[Second Exhibition 'Cinema Poster'. February, 1926]. Vtoraya Vystavka “Kino-Plakat”. Fevral’, 1926 g.

One of 5 000 copies published.
Very rare. The exhibit of the Stenberg Brothers' movie posters is presented for the first time.

In 1922, Vladimir Lenin famously stated, "...you must well remember that, of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important." Following nationalization of the movie industry in 1919, the first state-owned movie company, Goskino, was established in 1922 and later renamed Sovkino in 1924. The advertising department, Reklam Film, oversaw the design, approval, and distribution of posters for both foreign and Soviet films throughout the Soviet Union. Yakov Ruklevsky, the head of Reklam Film, enlisted talented young artists such as the Stenberg brothers, Vladimir and Georgii, who created movie posters from 1923 until Georgii's untimely death in 1933. Christopher Mount noted their significance, stating that they "organized the First Exhibition of Film Posters in Moscow in 1925" (Stenberg Brothers: Constructing a Revolution in Soviet Design. New York, MoMA, 1997). Despite this, their posters were not exhibited there, as noted in the exhibition typescript catalogue held in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.

The second exhibition of movie posters was inaugurated at the Moscow Chamber Theatre on February 1, 1926. Participating artists included Nathan Altman, Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg, Alexander Rodchenko, Anton Lavinsky, Iosif Gerasimovich, Yakov Ruklevsky, and many others. Notably, Rodchenko and Lavinsky's famous posters for Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," which have since become emblematic of Russian Constructivist movie posters, were also on display.

We couldn't trace any copy of this edition in the USA or European libraries via OCLC.