Ptushko, A[leksandr] and Natalia Bukharova-Pinus (artist).

[SOVIET AVANT-GARDE – PHOTOMONTAGE AND ANIMATION] Mul'tiplikatsionnye fil'my [Animation films].

Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1931. Octavo (18 × 12.7 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers; 62, [2] pp. With twenty-two illustrations from photographs. Very good; inconspicuous professional restoration to spine. Item #54650

First and only edition of this early work on animation films by the key figure in the development of Soviet animation, Aleksandr Ptushko (1900–1973), with striking wrappers by the avant-garde artist Natalia Bukharova-Pinus (1901–1986). Intended for a popular audience, the volume aims to “demystify” the tricks of animated and combined film, with numerous illustrations in the text used to explain the process. A pioneer of animation and special effects, Ptushko was born in Luhansk (Ukraine), and began working at Mosfilm in 1927, where he perfected compositing techniques, combining live-action filming with stop-motion animation. In 1944–1946 he was the director of the main Soviet animation studio Soiuzdetfilm, returning to directing in later years. His screen adaptations of Russian folktales such as Stone Flower (1947) and Sadko (1953) gained international recognition and earned him a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and a Grand Prix at Cannes.

The Constructivist graphic and poster artist Natalia Bukharova-Pinus did the photomontage wrapper design for the volume. In 1923–1930 Pinus studied at VKhUTEMAS, a school often compared to the Bauhaus for its experimental edge. Pinus was also a member of the Oktiabr’ group (1928–1932), along with other top Constructivist artists working in a variety of media such as Aleksandr Vesnin, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Valentina Kulagina, and Gustav Klutsis among many others. She would create her most famous posters in this period such as “Women Workers, Women Collective Farmers, Be in the first lines…” (1931), and “We Will Build Daycares, Playgrounds, and Factory Kitchens…” (1933). A prolific graphic artist, she also designed covers for various periodical publications such as Krasnaia Niva and Zhenskii Zhurnal among others. Her work is part of the permanent collection at MoMA, appearing most recently in the exhibition “Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented, 1918–1939” in 2021.

See Hauptman and Sudhalter eds. Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented, 1918–1939. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2021.

As of October 2024, KVK, OCLC show three copies in North America.

Price: €2,000.00

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