Russkoe iskusstvo promyshlennogo kapitalizma (Russian Art of Industrial Capitalism) [Monograph]

Series: Istorija i teorija iskusstv; vypusk odinnadtsatyi (History and theory of art; eleventh issue [total of 12]). Condition: closer to good; cover shows some rubbing, frayed cover edges, missing small pieces from the bottom edge of the cover, for that reason the bottom edge is strengthened with paper strips form the inner side, small damp stain on the front cover to the spine, and light trace of moisture to the bottom right corner of the back cover, spine creases, restored ends of the spine; internally occasional foxing spots, frayed fore-edges of some sheets, fore-edge margins of ten sheets show light trace of moisture. 

Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov (1900-1969) was art critic and historian, in 1929-1934 curator of new Russian art at the Tretyakov Gallery closely associated with the Russian avant-garde. In June 1930 he organized his first radically experimental dialectical-Marxist exhibition, which introduced the best artworks that addressed Soviet and revolutionary topics in order to expand the museum’s collection of post-revolutionary art and to bring it to the present moment. In the 1933-1934 Marxist theory of arts had been critized and Fedorov-Davydov branded as a "vulgar sociologist". 

In 1929 came out Fedorov-Davydov’s seminal work "Russian Art of Industrial Capitalism", which ranks as one of the most thorough sociological studies of visual art ever made. As a dedicated Marxist art historian, Fedorov-Davydov saw the main goal of the current research work as that of understanding the social-economic nature of the laws of artistic production. He based this research merely on the facts while the theoretical generalizations are a subsidiary device. He involves statistics of industrial production and print media, analysis of art market and customer tastes from different social class, and proofs close interrelation of contemporary art and industrial production operating with terms “machine art” and “stankovist art”. For example, building on the facts, he argues, that the Peredvizhniki artists represented a commercial and inclusive exhibition enterprise with prioritive economic, not ideological motivations. The book also includes numerous illustrations (over 60) of artworks reproductions in the text. A fundamental change in the type of scientific argumentation from the theorizing to the concrete facts and emphasis on the topic of industrial production makes this research valuable not only for many generations of Russian art historians, but also in the international context. Book’s striking constructivist cover in red and black designed by unattributed artist.