23 - A COMPLETE SET OF TWELVE OKNA ROSTA FAMINE RELIEF POSTERS, SOVIET RUSSIA, CIRCA 1921

A COMPLETE SET OF TWELVE OKNA ROSTA FAMINE RELIEF POSTERS, SOVIET RUSSIA, CIRCA 1921 [U volzhskikh krestyan vse eshche nekhvatka semyan / The Volga Peasants Are Still Short of Seed], twelve-sheet ROSTA window, circa 1921 hand-cut stencil with watercolor on thin wove paper, no. 5 with collaged newspaper clipping each sheet approximately: 52.7 x 40 cm (20 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.) framed dimensions (each): 58.7 x 45.9 cm (23 1/8 x 18 1/16 in.) unsigned; sheets numbered in stencil DESCRIPTION comprising twelve sequential sheets forming a complete rhymed narrative, captioned in stencil: 1. U volzhskikh krestyan vse eshche nekhvatka semyan [The Volga peasants are still short of seed] 2. A vremya ukhodit [And time is running out] 3. Pochemu eto proiskhodit? [Why is this happening?] 4. Potomu chto mnogo akha i okha, a pomogaem my plokho [Because there is plenty of oohing and aahing, but we help poorly] 5. Gazetku pochitaem [We read the paper], with collaged Izvestiya masthead and the slogan "The famine provinces must be supplied with seed" 6. Golovoi pokachaem [We shake our heads] 7. S priyatelem pobeseduem [We chat it over with a friend] 8. Na sobranii propoveduem [We preach at the meeting] 9. A pomoch lyudyam zabudem [But forget to help people] 10. Nado bez slov, bez razgovora, bystro i skoro [What is needed, without words or talk, quickly and promptly] 11. Chto est sobrat i sdat [Is to gather what there is and hand it in] 12. Togda deistvitelno pomoshch budet oshchutitelna [Then the help will truly be felt] LOT NOTES The Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) ran the "ROSTA windows" from 1919 to 1922, with Glavpolitprosvet overseeing the work from late 1920. They turned the day's news into posters hung in the windows of empty shops. Mikhail Cheremnykh originated the format and Vladimir Mayakovsky became its driving force. The windows borrowed the sequential panels and rhymed captions of the traditional lubok to reach a largely illiterate public. Each design was reproduced by hand through cut stencils in editions of up to several hundred. That accounts for both their saturated color and their scarcity today. The present cycle answers the Volga famine of 1921 and that autumn's drive to collect seed grain for the stricken provinces before winter sowing. Read in order, the twelve sheets mock the onlooker who reads the paper, shakes his head, chats with a friend and preaches at meetings, but never gets round to helping. Meanwhile time slips away, marked by the birds flying south on no. 2. The cycle closes with the peasant hauling his sack of seed to the collection point. Complete sequences appear at auction far less often than single sheets or partial sets. Keywords: Okna ROSTA, ROSTA Windows, Soviet Agitprop Poster, Russian Avant-Garde Stencil, Volga Famine 1921, Bolshevik Propaganda N.B. Condition reports are available upon request. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals LLC and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.