[DAVID SHTERENBERG, ILLUSTRATOR], THREE RUSSIAN CHILDRENS BOOKS, 1930 SHTERENBERG, David, illustrator. 1. Mariengof, Anatolii. Bobka fizkulturnik [Bobka the Athlete]. Moscow: GIZ, 1930. Square 8vo. 12pp. 2. Chai [Tea]. Moscow: OGIZ, 1931. Square 8vo. 12 pp. Original decorated wrappers.. 3. E. Emden. Pesnya o Mame [A Song about Mama]. Moscow: GIZ, 1930. 8vo. 12pp. Color lithographs. Original color lithographed wrappers. Some soiling and creases.
Shterenberg was an exceptional Ukrainian-born Jewish Modernist painter. Through his friendship with A. Lunacharsky, he was appointed a Commissar for Artistic Matters and later Head of the Department of Fine Arts of the People`s Commissariat of Enlightenment or Narkompros. When the Soviet authorities clamped down on all freedom of expression in art, he found a brief haven designing highly experimental children`s picture books. Like so many of his contemporaries, he was forced to work in a more realistic style in the 1930s and died largely forgotten. These scenes from the life of two African boys are illustrated in Shterenberg`s bold Neo-Primitivist style that fused his knowledge of African art with Cubism.