. unnecessary in a socialist state. Accordingly, and their pragmatic view of art as solution,
for these young artists the value of art now as these sculptures were essentially a means
5 8 See Christina Lodder, resided in its usefulness to the community. to another end. This interest in methodology
Russian Constructivism (New
Haven, Conn., and London:
would continue to occupy them throughout
Between 1917 and 1922—years coinciding with their careers, as would many of the formal
Yale University Press, 1983),
pp. 2-3, 67 ff. Constantin
what is often termed the "laboratory" period innovations presented for the first time here.
6— Medunetsky (1899-1935) was of Constructivism the Stenbergs attended
a friend of the Stenbergs who, the Stroganov School of Applied Art (later In addition to the utilitarian aspects of this
according to the historian transformed and renamed The State Free Art work, from a formalist perspective the Stenbergs
7) Alma Law, lived with the Workshops, or SVOMAS and took classes in
brothers for a short time
were also engaging in the manipulation of
military engineering, specializing in bridge three-dimensional space. These hollow sculptures
(interview with the author,
Fall 1996). Little is known and railroad construction; they also became are neither volumetric nor static; rather, they
about Medunetsky other than founding members of The Society of Young are compositions of lines and planes "floating"
he was a student of Tatlin Artists (OBMOKhU),participating in all of the in space. Their inherent kinetic quality conveys
and Antoine Pevsner, and an group's exhibitions. In 1921, along with Alexei
active member of OBMOKhU.
the compositional dynamism that later would
Gan, Varvara Stepanova, Alexander Rodchenko, be developed fully within the two-dimensional
and Carl Ioganson, the Stenbergs formed a format of the poster. Similarly, the Stenbergs'
faction within the Institute of Artistic Culture ultimate disregard for a cohesive picture plane
(INKUhK)called the First Working Group of in the posters reflects the assemblagist spirit
Constructivists. A year later, in conjunction with of the Constructions.
12
During this same period, the Stenbergs began 9 Vladimir Stenberg,
to work for several of the local theaters, design Georgii Stenberg, and
Constantin Medunetsky,
ing display posters as well as stage sets and "The Constructivists Address
costumes. The rise of Soviet theater in the early the World," cited in Jaroslav
1920s-its vitality and enormous popularity-has Andeel et al., Art into Life:
12 been compared to an epidemic. As with film Russian Constructivism,
and graphic design, the Soviet state clearly 1914-1932 (New York:
Rizzoli, 1990), p. 81.
understood the powers of theater as agitprop.
Translation by Natasha
Stage productions were reconceived as a whole, Kurchanova.
with the individual performances of the actors
subordinated to the decor, costumes, music, 10The Stenbergs referred to
13 and text in pursuit of a new conceptual unity. the Constructions collectively
The Stenbergs immediately translated to the as KPF, an acronym taken
from the Russian title,
theater many of their ideas about the "structur Konstrukcija Prostanstvenogo
ing" of space. In 1920, they garnered attention Sooruchenya. See Andrei B.
for their concept for the Vsevolod Meyerhold Nakov, 2 Stenberg 2: The
production of Fernand Crommelynck's The Laboratory Period (1919-1921)
Magnanimous Cuckold. The set they proposed of Russian Constructivism,
trans. Patricia A. Railing
was a skeletal structure of lines and planes, com
(Paris: La Galerie Chauvelin,
plete with a mechanized platform that would 1975), p. 38.
allow the heroine's various suitors to enter and
exit the stage. (A design was later executed by 11Lodder, p. 70.
Liubov Popova based on the Stenbergs' original
idea, when Meyerhold and the Stenbergs could 12Nancy Van Norman Baer,
"Design and Movement in the
)
14 not reach agreement on a fee. Theatre of the Russian Avant-
garde," in Baer, Theater in Structurein SpaceKpSG
The brothers' foremost theatrical designs, Revolution: Russian Avant- 1919 (reconstructed 1973). Painted wood, wire, and angle
n however, were commissioned by the Moscow garde Stage Design 1913- iron, 8' 7" x 6' 2Vz x 27 Vz" (263 x 189.2 x 69.8 cm).
Chamber Theater, founded in 1914 by Alexan 1935 (London: Thames and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Riklis Collection
Hudson; San Francisco: of McCrory Corporation (fractional gift)
der Tairov. Tairov's proposal of a "kinetic and
Fine Arts Museums of San
architectonic, rather than a literary or illustra Francisco, 1991), p. 35.
15 tive theatrical experience" was well-suited
to the Stenberg philosophy. The Stenbergs 13Camilla Gray, The Russian
designed sets and costumes for a number of Experiment in Art 1863-1922
Chamber Theater productions, including George (London: Thames and Hudson,
1986), p. 200.
Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, in 1924 (p. 35);
Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape and Desire 14Law (1981), p. 226. This
Under the Elms, in 1926; Alexandre-Charles production marked a radical
Lecocq's Day and Night, in 1926 (p. 39); and change in stage design, elimi
Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, in 1930 nating the idea of sets and
costumes as backdrop and
(pp. 37, 38).16These productions were more like
illusion and bringing them
"Broadway extravaganzas," lighter in spirit into the realm of "living art."
than the work of Meyerhold or Constantin See Magdalena Dabrowski,
17 Stanislavsky. It was a kind of theater that Liubov Popova (New York:
emphasized movement over a strict reading of The Museum of Modern Art,
the text. Sets were often mechanized, and they 1991), p. 35.
attracted to the functional arts by both political advertised. In the poster for A Commonplace
19Neither project was realized.
ideology and, to some degree, by the more Story (p. 69), a 1927 melodrama about a young
practical concerns of employment and the mother driven into prostitution following the 20Dawn Ades, Photomontage
availability of materials. The avant-gardists' death of her son, the device is a simple one: (London: Thames and Hudson,
rejection of the fine arts in favor of "art for a close-up of the woman's torso, her terrified 1976), p. 12.
use" was key in the evolution of the poster. face turned toward a phalanx of shadowy male
21Alma Law, "The Russian
Advertising was now a morally superior occu figures behind her, suggesting imminent danger
Film Poster: 1920-1930," in
pation with ramifications for the new society; and the impossibility of escape. Dawn Ades, The 20th Century
as such, it began to attract those outside the Poster: Design of the Avant-
usual illustrative or painterly backgrounds- To achieve this effect, the Stenbergs employed garde (New York: Abbeville,
sculptors, architects, photographers-who a variation on the technique of photomontage. 1984), p. 73.
brought new ideas and techniques to the field. Photomontage-the joining of discrete photo
22Alfred H. Barr, Jr., "Russian
graphic images to create a composite—became Diaiy 1927-28," October,
By 1923, when the Stenbergs created their the medium of choice for many of the leftist (Winter 1978), p. 37. Barr
first film poster ("The Eyes of Love," p. 41), avant-garde movements of the period. Its use also describes a performance
film was already a significant new art form. in the graphic arts is analogous to that of of the Moscow Chamber
metaphor in a poem. (It is not coincidental that Theater production of O'Neill's
The following year, all private film production Desire Under the Elms, for
was centralized under the government agency Alexander Rodchenko's photomontages for the
which the Stenbergs designed
21 Sovkino (formerly Goskino). With increasing publication of Vladimir Mayakovsky's "Pro Eto," the sets and costumes: "In the
support from the state, production soared. a love poem, in 1923 are among the earliest evening to the Kamerny with
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., soon to be appointed the known uses of the technique in Russia.) As a Jere [Abbott] to see Desire
first Director of The Museum of Modern Art, visual poem, a work of photomontage is more Under the Elms very unintelli-
than the sum of its parts; it is a unique entity, gently given. Tairov employed
wrote of the new Soviet cinema (or kino) while his customary commedia
traveling in Russia in 1928: "In the Kino at one whose meaning relies on an associative dell'arte theatricality and
least the revolution has produced great art reading of its disparate elements. completely missed the point.
