AFTERNOON SESSION The following two lots were archivally stored for over 70 years in the Albertina Museum in Austria, un-backed and un-restored. They emerged from the Museum in near mint condition, and the colours of each poster retain their original freshness and vibrancy. During the silent era, not many cinemas existed, which in turn meant that not many posters were printed for promotional purposes. Very few posters have survived from this time as they were all routinely destroyed after the screening ended. The following two posters are therefore extremely rare and are possibly the only known copies to exist.

Mihály Biró

STRIKE STREIK

Details

Mihály Biró
STRIKE STREIK
1925, Goskino, Hungarian, condition A-; backed on linen
73 x 50in. (186 x 127cm.)

Provenance

Julius Paul, Vienna and by descent to his wife Paula Paul, January 1938;
Gaston Albert Belf, Vienna, by bequest;
Forced sale to Antiquariat V.A. Heck, following the Nazi Anschluss after March 1938;
Albertina Museum, Vienna, acquired from the above, 15 September 1939;
Restituted to the heirs of Gaston Albert Belf in 2008;
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Lot Essay

Strike was director Sergei Eisenstein's first full length feature film, depicting a 1903 strike by factory workers in pre-revolutionary Russia. In Pravda, Mikhail Koltsov said that 'In Strike we see the first revolutionary creation of our cinema.' Making the film convinced Eisenstein that his chief interest was cinema rather than theatre and later the same year he began work on his cinematic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin.

STRIKE STREIK

Lot Essay

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