Yuri Pavlovich Annenkov (Russian, 1889-1974). "Constructivist Composition (Reklame-Verkauf)". Mixed Media on paper, mounted on board. 1921. Signed and dated in pen in the image, lower right. Composed with oil, watercolor, gouache, and crayon, painted on a single sheet of newspaper ("Le Nouveau Journal de Strasbourg" October 1920 issue). The sheet is mounted to a firm but flexible contemporary board. Provenance: Private collection, Kentfield, California; formerly collection George Wittenborn, Wittenborn Art Books, New York City, sold in the 1950s; acquired by Wittenborn during or shortly after the second of the Adolfo Muller-Ury estate sales at the Plaza Art Galleries in New York City in December, 1947. The second sale included material from consignors in addition to the Muller-Ury estate. It is doubtful that the picture was owned by Muller-Ury; rather, a different consignor in the second Plaza sale. As the noted art historian Stephen Conrad has indicated about this painting, "The fact that it [our example] appeared in the second of his [Muller-Ury's] estate sales at the Plaza Art Galleries in New York in December 1947 is not proof of his ownership, the reason being that many lots in these sales were from other vendors...It remains highly unlikely that he [Muller-Ury] would have owned anything as modern as this constructivist work, as he is on record in the 1940s as saying, 'The saddest thing on God's earth is modern art…'". While Annenkov is best known for his portraits, like other Russian artists of his time he was influenced by the Constructivist movement, the artistic and architectural force that originated in Russia in 1919. Our rare and superb example of Annenkov’s Constructivist oeuvre was painted at the froth of that movement. Overall size: (board) 17 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (448 x 349 mm). Image size: 17 5/8 x 12 5/8 in. (448 x 321 mm). [24951] |24000| {R100} czzzz~cozzz