even when more or less infected with propa The acting was unsubtle.
ganda. Here at last is a popular art; why, one The Stenbergs used the technique but not the It is a play for the Moscow
materials of photomontage—at least not directly. Art Theater, for restrained
wonders, does the Soviet bother with painters? introspective acting. Tairov's
The film in Russia is more artistically, as well The final image from which the poster was
Victorian New England peas
22 as politically, important than the easel picture." reproduced was not composed of photographic ants threw themselves about
-a
26 Vladimir Stenberg echoed Barr's observations: images but drawings after photographs neat like eighteenth-century bucca
"The poster attracted us, the young artists, by subversion of photomontage that simulates the neers roaring and swaggering.
27 unlimited opportunities in expressing revolu "magical realism" of photography. The printing "The setting was good
processes then available were inadequate to the intrinsically but looked more
tionary ideas and by enormous thematic range. like poured concrete than
We gave our preference to the cinematic art, reproduction of black-and-white photographs in cheap timber construction.
which played an enormous role in the ideological the size and number demanded of an advertis The costumes suggested
28 and educational work of the party and which ing print run. In many respects, this technical Tristan and Iseult" (p. 25).
was singled out by Vladimir Lenin as the most limitation was liberating, allowing a synthesis
of elements that avoided the literalness of the 23 Quoted in Baburina, p. 18.
23 important of all the arts."
photomontages of El Lissitzky and Rodchenko.
24 Occasionally, the Stenbergs
The first step the Stenbergs took in working This modification of photographic realism worked without having seen
within this new format was to revise the notion through the addition of linear abstract forms the film, relying only on a
of how a movie should be advertised. Heretofore, allowed a vast array of possibilities—for example, brief synopsis of the plot and
the most common method employed by poster the outlines used to suggest the force of a blow publicity photographs; this
in "The Pounded Cutlet" (p. 62). Here, as in many was particularly true of for
designers was to illustrate a particularly eign films. See Susan Pack,
dramatic scene from the film, preferably one of the posters, the effect is one of movement, Film Posters of the Soviet
featuring the star. This simple chronicling of a thus implying the cinematic passage of time. Avant-garde (Cologne: Tas-
narrative bit of the film was perceived as the chen Verlag, 1995), p. 19.
most effective means of attracting an audience; Some of this emphasis on abstraction is not
directly tied to the narrative aspect of the poster 25Baburina, p. 23.
it is still frequently used today. In contrast,
the Stenbergs tried to capture the overall mood but appears primarily for reasons of composi
26Two posters included in
or atmosphere of a film and rarely depicted tion and structure. Such abstracted shapes had this catalogue utilize small
specific narrative moments. They often worked their origin in the Suprematist compositions of elements of actual photo
quickly after viewing a film, producing a fin Kasimir Malevich and Vassily Kandinsky. It is graphs: "The Eleventh" (p. 45)
24 ished design overnight. Through montage they interesting, and ironic, to observe elements of and "In the Spring" (p. 55).
15
28The print run, frequently (p. 68), "The Green Alley" (p. 71), and "The The Stenbergs' use of the projector reflects
recorded on the poster itself, Mystery of the Windmill" (p. 89) the Stenbergs
ranged from ten to twenty
their early Constructivist preoccupation with
thousand copies.
mimicked the underlying diagonal structure the relationship between the process of design,
of many Suprematist works. Several of these labor, and the final product. The materials used
29Interview with Victoria include a layer of abstract geometric forms as in the design of these posters-strips of celluloid
Stenberg (1996). well. In "Chicago," for instance, the two figures and a light projector-are the basic materials
appear in diagonally opposed boxes that make of the cinema: the posters' manner of construc
!0 Quoted in Bojko, p. 54.
little sense in terms of a narrative but which tion is faithful to the conception of their design.
31The Stenbergs' poster owes
are remarkably akin to the Suprematist compo Rather than being divorced from the final object,
a great deal to the covers sitions of Malevich and Kandinsky. In "Cement" the process forms an integral part of the work.
designed by Rodchenko for and "The Mystery of the Windmill" there is a
the novels themselves. forced configuration of rectangles that not only One of the immediately apparent stylistic inno
enhances the dynamism of the composition, vations pioneered by the Stenbergs is their use
32Alma Law notes that these
portraits were executed by
but also reminds the viewer of the poster's of the extreme close-up, which has since become
Georgii and not Vladimir artificiality, and that of the cinema itself. a hallmark of twentieth-century advertising
(interview with the author, design. The repeated illustration of an enlarged
Fall 1996). The fact that the To achieve this new "magical realism" the face had little precedent (as did few of the Sten
level of portraiture greatly Stenberg brothers-who revered technology and bergs' experimentations) in western graphic arts.
decreases in Vladimir's work
-created
29 were obsessive "tinkerers" their own Clearly, this dramatic device was borrowed from
after his brother's death is
further corroboration.
projection device. This apparatus was an essen the cinema, where its use predated its appearance
tial component of the work, and it demonstrates in still photography. Often, the visages appear
33David A. Cook, A History the prevailing belief of the Russian avant-garde split in two horizontally, suggesting a sequence
of Narrative Film (New York: of the superiority of mechanical reproduction. of film frames; at times, this division is used to
Norton, 1981), p. 42. In a 1975 interview, Vladimir elaborated: simply different aspects of a character's person
34Peter Wollen, Signs and
"To make it possible for us to freely manipulate ality. These faces are rarely joyful, but instead
Meaning in the Cinema projected images we invented a special [film] seem fearful or fraught with anxiety. The visual
(Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana projector which was capable of not only impact of their scale is masterfully combined
University Press, 1969), p. 39. enlarging and reducing, but also distorting the with their facility for conveying the emotional
32 39Sergei M. Eisenstein, "The
projected image; we could distort a vertically- tenor of the character and thus of the film itself.
Cinematographic Principle organized image, for example, to make it look
and the Ideogram," in Jay like a diagonally-organized image. Also, when The Stenbergs' advertisements reveal strong
Leyda, ed. and trans., Film we had to insert a face of a well-known actor ties to the cinematic montage theories of Sergei
Form: Essays in Film Theory into a poster, we used the principle of photog
[and] The Film Sense (New
M. Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. Eisenstein was
raphy to copy an image from the film frame a contemporary of the Stenbergs and, like them,
York: Meridian Books, 1957),
p. 37. exactly onto a poster. All kinds of techniques trained as an engineer; he even worked briefly
33 were possible. But rather than being scared of as a poster designer. He wrote frequently about
36Dziga Vertov, "From Kino- them, we motivated ourselves to integrate these montage, which he believed was the structural
30 eye to Radio-eye," in Annette new technologies for our own benefits." basis for all films. For Eisenstein, the experience
Michelson, ed., Kino Eye: The
Writings of Dziga Vertov,
of a movie was the serial combination of a num
trans. Kevin O'Brien (Berke
This sophisticated tool (an invention made more ber of unrelated shots, a continuous sequence
34 ley: University of California extraordinary when one considers the shortages of almost Pavlovian shocks or conflicts. In his
Press, 1984), p. 88. of basic materials in the postrevolutionary essay "The Cinematographic Principle and the
1920s) freed the Stenbergs from conventional Ideogram" (1929) he wrote: "By what, then, is
37Ibid., p. 17. compositional organization, permitting the montage characterized. ... By collision. By the
35 unrestricted manipulation of images and typog conflict of two pieces in opposition to each."
