Lot 44: KHLEBNIKOV, ALEXANDER (1897-1979) Classic Still Life

KHLEBNIKOV, ALEXANDER (1897-1979)
Classic Still Life, signed, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1966 on the reverse.
Gelatin silver print, laid on cardboard, 26.5 by 39 cm.
Photographed and printed in 1966.

Provenance: Collection of the photographer.
Thence by descent.
Acquired directly from the above by the previous owner.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Private collection, Europe.

Exhibited: 8 vystavka. Moskovskii fotoklub “Novator”. 1961–1966, Moscow, 1966 (label on the reverse).

Alexander Khlebnikov (1897–1979) is acknowledged as the pioneer of Russian still life photography. He was also one of the first Soviet photographers who worked in advertising. He was a pupil of Alexander Grinberg and a friend of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova. It was he who helped and encouraged Stepanova to start the Sovetskaya zhenshchina magazine in 1945. Around that time he got actively involved in the fashion and advertising industry of the USSR. Together with Georgy Soshalsky, in 1961 he founded Novator, a highly influential photo club.