[CUBIST SCULPTOR] Boris Korolev. The folder, consisting of the photographs of works exhibited at Erste Russische Kunstausstellung in Berlin in 1922, titled Russische Plastik [i.e. Russian Sculpture]

Berlin, [1922]. [28] pp., with 26 photographs mounted on leaves. 32x23 cm. The album opens with the photos of Korolev, signed. Each photo is inscribed and dated by Korolev, indicating the year the work was submitted, the name and the museum where the work was held at the time. In a hand-made paper folder. Spine is slightly restored and
strengthened. In the modern protective case. Provenance: collection of the artist Nikolay Istselennov, Paris. Important artifact from one of the iconic exhibitions of Russian avant-garde.

Boris Korolev (1884-1963) was one of the most well-known sculptors of Russian modernism of the 1910-1920s. He studied at the Studio of painting and drawing by I.I. Mashkov graduated in 1916. As a young sculptor Korolev was responsible for conducting the change in Russian sculpture from pre-revolutionary style to Soviet. In December
1917 he participated in demolition of Skobelev's statue in Moscow, and next year according to Lenin's plan of monumental propaganda (inspired by Campanella), he was an active participant in the group of young sculptors, creating the new monumental art for the newly born state. That was the period when a lot of the monuments were erected, sometimes from fragile and weak materials, in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kyiv, praising the heroes of the Russian left. For example, Karl Marx's statue was erected in 1919,
Korolev's design was one of the contestants, but in the end a more traditional version by Lavrov was chosen. Korolev was one of the founders of the sculpture faculty at VKHUTEMAS, where he taught in 1920-1925. This period in Russian sculpture is important because the artist could freely experiment. One of the iconic experiments of the time was Korolev's cubist sculpture of the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, erected on Turgenev square in Korolev's hometown of Moscow, 1919. According to art critic Vladimir Rakitin, 'the monument to Bakunin is one of the few works of Russian sculpture that could take its rightful place in the history of European sculpture of the twentieth century.' However it was too experimental even for revolutionary Moscow administration and it only stood for a few months in scaffolding, nevertheless becoming legendary among Muscovites as a symbol of the new world coming. 95% of monumental sculptures, erected in 1918-21 were demolished, or destroyed by natural causes within the next 10 years of their creation (a lot of the time they were created with gypsum, concrete or wood). The First Exhibition of Russian Art (Erste Russische Kunstausstellung) was a milestone in the acceptance of new Russian art in the West. Massive in size, it consisted of approximately 1000 works by 150-170 artists. The catalogue for the exhibition was designed by El Lissitzky. It was the exhibition at which Malevich first showed 'White on white' and 'Suprematism', the western audience first viewed the works of Klutsis, Rozanova, Filonov.

Korolev's participation in the exhibition was important, as it fell right on the very end of his cubist period - after 1923 there are no recorded cubist works by him, as he shifted towards other movements in Soviet Art. Works shown at the exhibition and included in this album are pieces from 1915-1920, including the design for the cubist monument of Marx, the photo of the notorious Bakunin statue, photos of two cubist sketches and photo of the cubist 'project of the public building' (1920). Most of Korolev's work from
the period didn't survive, as later he was named 'formalist' and banned from exhibiting. His first ever personal show was held only in the late 1950s, when the restriction was lifted.