raphy. With it, the Stenbergs constructed a The perception of film as the collision of
new, entirely modern perspective, in which each disparate images is an accurate description
image remains true to its own perspectival of photomontage, and particularly the posters
rules yet has little realistic connection to other of the Stenberg brothers.
images in the picture as a whole. The variety
and juxtaposition of scales, and the frequent Eisenstein continued: "These are the cinemato
subversion of spatial relationships, are extraor graphic conflicts within a frame: Conflict of
dinary. For example, in their poster for the film graphic directions, (lines-either static or
adaptation of the "Miss Mend" detective stories, dynamic) / Conflict of scales. / Conflict of vol
one of their finest works, there is no discernible umes. I Conflict of masses, (volumes filled with
connection between the size of the figures and various intensities of light) / Conflict of depths. . .
their relation to the picture plane (p. 54). Only close shots and long shots, and pieces of dark
because the images are drawn, and not made ness and lightness." To different extents, each
from photographs of dissimilar quality and Stenberg poster contains certain of these oppo
tone, does the work hold together as a unified sitions, and it is the resulting compositional
31 conceit. dynamism that ultimately makes the works so
16
arresting. Appropriately, the posters simulate
the effect of "cinematographic conflict" that
Eisenstein was trying to achieve in each frame
of film. It is fitting that one of the best exam
ples of the Stenbergs' translation of cinematic
montage to the poster form is their billboard-
size display for Eisenstein's October (p. 43), in
c
which all the requisite confrontational elements
are in place-a dizzying, kinetic array of images
within a single, composite frame.
At the other end of the spectrum, the brothers Evident in all of the Stenbergs' posters are a
were equally innovative in their use of black ink, sense of playfulness and an openness to exper
particularly as a background. These posters are imentation. Often humorous, sexy, and psycho
very dark in character, with sharply contrasting logically complex, they display a confident
areas of light, evoking the experience of viewing autonomy from the dictates of commissioning
a fdm in a darkened theater. Often, a Futurist studios and what would soon become a totali
like ombre, or shadowing, at the edges of forms tarian regime—and not only in terms of their
is used to indicate volume. At other times, fig plurality of themes, an obvious reason for
ures are mere silhouettes in surrounding areas which is the broad range of films for which the
of highlights, suggesting film's translucency. posters were produced, from Hollywood slap
Again, this effect is both an apparent attempt stick to Soviet propaganda. What is significant
to replicate the experience of the cinema, and is the diversity of graphic solutions employed,
a logical consequence of the use of projected indicating a high degree of personal expression,
film in the creative process. and genuine affection for the films themselves.
18
The Stenbergs clearly enjoyed their involvement 1920s, their greatest influence was the cinema 38Quoted in Law (1981),
itself; because of this, they often lack the p. 230.
with the cinema, and were offered jobs as
cameramen and even roles in some of the somber geometric austerity of Rodchenko's
39The variation of texture
Russian productions. They were free spirits, posters or the books and advertisements of and subtle gradation of ink
"rogues" who enjoyed drinking and riding their Lissitzky. Additionally, their construction-from in many of the posters
motorcycles, fast. Although it was a time of drawings, without (for the most part) the direct suggest that the Stenbergs
utilization of photographs—means the works were well-versed in the actual
tremendous economic uncertainty and severe
process of offset lithography.
privation, they were relatively secure financially lack the factographic quality of photomontage.
They may have been influ
because of the variety and amount of work they The cinema certainly played an essential role in enced to acquire this practical
were able to procure. As the sons of a Swedish the Bolshevik Revolution, but the posters knowledge of printing by the
emigre, they remained, to a certain extent, designed by the Stenbergs to advertise these Productivists, a faction that
foreigners in their own homeland. Both refused fdms appear less vested in the creation of a new encouraged artists to return
visual vocabulary in the service of an emerging to work in the factories, for
to become naturalized citizens during Georgii's
it was here that the artist-
lifetime, and ironically, although they did much "utopian" society than do the works of the other
engineer could best serve the
propaganda work for the state, neither became two designers. Rather, the Stenbergs stressed goals of the revolution.
a member of the Party. This status as expatriates the faithful portrayal of the visual substance
may ultimately have hastened the end of of fdm within the context of contemporary art. 40This and the biographical
The consequence for the works was a greater information in the subsequent
their collaboration.
paragraphs was provided by
emphasis on the components of drama and the
Victoria Stenberg in her 1996
On October 15, 1933, while riding his motorcycle human experience—fear, pathos, humor, and interview with the author.
in Moscow, Georgii Stenberg was killed when even sexuality.
a truck collided with the front of his bike; his
wife, seated behind him, survived. Vladimir These works, albeit of a popular genre, were
maintained until his own death in 1982 that this revolutionary with respect to the history of
was not an accident but murder, a conspiracy design. The Stenbergs' numerous innovations-
involving the Soviet secret police, the KGB. the rethinking of the content of the frlm poster,
Regardless of this stance, Vladimir continued the introduction of implied movement, the
to receive commissions from the state following expressive use of typography and color, the
Georgii's death, and was shortly afterward distortion of scale and perspective-were
appointed Chief of Design for Red Square, a subsequently investigated and extended by
post he occupied intermittently until 1964. He other designers and movements. Many of the
also completed various projects, including film Stenbergs' experiments with letterforms can
posters, in collaboration with his sister Lydia be seen as precursors to the phototypographic
and his son Sten, but these graphic works lack advertisements of the 1960s. And their facile
much of the vitality of the earlier collaborations manipulation of pictorial space seems remark
with Georgii. They are relatively ordinary, ably prescient in light of the infinite mutability
relying heavily on straightforward illustrations of the photographic image made possible by
of the movie's stars in simple scenes. the desktop computer only in the last ten years.
It would be wrong, however, to assume from Most importantly, the Stenbergs explicitly
Vladimir's later work that it was Georgii who understood the function of the poster, and
possessed the bulk of the Stenbergs' talent their remarkable innovations, while strikingly
and ideas. It must be remembered that in 1934 beautiful, were clearly means to a desired end:
Josef Stalin proclaimed the end of experimental the creation of a visually compelling work.
art and anointed socialist realism the new The purpose of any poster is to attract the eye
official style. These years marked the end not in the briefest of intervals. It is in this decep
only of the Stenbergs' collaboration but also the tively simple ambition that these complex
careers of many in the avant-garde, including works so excel.
Tatlin, Mayakovsky, Meyerhold, Tairov, and
the Latvian designer Gustav Klucis. Much later,
in 1952, Vladimir himself would be imprisoned
by the Stalinist regime for eighteen months
of "reformation."
SB»
8®$
ia
MM2
V'j>v»V-'
View ol Twenty-thirdStreet, NevskiProspect,
St. Petersburg,1927. Onthe kioskat lower right is a poster
by the Stenbergbrothersfor the film A Cupof Tea.
