Digital exhibition · private collection

KRASNOPEVTSEVFEDOROV

Film posters. Reklamfilm. 1953–1972.

Forty-four sheets from a private collection: Reklamfilm posters, archival documents, and a few works by other artists. No retouching, no stylisation — just paper, ink, and time.

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Dmitry Krasnopevtsev. The Last Inch. 1959. Paper, chromolithograph. Reklamfilm.44 sheets

Curatorial text

A poster as work, not as a museum object

Between 1953 and 1972, Moscow’s Reklamfilm factory produced the posters that met audiences outside cinemas. It was mass, fast, applied work: an artist received black-and-white photo sets, made a sketch, had it approved in the morning, and within a week the print run was on cheap paper in two or three colours. A poster might live for weeks, sometimes only days.

Dmitry Krasnopevtsev joined the factory in 1953 and stayed for twenty years, until 1973. His film posters look little like the metaphysical still lifes he is known for: here there is more advertising directness, a large face, a local colour. Yet his manner is still visible — restrained, slightly detached, attentive to silhouette and pause.

The collection is not only Krasnopevtsev. It includes Viktor Kononov’s The Mexican, Boris Kondratyev’s When Friends Are Near, probably Nikolai Khomov’s The Unruly, an anonymous leaflet and a book spread. We do not flatten them under one name: different authors are part of the Reklamfilm story, not a mistake in the collection.

The double name in the title is not a signature under every sheet but the frame of the collection. It points to two lines: Krasnopevtsev’s artistic work at Reklamfilm, and the Fedorov family history through which the collection survived. Where attribution is not confirmed, we say so plainly.

The collection

Forty-four sheets

Posters, a booklet, a leaflet, a book spread and an album cover. Original proportions are preserved; images are neither cropped nor colour-corrected.

“Verified”, “probable” and “not established” refer to the attribution of the artist, not to the quality of the print. A poster year may differ from the film year.

44 sheets

Context

Three lines

An artist, a factory and a collection. Briefly, what is confirmed — and what still needs archival work.

Dmitry Mikhailovich Krasnopevtsev

Moscow artist (1925–1995), a figure of unofficial art and a master of the metaphysical still life. He studied at the Surikov Institute (1949–1955), working on etching with M. A. Dobrov.

From 1953 to 1973 he worked as a film-poster artist at Reklamfilm. His first solo exhibition took place in 1962 in Sviatoslav Richter’s apartment; in 1992 he became the first laureate of the Triumph prize.

Film posters were work for him, not his central statement. Yet they show how the future still-life painter learned to build an image: through pause, silhouette, limited colour and precise detail.

Alexei Alekseevich Fedorov (1937–1994)

A name bound up with the history of this collection. In the sources available to us, we could not document his biography or specific film posters; we therefore do not attribute any of the 44 sheets to him, and we do not fill the gap with guesses.

This does not diminish his significance for the history of the collection, but it calls for further archival research. The collection was formed by his son, Alexei Fedorov Jr. (1970–2024); digital copies were transferred to Anton Merkurov.

The title of the exhibition should not be read as if the collection belonged to Fedorov Sr. This is a private collection formed after the Soviet period.

Reklamfilm

A Moscow film-poster factory and the main producer of Soviet cinema advertising in the 1950s and 1960s. Artists worked from black-and-white photo sets, often without colour indications; a sketch was made overnight, approved in the morning, and printed within a week.

In the 1960s a group of young authors — Miron Lukyanov, Vasily Ostrovsky, Liliya Levshunova and others — brought symbolism, metaphor and collage into the poster, moving away from literal “cinematic” illustration. By the early 1990s Reklamfilm had effectively ceased operations.

Our sheets are part of that mass production. They carry print dates, order numbers, edition sizes and prices. They are not unique single impressions but editioned products that survived as documents of their time.

1953

Krasnopevtsev joins Reklamfilm. The collection includes Ships Storm the Bastions and The Servant of Two Masters.

1956

Viktor Kononov’s The Mexican and Krasnopevtsev’s The Innkeeper.

1960

First Date, Sponge Divers and Eugénie Grandet — a year of high output at the factory.

1964

Silence (file 1960-6), a late sheet that reminds us the filename is not the poster year.

1972

The Lion’s Grave, the latest sheet in the collection.

The collection

Where these sheets come from

The collection was formed by Alexei Fedorov Jr. (1970–2024). Digital copies were transferred to Anton Merkurov for publication. It is not the collection of Alexei Alekseevich Fedorov (1937–1994), nor an “artist’s archive”: it is a private collection formed after the Soviet period.

We publish the 44 sheets as a research corpus, not as a complete catalogue of Reklamfilm. Some are unique variants absent from the Russian State Library; some are by other artists; some are archival documents. The boundaries of the collection matter as much as its contents.

The collection of Alexei Fedorov Jr. (1970–2024)

Digital copies were transferred to Anton Merkurov. The originals were not altered; the images in this exhibition are shown in their original proportions, without cropping or filters.

This is not a complete Reklamfilm catalogue, nor the collection of Alexei Alekseevich Fedorov (1937–1994). The boundaries of the collection matter as much as its contents.

Sources

Where the facts were checked

Attributions, film years and imprint data were checked against the objects and external catalogues. These are the main entry points.

Russian State LibraryCatalogue of visual materials, poster records and variants NEB — Soviet film posterCollection and historical context Museum of Cinema — poster fundMuseum collection and fund description Manege — History of Soviet cinema in film postersExhibition context, 1919–1991 Reklamafilm — historyFactory and artists’ history Gamborg Gallery / Digital Soviet ArtSmall-format Krasnopevtsev variants DEFA-StiftungGDR films: Dr. Robert Mayer, Five Cartridges Národní filmový archivCzechoslovak films, including Escape from the Shadow MosfilmFilmographic data ARTinvestment — Dmitry KrasnopevtsevBiography and work at Reklamfilm Dodge Collection — Dmitrii Krasnopevtsev1953–1973: work as a film-poster artist

Links lead to external sources. Some catalogues may be geo-blocked.

Digital exhibition. The originals were not altered: images are shown in their original proportions, without cropping or filters.

Collection of Alexei Fedorov Jr. · digital copies transferred to Anton Merkurov