Spartakiad

The National Museum of Art, Riga (Latvia).

Colour photo collage.

The most famous and expensive Soviet postcards in the world are a series of Klucis. Nine postcards were issued for the All-Union Spartakiad in Moscow. This was the first experience of Klucis when he created multi-colour works using the photo-editing technique. Each of the cards is dedicated to one or more sports. Collectors call each card by the kind of sport: “tennis”, “relay race”, “football”, etc. Some images contain patriotic or political slogans: “For healthy, seasoned youth”, “For the unity of workers-athletes of all countries”, “Our athletic greetings to workers-athletes of all countries”, etc. The circulation of the “Spartakiad” was rather big – 15 thousand copies. However, at present, those postcards are rarely available. The reason is in the political attitudes of the authorities. Since the author was arrested as an “enemy of the people” and shot, all references to him had to be destroyed.