22
ILM HAS ALWAYS BEEN 1 S. S. Ginzburg, Kinemato-
a democratic medium. grafia dorevoliutsionnoi
Rossii (Moscow: Iskusstvo,
Its introduction in the
1963), p. 23. Ginzburg's book
late nineteenth century is the definitive study of pre-
coincided with the vast revolutionary Russian film.
changes brought about On early film culture, see also
by mass industrialization Yuri Tsivian, Early Cinema
and urbanization. Unlike in Russia and Its Cultural
Reception (London and New
the theater and the ballet, York: Routledge, 1994); and
it was broadly accessible: Denise Youngblood, Soviet
in the cinema, the new Cinema in the Silent Era,
worker class found not only diversion, but 1918-1935 (Ann Arbor,
access to a culture from which it felt increas Mich.: UM1Press, 1985).
thirty-five were privately owned, and forty- Dovzhenko were admired the world over; never
21Peter Kenez, The Birth of
five were leased from the government by theless, in the contemporary literature there was the Propaganda State: Soviet
17 private entrepreneurs. much talk about a crisis in the Soviet cinema. Methods of Mass Mobilization
Eisenstein's October, for example, released in (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
The private theater managers did not always 1928, was denounced as a failure of the experi versity Press, 1985), p. 73.
acquire their films legally. The New Economic mental theater, too associative to be effective
Policies had superseded the nationalization as historical documentation. That same year,
edict of 1918; in this profit-driven atmosphere, at the first All-Union Party Conference on Film
numerous "ideologically questionable" films Questions, there was widespread criticism of
reappeared rather mysteriously in theaters formalism, elements of fantasy, unorthodoxies
throughout the country—this despite the govern of structure and treatment—in fact, almost any
ment's purported regulation of the industry. departure from the approved naturalistic norm.
Initially, the theaters' programs were made up
almost exclusively of prerevolutionary Russian The Bolshevik Party built a vast propaganda
films. It is striking how quickly more recent machine, and among the instruments they used,
foreign films were imported into Soviet Russia film was a significant one. First of all, they
in the early 1920s. Distributors had in reserve saw the enormous popularity of the medium,
large numbers of foreign films that had been especially among those they most wanted to
shown profitably in Western Europe and in reach. The urban lower classes loved the movies,
the United States but had not yet appeared on and there was reason to think that the rural
Russian screens. Although the majority of these peasantry, given a chance, would respond simi
were "B" pictures —Daughter of the Night, for larly. The cinema could be used in one of two
example, was advertised in this way: "Grand ways: it could itself serve as a vehicle for the
—
18 American picture. Full of head-turning tricks" revolutionary message, or it could be a bait
it would be wrong to conclude that only such for attracting audiences to lectures by Party
films appeared. Russian audiences could also agitators. People would come to see this new
see the best films produced abroad. For example, wonder of technology, and before or after the
the critically acclaimed German films The performance they would be willing, presumably,
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920; Robert Wiene) and to listen to a lecture by an agitator.
Doetor Mabuse (1922; Fritz Fang) were released
19 in Russia soon after they were made. Here was a medium that even the illiterate
could understand, and in Soviet Russia, only
After these modest beginnings, the development two out of five adults could read in 1920-21.21
of the Soviet cinema, both in terms of attracting Since the revision of intertitles was a relatively
audiences and in making movies, was astound- easy task, silent films could also be used for
ingly quick. The character of film culture was reaching a multinational audience. At a time
determined by an unspoken compromise between when the Party desperately sought to consoli
popular tastes and governmental policies. Soviet date its position, the cinema extended its reach.
audiences in the 1920s liked to see exactly the The propaganda content of the agitational film
same kinds of movies as people everywhere was fixed, and therefore the Party leaders in
around the world—adventure stories and roman Moscow did not have to fear that agitators who
tic comedies, with beautiful women, handsome had only a vague understanding of the Party
men, and lavishly appointed apartments. In program, to say nothing of Marxism, would
short, they wanted to be entertained. inadvertently convey the wrong message.
27
22As part of its initial strate Beyond the immediate and concrete use of film
gy, the government set high
interwoven narratives was cut entirely from the
as a form of agitprop, the Bolsheviks were Soviet release, altering the montage to such an
film rental and taxes on tick
et sales. Theater owners
attracted to the new medium for what it repre extent that viewers had trouble understanding
25 responded by raising ticket sented: the latest achievement of technology, what was happening.
prices, and movie-going an emblem of the modern age. The Bolsheviks
became prohibitively expen passionately identified with progress and wanted Taking such liberties with foreign works was
sive. As a result, attendance others to identify them with it. They sought to
fell, and theaters that had common. The Soviet studios regarded these films
only recently opened were
destroy backward, "peasant" Russia, and to build as raw material, and considered that they had
forced to close. As state rev in its place an industrial nation that would the right to do anything with them-including
enues continued to fall, the surpass Western Europe in its modernity. What the insertion of more "politically correct" inter-
government finally realized could be more appropriate to conveying the idea titles. Although the idiosyncratic editing and
its error, and lowered the of the beginning of a new era than the use of
taxes on ticket sales. See A.
recutting of silent films was widespread every
the most technologically advanced medium? where, the Russians went furthest, changing the
Gak, "K istorii sozdaniia
Sovkino," Iz istorii kino intent of the director purposefully and openly.
(1962), p. 136. Instinctive propagandists that they were, the (One critic went so far as to advocate that the
Bolsheviks understood that successful propa intertitles of imported films be altered so that
23 "Nemetskie nemye fil'my ganda had to be simple, and that images could the films became self-parodying, and therefore
v sovetskom prokate," in convey the essence of a complex ideology
)
26 Kino i vremia (Moscow: less desirable to Soviet audiences. More often,
Gosfil'mfond, 1965), p. 380.
more effectively than words. They knew that however, the intertitles were merely clumsy,
these images could affect emotions directly and there was no obvious connection between
24 Ibid., p. 384. and immediately. A person reading a book or the image and the text that followed. It would
pamphlet at home might receive the ideas with happen that the same foreign film playing in
25 "Amerikanskie nemye skepticism, openly disagree, or simply become
fil'my v sovetskom prokate,"
the Russian republic and in the Ukraine had
bored and abandon his reading. Propaganda altogether different intertitles; in effect, the
in Kino i vremia (Moscow:
Gosfil'mfond, 1960), p. 193.
was far more effective when relayed to an audiences saw different films. Not surprisingly,
assembled crowd; the visible positive response the Soviet authorities chose titles that stressed
26V. Zhemchuzhny, in "Kak of the others reinforced the message. the social content of the film, regardless of the
pokazat' zagranichnye
27 original intent of the filmmaker.
kartin?," Sovetskii ekran, The Soviet state, which lacked the resources
June 26, 1928, p. 5.
for making agitational films, continued to allow For economic reasons the government film
27 "Frantsuzkie fil'my v the showing of "questionable" prerevolutionary agency could not secure the newest and best
sovetskom prokate," in Kino and foreign films in order to generate capital films from abroad; often, these films were seen
i vremia (1965), p. 351. that could be used for the foundation of a Soviet by Soviet audiences many years after they were
22 film industry. As late as 1924, eighty percent made. Charles Chaplin's The Kid, for example,
28 Kino i vremia (1960),
of the foreign films screened in the Soviet Union made in 1921, was not shown in the Soviet
pp. 197-200.
were made in Germany, which had resumed Union until 1929, and The Gold Rush (1925)
28 29Mal'tsev, pp. 243-48. its prewar role as Russia's favored partner in never reached Soviet screens. Yet, in spite of
23 trade. A survey carried out in the mid- 1920s the often-confusing cuts and titles, and the poor
30One of the most moderate by Smena, a Leningrad paper issued by the quality of the prints, American films remained
and intelligent evaluations of Communist Union of Youth (or Komsomol),
the impact of foreign films unmatched in popularity. The Mark ofZorro,
showed that the actor most popular with Soviet Robin Hood, and The Thief of Baghdad, all
was provided by A. V. Luna-
charskii. See his Kino na audiences was the German comedian Harry Piel. starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., played to full
zapade i u nas (Moscow: (Piel's popularity was so great that Soviet houses in the best and largest theaters in the
Tea-Kino Pechat', 1928). authorities were concerned. Factory workers and capital and were seen by many more people
Komsomol cells organized discussions on how than Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin 1905 at
31Ibid., p. 210.
