ART & ARTISTS: 2013-12-08

Friday, 13 December 2013

Stenberg brothers posters - part 2

For full biographical details on the Stenberg brothers, and for more works, see part 1 also.

This is part 2 of a 2-part post on the graphic design poster work of the Stenberg brothers (Vladimir 1899 - 19882 and Georgii 1900 - 1933):

1928 The Death Loop
( directed by Arthur Robison )

1928 The Eleventh Hour of The Revolution
( directed by Dziga Vertov )

1928 The Eleventh Year
( directed by Dziga Vertov )

1928 The Man from the Forest
( directed by Georgi Stabovi )

1928 The Mystery of the Windmill
( directed by Lau Lauritzen )

1928 The Policemen

1928 The Sold-Appetite
( directed by Nikholai Okhlopkov )

1928 The Unvanquished
( directed by Arnold Korium )

1928 Under Naval Fire
( directed by Reinhold Schunzel )

1929 Chicago
( directed by Cecil B. De Mille )

1929 Engineer's Stroiga Project

1929 Fragments of an Empire
( directed by Fridrikh Ermler )

1929 In the Spring
( directed by Mikhail Kaufman )

1929 Jimmy Higgins
( directed by Georgii Tasin )

1929 Last Flight
( directed by Ivan Pravov )

1929 Moulin Rouge
( directed by E. A. Dupont )

1929 Old Number 99

1929 SEP
( army training film )

1929 SEP

1929 The General
( directed by Buster Keaton )

1929 The General

( directed by Buster Keaton )

1929 The Green Alley
( directed by Richard Oswal )

1929 The Man with the Movie Camera
( directed by Dziga Vertov )

1929 The Three Million Case
( directed by Yakov Protzanov )

1930 The Land
( directed by Dovzhenko )

1931 Comrade Airship

I'm afraid I do not have dates for the following posters:

A Difficult Role

A Fearless Man

Child of the Market

Eyes of Andozia

Forty-First

Love Triangle

Negro Operetta

( Not known )

Ship Around

The Big Sorrow of a Small Woman

The Boxer's Wife

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Stenberg brothers posters - part 1

The Stenberg brothers (Vladimir 1899 - 19882 and Georgii 1900 - 1933) were both born in Moscow of a Swedish father and Russian mother, but remained Swedish citizens until 1933. They first studied engineering, then attended the Stroganov School of Applied Arts in Moscow between 1912 - 1917, and subsequently the Moscow Svomas (free studios), where they and other students designed decorations for the first Mayday celebration in 1918.

In 1919, the Stenbergs and comrades founded the OBMOKhU (Society of Young Artists) and participated in its first group exhibition in Moscow in May 1919 and the exhibitions of 1920, 1921 and 1923. The brothers and Konstantin Medunetskii staged their own "Constructivists" exhibition in January 1922 at the Poet's Café, Moscow, accompanied by a Constructivist manifesto. Also that year, Vladimir showed his work in the landmark Erst Russiche Kunstausstellung (First Russian Art Exhibition) held in Berlin.

During the 1920s and 30s they were well established as members of the avant-garde in Moscow, and of Moscow's INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture). The Stenbergs practiced in a range of media, initially active as Constructivist sculptors, subsequently as theatre designers, architects, and draughtsmen. Their design work covered evrything from clothing, including women's shoes, to railway carriages. Some examples of their sculpture were spidery and spindly structures, such as the reconstruction (1973-74) of KPS 11: Construction of a Spatial Apparatus no. 11 (1919-20) in steel, glass, paint and plaster on wood, now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Georgii Augustovich Stenberg KPS 11 - Construction of a Spatial Apparatus no. 11

KPS XIII, 1919-78
steel and wood on pedestal

However, the arenas in which they excelled were theatre costume and graphic design, particularly the graphic design of film posters, encouraged by the surging in movies in Russia and the government's sanctioning of graphic design and the cinema.

Georgii Augustovich Stenberg
costume design for "Day and Night"

Georgii Avgustovich Stenberg
costume for "The Beggar's Opera"

The brothers were at their prime during the revolutionary period of politics and artistic experimentation in Russia, centred in Moscow. In the visual language of the constructor of Constructivist, the Stenbergs and other designers and artists made assemblages.

The innovative visual aspects of the Stenberg posters included a distortion of perspective, elements from Dada photo-montage, and an exaggerated scale, a sense of movement, and a dynamic use of colour and typography - eventually all were to be imitated by others. The Stenberg artwork was frequently based on stills from the films. Radical even today, the posters by the brothers working together were realised within a nine-year period from 1924 to 1933, the year Geogii died at age 33 in a motorcycle accident. Vladimir continued to work on film posters and organised the decorations of Moscow's Red Square for the Mayday celebrations of 1947.
Biographical notes on the Stenberg brothers adapted from Wikipedia

This is part 1 of a 2-part post on the works of the Stenberg brothers: