IRINA SHTENBERG (RUSSIAN/GEORGIAN 1905-1985) Costume Design of a Lute Player, gouache and pencil on craft paper (cut out and glued down on cardboard) 35 x 18.2 cm (13 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.)
LOT NOTES Irina Shtenberg was a fascinating figure in the history of Russian and Georgian art, the Tbilisi avant-garde, and the art of the theater. She spent her youth in Gerogia, where she graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Art in the 1926, studying under Evgeny Lansere and Gigo Gabashvili. Moving to Moscow in 1929, Shtenberg became a member of the artistic elite, working and exhibiting with Akimov, Tishler, and members of the '13' artist group. With the support of Anatoly Lunacharsky, Soviet Peopel's Commissar of Education, she had first solo exhibtion in Moscow. While in Moscow, she contributed to influential journals such as Rost and 30 dney. Unfortunately for Shtenberg, her husband, the high-ranking party functionary Alexander Kulidjanov, was arrested in 1937 and most likely executed. After returning to Tbilisi, she continued to work as a theatrical artist creating stage designs and decorations, working for the best theatres in Tbilisi. Shtenberg is also known for her forays into erotic drawing, and her own sexuality has been the subject of much speculation over the years. Whether in her erotic drawings, her costume designs, or other works, Shtenberg always imbued a personality and humanity into her figures.