)
24 to combat garripilevsheina, or "Hariy Pielism." the time of its release in 1929. Even opponents
32Sovetskie khudozhestven- of the policy on imports had to admit that, on
nye fil'my, 4 vols. (Moscow: At mid-decade, the U.S. film industry succeeded the average, foreign films were ten times as
29 Iskusstvo, 1961-68), vol. 1. in conquering the world market, and the films profitable as domestic ones. Hollywood had
of Hollywood supplanted those of Germany in found the recipe: the hero in search of fortune
33K. Mal'tsev, "Sovetskoe Soviet theaters. The invasion of American
kino na novykh putiakh," visits exotic locales, has extraordinaiy adven
Novyi mir( May 1929), p. 243.
films—initially westerns and adventure serials, tures, and attains love and wealth. Filmgoers,
which were regarded as free of any objectionable regardless of nationality, never tired of the
thematic content-began in 1923, and quickly formula. It made no difference that the western
accelerated. One of the most significant films of intelligentsia deplored the effects of American
the silent era, D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), films on viewers, often in terms similar to those
was among the advance guard, having been of Bolshevik critics. The difference, of course,
shown in 1919. The film, which would prove a was that the Bolsheviks did not have to stop
lasting formal influence on Soviet filmmakers at criticism: they were in the position to do
(particularly Eisenstein), was a qualified popular something about it.
success-this despite the fact one of the four
28
For some time it was impossible to do without
imports: Soviet studios produced too few films.
As a result, the Soviet people enjoyed the
luxury of seeing what they in fact wanted to
see, because the state was still too impoverished
to provide them with what it believed they
should want to see. The authorities had to limit
themselves to combating the prevalence of for
eign, and especially American, films through
30 education. Publicists wrote articles deploring
the influence of subversive foreign interests,
and Party and Komsomol cells held meetings
to discuss the danger. In the mid- 1920s,
Russian studios made several films satirizing
the national mania for foreign products. In
1925, the Proletkino studio made a parody of
The Thief of Baghdad, and two years later, S.
Komarov, of the Mezhrabpom-Russ film group,
made The Kiss of Mary Piekford, a popular
and witty film that gently ridiculed the public's
adulation of foreign stars.
(Opposite)
Set Design for "Saint Joan"
by George Bernard Shaw, Moscow Chamber Theater
1924. Pencil and gouache on cardboard mounted on plywood, 23% x 31V2" (60 x 80 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 297767
34
35
Vladimir
Slenberg:Set Designlor "Yellow
Jacket"
by Joseph Henry Benrimo and George Cochrane Hazleton, Moscow Chamber Theater (unrealized)
1922 (reconstructed 1963). Pencil, gouache, and collage on paper mounted on plywood,
/s
7 23 x 311/2"(60.2 x 80 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 314945
36
SetDesigntor "TheThreepenny
Opera"
by Bertolt Brecht, Moscow Chamber Theater
1930. Pencil, gouache, and collage on cardboard mounted on plywood, 23 x 31" (58.5 x 78.7 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 297770
V.^-VaYAV.* «AaAv«hMV
(Top)
Costume
Designslor "TheThreepenny
Opera"
by Bertolt Brecht, Moscow Chamber Theater
//i4"
3 1930. Pencil, colored pencil, gouache, and pen and India ink on paper, 139 6 x 20
(34.5 x 52.9 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 295818
(Above right)
Costume
Designsfor "Kukirol"
by Leonid Polovinkin and Lev Knipper, Moscow Chamber Theater
(Left) 1925. Pencil and gouache on paper, 14 x 6V2" (35.6 x 16.6 cm)
/7s (Center) 1925. Pencil,paper,gouache,and pen and India ink on paper, 13 x 6V2" (35.3 x 16.5cm)
Ax
3 (Right) 1925. Pencil, watercolor, and pen and brush and India ink on paper, 13 6V2"
(35 x 16.6 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 238272/676, / 1432, / 1436
38
,
CostumeDesigns lor "Dag and Night"
by Charles-Alexandre Lecocq, Moscow Chamber Theater
A
1
/s"
3 (Left) 1926. Pencil, watercolor, gouache, and brush and India ink on paper, 14 x 6
(36.2 x 16.1 cm)
/s"
3 (Right) 1926. Pencil, colored pencil, gouache, and varnish on plywood, 24 x 13 (61 x 34 cm)
State Bakhrushin Theater Museum, Moscow, KP 234797, 238272/1765
39
Jf
III
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HP
oireI
ECOUVREURflNNE L
Hessebrambillb
JFLEE CIROFLA
The Stenbergs' first film poster, signed
simply "Sten," is reproduced below. The posters
that appear on the following pages have been
organized by film genre rather than chronologi
cally, in this order: documentaries, propaganda
films, dramas, and comedies. If the original title
of the film for which a poster was executed dif
fers from that of the Soviet release, the English
translation is provided in parentheses.
Hi
TheEyesol Love
//ii6"
7 1923. Offset lithograph, 279 6 x 39 (70 x 100.2 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: credits unavailable
(Opposite)
Moscow Chamber Theater
/i
/i6"
l5 1923. Offset lithograph, 2713 6 x 17 (70.6 x 45.5 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Display poster
41
M0Cry6/lMTN?
47449 Typaw 10000. M3aaHM
e COBKHHO MocKBa1929r.
ilHTorpa4>Mfl
COBKMHOTaraHOcawV4 4 3 Te n«t»OH2-
Battleship
Potemkin
1905
As"
/3
7 1929. Offset lithograph, 27 x 36 (70.5 x 93.6 em)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1925. Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein.Original title: BronenosetsPotemkin 1905.
A re-creation of the 1905 mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin in the Odessaharbor and the
demonstration that followed
(Opposite)
7' GeorgiiandVladimir
StenbergwithTaknvRuklevskg:
"October
/ie
/15
5
ie" 1927. Offset lithograph, 103 x 80 (264 x 204 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1928. Directors: Sergei M. Eisenstein,Grigori Alexandrov. Original title: Oktyabr.
An epic film about the October Revolution, combining photography and newsreel reconstructions
42
C.3M3 rEftHftn r. A/IE
1DCTAH0BHA
r/1. DflEDfl B.K.TUCCB
nP0M3B0ACT
BVtDKy
iivuiHy
TheEleventh
//i6
3
u4 c. 1928. Offset lithograph with photographic elements, 4113 x 27 (106.2 x 70.5 cm)
BatsuArt Gallery,The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Ukraine, 1928. Director: Dziga Vertov (Denis Kaufman). Original title: Odinnadtsati.
