Description:

LIUBOV POPOVA (1889-1924), Photocollage for Meyerhold Production, 1923

LIUBOV POPOVA (1889-1924)>B>, Maquette photocollage for Meyerhold's ZEMLIA DYBOM (Earth In Turmoil), ca. 1923. Free standing photocollage maquette, 12x14 cm. This offer includes original photographs from the Meyerhold production in 1923, from the same source.

PROVENANCE
When Meyerhold' stheater was shut, Meyerhold gave this and other items to Stanislavsky for safe keeping. They have been held by direct descent in the Stanislavsky family to the present day through his grand-daughter, and from her to the present owner.

LOT NOTES
Teacher and student, master and disciple, ideological adversary and rival ---throughout their long relationship, Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) and Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) remained the best of friends. When the walls of Soviet doom closed in on Meyerhold in January 1938, Stanislavsky remained his most trusted ally and Meyerhold bestowed his most important documents and memorabilia to his first teacher. Stanislavsky himself was quite ill and died on August 7 1938 of natural causes, but his estate remained intact. Meyerhold was arrested and executed on February 12 1940.

Background history: After Popova had collaborated with Meyerhold in the production of The Magnificent Cuckold in 1922 the company was completely depleted of funds. There was no money for heating or lighting bills, or personnel wages. Everyone was penniless. Earth In Turmoil was scheduled to be released for the anniversary of the Red Army. The actor Nikolai Mologin (1892-1951) recalled that Leon Trotsky came to the rescue covering costs. With gratitude Meyerhold dedicated the production to the Red Army and Trotsky himself. This would create big problems in the coming years for Meyerhold with the party and Stalin in particular. (Alla Mikhailovna, "Vsevolod Meyerhold and Set Designers: A Lifelong Search {Moscow: Galart 1995, pp. 50- 70}).

Popova utilized her 1923 set design with Earth in Turmoil to exhibit her support for the Bolsheviks who rebelled against the Tsar regime for the government's actions within the preceding decades. The biomechanical style of Earth in Turmoil shared many similarities to the emerging characteristics of biomorphic and mechano-morphic imagery incorporating Dada elements. Given that the Dada emerged as a rebellion against reason and logic because this way of thinking was a mask of absurdity of reality in general and which led to the horrors of World War I in particular, the dancers' movements of the biomechanical style portrayed in Earth in Turmoil led to employing these with the corresponding features of set design: Earth in Turmoil provided a means of expressing the sentiments of manipulation by and distrust in the Tsarist regime and the conventional reality it represented. The depiction of machinery in the set designs of Earth in Turmoil was also used in support of Tretyakov's Marxist-influenced thoughts that modern technology inevitably would lead to egalitarianism within society. Inspired by Synthetic Cubism, two aspects of collage and language are present in Popova's sets of Earth in Turmoil. Popova's Suprematist roots are also present. Collage displayed Popova's Constructivist move away from traditional art media and towards the propaganda as art form. Suprematism is the means of Bolshevik triumph. From here Popova moved away from painting and sculpture and became completely involved in production art, a hallmark of Constructivism. Popova threw herself into this with total dedication for the remaining time of her life, which ended in May 1924.

The present work would have been confiscated and possibly destroyed with Trotsky's portrait vividly present in the composition. The expulsion of Trotsky in January 1928 from the Politburo and the nonstop vilification of his life and character by the state henceforward would assure that. He was branded an archenemy of the state, and any mention of him was tightly controlled by state agencies. One would be arrested and sent to the gulag or worse for even having such an item in one's possession. This would have ensured that, even up to the time of Trotsky's rehabilitation in 2001, any possession by a Soviet citizen of an item like this was highly dangerous. Trotsky's inclusion in the composition was assured by his financial backing, and mention of the play with the Red Army in this context was problematic in any treatment of Popova or Meyerhold in the unfolding decades if it reflected Trotsky's presence.

As for the composition, the entire focus of the play is illustrated in the maquette: The story line of improvisation out of the barest circumstances: the inverted image of the Tsarism and its trouncing from revolutionary vision and fervor. In fact, every element of the play here is given recognition. It is safe to say that we have a pivotal historic document in our hands as well as a superb artistic statement.

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November 9, 2024 10:00 AM EST
Bedford Hills, NY, US

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