2 December 2015 Russian Art Auctions
2 December 2015
77. KUKRYNIKSY (ACTIVE 1924-1980s)
Designs for the Posters "Okno TASS No. 640. Prevrashchenie fritsev" and "Okno TASS No. 1109. Krylovskaya martyshka o Gebbelse", two works, each signed.
Each pencil, charcoal, ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, laid on cardboard, measuring 50 by 42.5 cm.
3,000-5,000 GBP
Kukryniksy is a conflation of the names of three caricaturists, Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiri Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov, who were part of a group of eminent Soviet artists and poets, involved between 1941 and 1945 in the work of the media agency TASS, which led the propaganda campaign Okna TASS. The works in the present lot are sketches for the satirical posters produced for Okna TASS.
Krylovskaya martyshka o Gebbelse is a satirical take on Ivan Krylov’s famous fable The Mirror and the Monkey, in which the monkey catches sight of its reflection in a mirror and cries out: “I’d hang myself in great dismay/If I were a little bit like that monkey there!”
Related literature: For printed versions of the posters, see Okno Tass No. 640. Prevrashchenie “fritsev”, Moscow, TASS, 1942.
Okno Tass No. 1109. Krylovskaya martyshka o Gebbelse, Moscow, TASS, 1944.
Notes on symbols:
* Indicates 5% Import Duty Charge applies.
Ω Indicates 20% Import Duty Charge applies.
§ Indicates Artist's Resale Right applies.
† Indicates Standard VAT scheme applies, and the rate of 20% VAT will be charged on both hammer price and premium.