Soviet Russian Porcelain Group "Radio for the Village" by Naum Kongiser

Item Details

A porcelain group titled Radio for the Village, designed by Soviet sculptor Naum Kongiser (1904-1984). Created by the State Porcelain Factory in Leningrad for the 1927 Jubilee marking the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, this piece depicts a Soviet Pioneer youth introducing the wonders of radio to an elderly peasant man.

The Jubilee festivities consisted of a national and international effort to solidify and promote the Bolshevik Soviet system in Russia, and incorporated every segment of Soviet society, including factory and agricultural workers, as well as artists working in every medium. The Imperial Porcelain Factory, founded in 1744, became the State Porcelain Factory upon the revolution of 1917, making several unique contributions to the Jubilee’s traveling exhibitions. The statuette offers an overglaze painted decoration with bright areas of red coloring the youth’s kerchief and the old man’s shirt. It bears the specific 1927 Jubilee porcelain factory mark as well as the artist’s name in Cyrillic.

In 2017, marking the 100th anniversary of the Revolution, the exhibit Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 took place at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. An example of the Kongiser porcelain group was included as an instance of Soviet Socialist Realism in the manner of so-called ‘Agitation Porcelain,’ consistent with Lenin’s ‘Plan for Monumental Propaganda’ as realized in the 1932 Russian State Museum exhibition Fifteen Years of Artists of the Russian Soviet Republic. The Royal Academy included the Kongiser work with other porcelain groups and paintings representing the Fate of the Peasants.

Condition

- no explicit guarantee of authenticity can be made. Extensive crazing to clear glaze with some glaze pooling; uneven lower edge to base causing it to rest unevenly on table surface; small chip on headphone cord, with some discoloration; accretions of dust and dirt overall.

Dimensions

Item #

ITMA0003NV