Dali House

Both the pious and and the profane had a look in at the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12.

Above, what at first glance seems to be dinnerware with a Muslim motif is in fact a piece of Soviet propaganda from the 1920s, a plate made by the Higher State Art-Technical Studios, known as VkhUTEMAS.

The figure from the Caucasus kneels before a hammer and sickle, surrounded by an Arabic transliteration of the Russian slogan “Workers of the World United” and images of labourers and a factory.

Sotheby’s, which was counting on between £5,000 and £7,000 for the piece, explained that VkhUTEMAS was similar to the German Bauhaus in intent and scope, merging traditional craftsmanship with modern technology.

Then there was the jolly watercolour “Bacchante” of Count Mihaly von Zichy (1827-1906), below, and you really have to wonder about the models. If they had to hold that pose for a long time, didn’t she get itchy? Someone liked the painting enough to pay £15,000 for it.

Another piece from the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12, and it’s more “Sots art”, the quasi-Soviet version of pop art. This is the 1991 silkscreen “Gorby”, offered for £4,000 to £6,000, by Alexander Kosolapov, who’s about 65 years old now.

Hard to say whether Gorbachev’s lipstick and eyeliner are meant to denigrate his dismantling of the Soviet Union or not, but it’s still as much a nod to stoic Kremlin portraits as it is to Warhol.

How would you like to wake up every morning to Nikolai Konstantinovich Kalmakov’s “The Wife of Satan”?

On the other hand, Kalmakov’s “The Head of Christ” from 1922, not part of the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12.

Kalmakov (1873-1955) was a stand-out at the sales this year, and his demon spouse from 1919 was a jaw-dropper, but the higher bidding and the fondest gazes were reserved for “The Death of Adonis” from 1924, below, which was expected to bring between £40,000 and £60,000, a third more than Mrs Satan.

See the rest.

Another piece from the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12: Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev’s “In the Cafe de la Rotonde”, which was expected to bring between £40,000 and £60,000.

I think it’s a lovely, pensive painting by Yakovlev (also referred to as Iacovleff, 1887-1938), born and trained in St Petersburg, widely travelled, including to Mongolia, Japan and China. He taught architecture in his hometown, by then renamed Petrograd, and in Boston too, finally settling in Paris in 1920. See the rest.

This is part one in a series of images I’m posting of Russian works that went on the block at a pair of Sotheby’s auctions earlier this month, for which I’ve added a new category to the Dali House menu. They’re the ones I would have bought, given enough roubles, and they’re all quite extraordinary, for quite different reasons.

The sales, both held in London, were “Russian Paintings” on June 10 and “Russian Works of Art” on June 12.

Possibly the timing was off for the porcelain Easter egg above. The holy day had long passed by the time of the sale (and the name Faberge was nowhere in sight), so the 19th-century coastal scene from the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory failed to find a buyer. The vendor had hoped to earn between £3,000 and £5,000.

And it was too late for the more whimsical age of the tsars. Soon after, the only art you could look at in the Soviet Union had to have a picture of Stalin on it, a time recalled with unambiguous intent in Vagrich Bakhchanyan’s “Stalin Test”, two details below. See the rest.