A documentary on the advances made during eleven years of Bolshevikrule
(Opposite)
TheEleventh
/i6
/i6" 1928. Offset lithograph, 417 x 279 (105.2 x 70 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
45
II
Abtop pyKOBOiwejib SKcnepwvteHTa JF»
A3HIA BEPTOB O
H
3
TflaBHbift
onepantp2VL. KAY '!> M A H B
AccHCteHT
noMOHTawyE. CBHJIOBA O
n
c
X
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o
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y
o
JHH
y
2 CTEHBEPr2
TheNanwiththeNovieCamera
/2
1 1929. Offset lithograph, 39 x 27 V4" (100.5 x 69.2 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Arthur Drexler Fund, Department Purchase
Film: Russia, 1929. Director: Dziga Vertov, (Denis Kaufman). Original title: Cheloveks
Kinoapparatom. A film documenting a typical day in Moscow
(Opposite)
The Nan with the Novie Camera
/s 1929. Offset lithograph, 411 x 26 Vs" (104.5 x 66.4 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
46
lim^l
flr6r\ x
no poMaHy-cp.
MA AKOBA
PewMccep-B.B.BMJIbHEP
OnepaTop-M. H. rOJIbflT
XyflowHHK- B. 3PAMAH
lyil D
ikrorpajwaCOBKHHO
Tartwjoui
y* n.3 Tmwxxi2-24-7? MgjiKHeB y K y. • Mocku,1WSr. foantT.H A.12650. Tupo* 1000a
Cement
/i6"
9 1928. Offset lithograph, 41 x 27 (104.2 x 70 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Ukraine, 1927. Director: Vladimir B. Vilner. Original title: Tsement.The film depicts the
difficulty of reviving the Soviet economy after the revolution of 1917 by examining the lives
of workers in a cement factory.
48
Turksib
/i6
M 1929. Offset lithograph, 42 13 x 28 3 (108.7 x 71.6 em)
BatsuArt Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia,1929. Director: Victor Turin. A documentary on the building of the Turkestan
Siberia railway
StWHUMBIIimuuImijurk
B.H0H1PJHIMB
hsnnwLmnillIIrfflJHB
E,OUBHKflti!
SEP
1929. Offset lithograph, 42 x 29 V2" (106.7 x 75 cm)
The National Library of Russia,St. Petersburg
Film: Russia, 1929. Directors: Mikhail Verner, PavelArmand. A documentary about a training
course (SEP)for army personnel, produced by the Soviet Army's film department
(Opposite)
SEP
/s
7 1929. Offset lithograph, 39 x 28" (101.3 x 71.2 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
50
9 PTFHfiEPr 2
THfMUK 10.000.
»,T £
(1P0M3B0ACTB0
BycDKy
Pemnccep
APHOJIbfl
KOPflfOM,
Onepatop
MAPMYCTOJlbT.
TheUnvanquished
/n8
3 s 1928.Offset lithograph, 39 x 28 (100 x 72 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Susan Pack
Film: Ukraine, 1928. Director: Arnold Kordium. Original title: Nepovedimye.A film depicting an
attempt by American workers to overthrow the capitalist system, represented in the poster by
"Smit-Trust," "Ford," and "ABC"
(Opposite)
Symphonyof a Big City
1928.Offset lithograph, 41 x 27V4" (104 x 69 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Marshall Cogan PurchaseFund
Film: Germany, 1927. Director: Walther Ruttmann. Original title: Die Symphonic der Grotistadt.
A day in the life of Berlin, from early morning to late at night, as seen through the eye of
the camera
n
S CEPMM
MEHil
CUEHAPUM
u. e n,
BAPHET,
CAXHQBCKHH
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Niss Neod
/ie
11
/ig" c. 1927. Offset lithograph, 80 x 80 11 (205 x 205 cm)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: Russia, 1926. Directors: Boris Barnet, Fyodor Otsep.The story of an American girl's unlikely
involvement in an international conspiracy, inspired by a series of adventure novels by Jim Dollar
(Marietta Shaginyan)
(Opposite)
Id theSpring
/A
1
M
4x 1928. Offset lithograph with photographic elements, 41 28 (104.8 x 71.8 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Ukraine, 1929. Director: Mikhail Kaufman. Original title: Vesnoi.A film documenting the
gradual change from winter to spring in the Ukraine
54
ABTOP-OflEPATOP
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JimmyHiggins
/ie
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3
M
4 1929. Offset lithograph, 41 x 54 (106.6 x 139 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1929. Director: Georgii Tasin. A propaganda film
basedupon Upton Sinclair's novel of the American Intervention during the revolution of 1917, in
which a U.S.soldier is slowly drawn to the Bolshevik side
(Opposite)
ThePencil
//i6
5i6" 1928. Offset lithograph, 419 x 27 (105.6 x 69.4 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: credits unavailable
57
PEKHCCEP
POOM flEPATOP C/IABHHCKHM
The Traitor
/a"
34 1926. Offset lithograph, 39 x 28 (101 x 72 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1926. Director: Abram Room. Original title: Predate!. A film about the exposure of a
Tsarist police provocateur responsible for the deaths of Bolshevik sailors before the revolution
(Opposite)
Fragment of an Empire
1929. Offset lithograph, 37V4 x 24 V2" (94.6 x 62.2 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1929. Director: Friedrich Ermler. Original title: Oblomok Imperii. A man loses his
memory during the Bolshevik uprising, and upon regaining it ten years later is shocked by the
changes brought about by the revolution
58
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SixGirlsSeekingShelter
/s"
3 1928.Offset lithograph, 42Vs x 47 (107 x 120.3 cm)
BatsuArt Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Germany, 1927. Director: Hans Behrendt. Original title: SechsMadchen suchen
Nachtquartier. Plot unknown
(Opposite)
TheNanIromtheFnrest
A
3
/i6
15
M 1928. Offset lithograph, 41 x 27 (106 x 71 cm)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: Ukraine, date unknown. Director: Georgi Stabovoi. Original title: Chclovek \z Lesa.
Plot unknown
mam
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(Opposite)
ThePunch
A
/3
1
M
i6x 1926. Offset lithograph, 41 28 (106 x 71.2 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film. United States, 1921. Director: Charles Ray.Original title: Scrap Iron. In need of money for
his invalid mother, an amateur boxer accepts a bribe to throw a fight.
HflAP
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n8 1927.Offset lithograph, 39 x 27 (101.4 x 69.6 em)
BatsuArt Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film:Germany, 1924. Director: Victor Janson. A maid at a resort hotel assumesthe identity of a
famously licentious dancer
(Opposite)
High Society Wager
1927.Offset lithograph, 40 x 27" (101.7 x 68.5 cm)
BatsuArt Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Germany, 1923. Director: Carl Froelich. Original title: Der Wetterwart (The Weatherstation)
Thestory of a social-climbing couple who fall victim to gambling
65
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3 1927. Offset lithograph, 43 x 28 (109.2 x 72 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: United States, 1924. Director: William K. Howard. Original title: DangerAhead. A man
injured during an attempted robbery is reported dead; having lost his memory, he is hired to
impersonate himself in a scheme to rob his wife.
(Opposite)
Daddy's
Boy
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38 Date unknown. Offset lithograph, 42V2 x 28 (108 x 72 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: credits unavailable
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3 1927. Offset lithograph, 39 x 27 (101 x 69.5 cm)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: Germany, 1927. Director: Fyodor Otsep. Original title: Der Gelbe Pass(The Yellow Ticket).
