Film poster by the Stenberg brothers. 20s

Alexander Panov

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Gallery "Nashchokin's House". Moscow

The exhibition of Vladimir and Georgy Stenberg (as on the poster, but more commonly - the Stenbergs) in the Nashchokin House gallery runs in the interval between exhibitions of the art of Russian romanticism and ceremonial portraiture, for which the gallery walls are covered with noble “empire” wallpaper. Faded posters for films by Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, along with old projectors, movie cameras, and cans of film displayed for “atmosphere,” look strange against their background. It’s as if the manor’s estate, without really being refurbished, was turned into a Railwaymen’s Club. However, this contrast, annoying at first, gradually makes the old movie advertising work.

After all, the aesthetics of the Stenbergs’ posters are contrasts of color, intense dynamics of clear verticals, the collision of right and left, top and bottom. The point is not only in following the precepts of constructivism, one of the founders of which were the Stenbergs - not only poster artists, but also graphic artists, sculptors, designers, designers of Red Square and performances of the Tairov Chamber Theater. The vision of the Stenbergs is the vision of time, which does not tolerate spatial (and ideological) disorientation - the time of straight lines. In extreme cases, spirals, meaning turbines and radio towers.

From the lines that break up the image, collage was born as a genre that violated the natural laws of painting, which imitated living nature. “We handle the material completely freely, do not observe proportions, turn the figures over, etc. - we use everything that can stop even a hurrying passerby,” the Stenbergs explained. This is the case when commerce (the business of advertising is to attract clients) and aesthetics went hand in hand with politics.

Today, however, the Stenberg posters are simply art history.