MBA004: Lot 1. [ARCHITECTURE] –

A collection of issues of the two famous Soviet architectural periodicals that together provide an insight into the unique marriage of the architectural aspirations and ideology of the Stalin’s epoch.

The “USSR architecture” was an illustrated monthly periodical that was published from 1933 until 1992 with some interruptions. It included overviews of the domestic architecture, building projects as well as articles on European and American architecture. The tone of reviews obeys a strict ideological framework. Articles about projects by Soviet architects are impregnated with pompous praise, whereas many of those reviewing architecture abroad overuse such notions as “battle”, “controversy of capitalism” and “crises”.

The other periodical “The Construction of Moscow” was founded in 1923 and often featured stellar avant-garde designs by Gustav Klutsis, Vasilii Elkin, and El Lissitzky. It ran through the 1930s, but progressively became less and less modernist in terms of both form and content as time went on.

Description

USSR Architecture (Organ Soyuza sovetskikh arkhitektorov, Moskva, 1936-37): 21 issues (1936: issues No3 – 12; 1937: issues No1 – 11), complete with all ll., original wrappers; occasional spotting and soiling, some occasional light mold, heavier to last 15 ll. of issue 9 for 1937, margins and spines of wrappers slightly chipped.
Construction of Moscow (Mossovet, Moskva, 1935-38): No6 and 17-18 for 1935; No4-8, 10-12 and 22 for 1936; No6, 12, 22 for 1937 and No16 for 1938,
most issues with plates, including some folding, original wrappers; some light marginal waterstaining in several issues, light soiling.

Provenance

Bibliography