A woman abandoned by her husband after the death of her son is mistakenly arrested for
prostitution and assigned a yellow pass,the international identification card of a prostitute.
(Opposite)
Chicago
//iM
7 i6 1929. Offset lithograph, 375 6 x 24 (94.8 x 62 cm)
BatsuArt Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: United States, 1927. Directors: Frank Urson, Cecil B. Demille. A woman is tried for the
murder of a gangster during an attempted rape; she is defended against the charge by an
unscrupulouslawyer, from whom she must steal to pay his fee.
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The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: Germany, 1926. Director: Nunzio Malasomma. Original title: Jagd auf Menschen (Manhunt).
The mother and father of a young girl, now divorced, successivelyattempt to kidnap the girl
from each other.
70
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Mi6 1929. Offset lithograph, 36 5 x 27 (93 x 70 em).
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo.
Film: Germany, 1927-28. Director: Richard Oswald. Original title: Die Rothausgasse
(TheRedAlley). A young woman is rescued from her uncle in a drama involving international
jewelthieves.
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/i6 1929. Offset lithograph, 557 x 42" (140.8 x 106.7 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia,1929. Director: Ivan Pravov.Original title: PosledniPolet.A circus troupe is
marooned in southern Russiaduring the 1917 revolution.
(Opposite)
AFearlessNan
Date unknown. Offset lithograph, 42 x 28V4" (106.7 x 71.7 cm)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: credits unavailable
73
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(Opposite)
Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg with Jakov Ruklevsky: "A Woman of Paris"
/ie 1927. Offset lithograph, 53 15 x 39 Vie" (137 x 99.2 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Susan Pack
Film: United States, 1923. Director: Charles Chaplin. The mistress of a wealthy Parisian
encounters her former boyfriend. Fie proposesto her; when she ultimately rejects him,
he commits suicide.
74
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34 1926. Offset lithograph, 39 x 28 (101 x 73 cm)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: United States, 1924. Directors: Ted Wilde, Fred Guiol. A film about the aged, once-famous
membersof a baseball club, the Battling Orioles
(Opposite)
Idoloi thePublic
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4 1925. Offset lithograph, 49 x 27 (126.7 x 70.5 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: United States, 1921. Director: Erie Kenton. Original title: A Small Town Idol. A film star
returns to the town where he was once wrongly accused of a crime.
fvyouts and
COBHMMO
(Opposite)
The Three Millions Case
/s
5 1929. Offset lithograph, 39 x 27Vs" (100.6 x 70.8 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1926. Director: Yakov Protazanov.Original title: Protsesso TryokhMillyonakh.
Adapted from the novel The ThreeThievesby Umberto Notari, in which a banker, a gentleman,
and a petty criminal become involved in the theft of three million lire
78
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/s"
7 1928.Offset lithograph, 41V2x 27 (105.5 x 70.8 cm)
TheMuseum of Modern Art, New York. Estee and Joseph Lauder Fund and Ira Howard Levy
PurchaseFund
Film: Soviet Georgia, 1928. Director: Ivan Perestiani. Original title: Spletnia. An illustration of the
confusion that can result from careless gossip
Moulin
Rouge
/3
7
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i6 1929. Offset lithograph, 37 x 24 (94.5 x 62 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Great Britain, 1928. Director: E. A. Dupont. A tragedy in which an aristocrat engaged to the
daughter of a performer at the Moulin Rouge in Paris inadvertently causes his fiancee's death
(Opposite)
TheDeathLoop
/s 1929. Offset lithograph, 36 5 x 24" (93 x 61 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Germany, 1928. Director: Arthur Robison. Original title: Die Todesschleife.A circus clown
conceals his identity from the beautiful aerialist whom he loves.
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i6 c. 1927. Offset lithograph, 47 x 36 (121.5 x 92 em)
The RussianState Library, Moscow
Film: Russia, 1927. Director: Boris Barnet. Original title: Devushkas Korobkoi. A young woman is
pursued by her former employer, the owner of a hat shop, who tries to reclaim the lottery ticket
he gave her.
(Opposite)
TheSoldAppetite
//i6
3s" 1928. Offset lithograph, 419 x 27 (105.6 x 69.6 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Russia, 1927. Director: Nikolai Okhlopkov. Original title: Prodannyi Appetit. A wealthy man
with a bad appetite buys the excellent appetite of a poor man.
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1928. Offset lithograph, 42V2 x 28" (108 x 71.2 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: United States, 1928. Director: Clyde Bruckman. Original title: A Perfect Gentleman. A series
of misadventures involving a young man, his fiancee, and stolen funds
87
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(Opposite)
The Mystery of the Windmill
Aie"
/3
9 1928. Offset lithograph, 38 x 27 (98.4 x 70 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: Denmark, 1924. Director: Lau Lauritzen. Original title: Ole Opfinders Offer (TheSacrifice
of Ole the Inventor). A comedy about a poor mill owner and her daughter, who must choose
between the young man she loves and the wealthy landowner who wants to marry her
88
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/38"
1s 1929. Offset lithograph, 42 x 28 (107.6 x 71.4 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery, The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
Film: United States, 1927. Directors: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman. Original title: TheGeneral.
A farce about a young railroad engineer who liberates the passengers(including his fiancee)
aboard a train held by Union troops during the American Civil War
(Opposite)
General
/s"
1 1929. Offset lithograph, 41V2x 27 (105.4 x 69 cm)
Batsu Art Gallery,The Ruki Matsumoto Collection, Tokyo
1 In February 1918, Lenin 1918-20 1920 1923
issued a decree under which Vladimir Augustovich Civil war in Russia. In Participate in the First Tour Europe as part of the
the Gregorian calendar Stenberg born on April 4 Moscow, the Stenbergs OBMOKhUExhibition. Moscow Chamber Theater
1), replaced the Julian calendar (March 23, Old Style study at the State Free Art troupe.
in Soviet Russia. The latter, in Moscow. Workshops (SVOMAS)in Design sets for a production
"Old Style" calendar preceded the studio of the painter of Oedipus at the State Design sets for the
the former by thirteen days. 1900 and theater designer Demonstration Theater. Vsevolod Meyerhold pro
Georgii Augustovich Georgii Yakulov. Attend duction of The Earth in
Stenberg born on October poetry readings by Design the space for an Turmoil, an adaptation of
20 (October 7, Old Style), Vladimir Mayakovsky, exhibition of the handicraft Marcel Martinet's verse
in Moscow. Velimir Khlebnikov, and industry at the People's drama La Nuit; in Moscow.
Vassily Kamensky, and House in Moscow.
1912-17 participate in political Design pavilions for the
The Stenbergs attend meetings and debates. 1921-28 First All-Russian
Stroganov School of Mount short-term exhibi Years of the New Economic Agricultural and Cottage
Applied Art, studying tions of their works. Policies (NEP), during Industry Exhibition
theater design and painting which free trade is together with Alexandra
on enamel and porcelain. 1918 encouraged. Ekster, Ignatii Nivinsky,
Decorate the buildings of and Alexander Vesnin.
1915 the Supreme Soviet of 1921
In tandem with other National Economy (VSNKh) Carl August Stenberg, the Begin working for the
artists, Vladimir designs and the Central Post Office Stenbergs' father, returns government fdm agency
sets and sculptures for for the first anniversary of to Sweden. Goskino (later Sovkino),
Alexander Khanzhonkov's the October Revolution. designing film posters.
