[df-subtitle]Russian photograph from the Lafuente Archive (1917-1972)[/df-subtitle]

The Russian Avant-Garde and Soviet Realism collection of the Lafuente Archive consists of more than eight hundred photographs, from between the years 1917 and 1972, which are a fundamental testimony to understanding the Russian history of the 20th century: the Revolution, the avant-garde artistic experimentation, the Stalinist policies of industrialization and agricultural collectivization, World War II and its consequences, daily life in the Soviet Union and the image that the regime wanted to convey are some of the themes portrayed.

The collection is structured in eight chapters: The Construction of the New Man , Heralds of Storms , The Collective Dream , Soviets and Electricity , Expansion to the East , The Struggle for the Harvest , The War: Direction of History , and Moscow Diary.

The importance of these photographs lies not only in their visual content, which is truly relevant for understanding a world that, though vanished, remained largely unknown outside the borders of Bolshevism. It is also worth considering the valuable information they provide: many of the photographs in this collection are signed, titled by the photographers themselves, and offer precise textual information about the locations where they were taken, the people portrayed, or the circumstances they document. Furthermore, their varying sizes suggest they served different purposes: exhibitions, publications, or printing proofs, among others.

The Lafuente Archive acquired this photographic collection in New York in 2016. Its owner until then was an American private collector specializing in avant-garde Russian art who had dedicated more than twenty years to the study and compilation of Soviet photographs. His numerous trips to Russia had provided him with the contacts and knowledge necessary to create this splendid legacy. In assembling this collection, he developed personal relationships with many of the artists or their families and worked closely with some of them. Thus, in the 1990s, this collector, together with Aleksander Lavrentiev (the grandson of Aleksander Rodchenko ), published two lavish portfolios containing fifty photographs of the artist, printed specifically for this purpose in his former Moscow studio. That same decade, he also befriended the Russian photographer Yevgeny Khaldei , whom he helped to promote his work in the West and accompanied to the opening of a solo exhibition of the artist's work at the Jewish Museum in New York, shortly before his death.

The works of Aleksander Rodchenko and Yevgeny Khaldei are joined by those of dozens of photographers of Soviet origin who, like them, were the creators of the photographs in this collection: Max Alpert, Dmitri Baltermants, Lev Borodulin, Dmitri Debabov, Emmanuil Evzerikhin, Semyon Fridlyand, Mikhail Grachev, Naum Granovski, Boris Ignatovich, Yakov Khalip, Ivan Kobozev, El Lissitzky, Sergei Loskutov, Mark Markov-Grinberg, Pyotr Otsup, Ivan Shagin, Arkady Shaikhet, Arkady Shishkin, Anatoli Skurikhin, Alexander Ustinov and Georgi Zelma.

[df-subtitle]Guided tours of the exhibition:[/df-subtitle]

Individual guided tours (with prior booking)

El Círculo de Bellas Artes It offers guided tours for adults conducted by experts in Art History, starting from 5 registered people:

• Schedules and prices:

Friday, June 15th at 18:00 PM
Tuesday, June 26th at 17:30 pm
Tuesday, July 10th at 11:30 PM
Tuesday, July 24th at 18:00 PM
Thursday, September 6th at 18:00 PM

Price: €8 per person. This price includes admission to the exhibitions and the guided tour (refunds will only be issued if the booking is cancelled at least 48 hours before the tour).  

Guided tours for groups (with prior reservation)

El Círculo de Bellas Artes It offers guided tours for adult groups conducted by experts in Art History:

• Schedules and prices:

From Tuesday to Friday, except in August (there will be no guided tours during this month). Price: €50 per group plus €3 per person (entrance fee to the exhibitions).

Weekends and holidays. Price: €60 per group plus €3 per person (entrance fee to the exhibitions)

Information and bookings for guided group and individual tours:

Monday to Friday from 9.00h to 14.00h

91 196 70 99

info@didark.es