Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina Photography and Montage After Constructivism

Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina: Photography and Montage After Constructivism is an in-depth study of the work of Gustav Klutsis, the pioneer of photomontage in the Soviet Union and a central figure in the transition from the formalism of the early Soviet avant-garde to the increasingly state-sponsored art production of the 1930s. Also presented is the work of Klutsis's wife and colleague, Valentina Kulagina, an innovative poster, book, and exhibition designer, who participated in such seminal exhibitions as the 1928 Pressa exhibition in Cologne. Photography and Montage After Constructivism includes the artists' important public works - street displays, posters, and book and magazine desigs - as well as intimate family portraits and experimental photographs and photomontages. Drawing from her research at Russian archives and on previously unavailable information contained in the artists' letters and diaries - many translated here for the first time - art historian Margarita Tupitsyn offers new insights on the artists and the political and cultural climate in which they were working.