Cinema Studio in Moscow The Stenbergs join the
and the Theater of Musical Design the interior of and Institute of Artistic Culture 1924
Comedy in Kiev. theater sets for the Club (INKhUK)and later help Participate in the First
of the Water Transport establish the First Working Discussional Exhibition,
1916 Workers. Group of Constructivists Moscow, following Lenin's
Vladimir works with his within the Institute. death and the formation of
father on stage sets for the 1919 Trotsky's "left opposition"
Brothers' Zon Theater and Become founding members Participate in the Second at the 13th Party Congress.
Luna Park in Moscow. of The Society of Young OBMOKhUexhibition.
Artists (OBMOKhU)at Design the interior of the
1917 SVOMAS,organized to 1922-31 Arcos company in Moscow.
October Revolution, create agitational posters Work as designers for
November 7 (October 25, for promotion of the Alexander Tairov's 1925
Old Style). Bolshevik cause in the Moscow Chamber Theater. Receive an honorary
civil war. award at the International
Study railroad and bridge Exhibition of Decorative
construction at the Military Design sets for plays at a Exhibit Constructions for and Modern Industrial Arts,
Engineering Courses, Red Army Club. Spatial Structures at the Paris, for their theater
Moscow. Poets' Cafe in Moscow. designs.
Together with Constantin
Beginning of the Stenberg Medunetsky, author one Organize the First
brothers' collaboration. of the earliest declarations Exhibition of Film Posters,
Together, they work on on Constructivism for the in Moscow.
the restoration of the stage exhibition's catalogue.
at the Moscow Club of 1926
Railway Workers, and Decorate streets for the Participate in the Second
complete a number of set First of May and the fifth Exhibition of Film Posters,
designs for this stage. anniversary of the October Moscow.
Revolution.
Decorate streets of
Vladimir exhibits at the Moscow for mass holidays.
Van Diemen Gallery,
ACKNOWLEDGMEN
94
At The Museum of Modern Art, there are many I want to thank the staff of the Department of
who helped in guiding this project through to Architecture and Design as a whole for its
fruition. I would like to thank in particular support, in particular Abby Pervil, Executive
Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Secretary; former departmental interns Svetla
Architecture and Design, who has served as Stoeve and Mari Nakahara, who assisted with
advisor throughout; and Glenn D. Lowry, the many details of organizing the exhibition;
Director of the Museum, whose leadership and and intern Marta Munoz Recarte, who was an
support have been crucial to its success. indispensable asset during the preparation of
the catalogue. Museum exhibitions are always
The exhibition could not have been realized collaborative events, and there are many people
without the help of Jennifer Russell, Deputy throughout the institution who provided valu
Director for Exhibitions and Collections Support; able support during the course of this project,
Linda Thomas, Coordinator of Exhibitions; among them, Mary Corliss, Terry Geesken,
and Eleni Cocordas, Associate Coordinator of Hadley Palmer, Josiana Bianchi, Pedro Perez,
Exhibitions. As always, Jerome Neuner, Director, Seth Adleman, Peter Omlor, Jay Levinson, Terry
and Karen Meyerhoff, Assistant Director, Tegarden, Curbie Oestreich, Pierre Adler, Peter
Exhibition Design and Production, supervised Galassi, Carey Adler, Diane Farynyk, Elizabeth
the exhibition's installation with consummate Addison, Mary Lou Strahlendorff, and Lydia
skill. Karl Buchberg, Conservator, and Victoria Marks. I am particularly indebted to Magdalena
Bunting, Assistant Conservator, Department of Dabrowski and Leah Dickerman, for their kind
Conservation, did a superior job preparing the counsel and thoughtful reading of my text.
often fragile works for exhibition. I am indebted
to the following members of the Museum's A number of colleagues outside the Museum
Department of Publications: its former Director, also contributed significantly to this project.
Osa Brown; Harriet Schoenholz Bee, Managing I would like to thank Peter Kenez, for his fine
Editor; and Nancy Kranz, Manager, Promotion essay on early Soviet film culture, and Natasha
and Special Services. Marc Sapir, Assistant Kurchanova, for the superb chronology and
Production Manager, deftly supervised the research assistance. Alma Law, Robert Brown,
catalogue's production. Special thanks are due Susan Reinhold, Jack Rennert, Elaine Lustig
Barbara Ross, Associate Editor, for her editing Cohen, Michael Sheehe, Louis Bixenman, and
of the texts and careful scrutiny of the cata Julie Kay Mueller provided invaluable support
logue's related components; Michael Bierut at various stages of the project. I also wish to
and Sara Frisk of Pentagram Design, whose acknowledge Leonard Lauder, collector and
understanding of the Stenbergs' work was Museum patron, for his commitment to the
essential to its successful translation to the Museum's graphic design collection. A special
page; and Jody Hanson, Director, Department note of thanks is reserved for Victoria Stenberg,
of Graphic Design, who oversaw the design of the daughter of Vladimir Stenberg, for so
the catalogue as well as various aspects of the generously sharing her first-hand knowledge
exhibition's installation. of the Stenberg brothers.
—C.M.
95
David Rockefeller* Edward Larrabee Barnes* Ex Officio
Chairman Emeritus Celeste Bartos*
H.R.H.Duke Franz of Bavaria** Glenn D. Lowry
Mrs. Henry Ives Cobb* Mrs. Patti Cadby Birch Director
Vice Chairman Emeritus Clarissa Alcock Bronfman
Hilary P. Califano Rudolph W. Giuliani
Ronald S. Lauder Thomas S. Carroll* Mayor of the City
Chairman of the Board Patricia Phelps de Cisneros of New York
Marshall S. Cogan
Sid R. Bass Mrs. Jan Cowles** Alan G. Hevesi
Mrs. Frank Y. Larkin Douglas S. Cramer Comptroller of the City
Donald B. Marron Lewis B. Cullman** of New York
Richard E. Salomon Elaine Dannheisser
Jerry I. Speyer Ralph Destino Jo Carole Lauder
Vice Chairmen Gianluigi Gabetti President of The
Paul Gottlieb International Council
Agnes Gund Vartan Gregorian
President Mrs. Melville Wakeman Hall* Barbara Foshay-Miller
George Heard Hamilton* Chairman of The
John Parkinson III Kitty Carlisle Hart** Contemporary Arts Council
Treasurer Barbara Jakobson
Philip Johnson*
Mrs. Henry R. Kravis
Robert B. Menschel
Dorothy C. Miller**
J. Irwin Miller*
Mrs. Akio Morita
S. 1. Newhouse, Jr.
Philip S. Niarchos
James G. Niven
Richard E. Oldenburg**
Michael S. Ovitz
Peter G. Peterson
Mrs. Milton Petrie**
Gifford Phillips*
Emily Rauh Pulitzer
David Rockefeller, Jr.
Mrs. Robert F. Shapiro
Joanne M. Stern
Isabel Carter Stewart
Mrs. Donald B. Straus*
Jeanne C. Thayer*
Paul F. Walter
Thomas W. Weisel
Mrs. John Hay Whitney**
Richard S. Zeisler*
Beverly M. Wolff
Secretary
*Life Trustee
**Honoraiy Trustee
TRUSTEES
OFTHE
MUSEUM
OFMOUERN
ART
96
TheMuseumof ModernArt
300063174