R. B. Kitaj

In the main edition of 70, this image (signed and mounted as here) was a fake film 'still' and part of the overall work set against an image of the spines of copies of the a French cinematic magazine. This edition features in the collections of both TATE and the V&A. Kitaj's work reaches beyond popular culture to reflect a more esoteric interest in philosophy, literature, history and world politics. Here, he situates propaganda regarding the cultural and economic development of the Soviet Union in an evocation of cinematic history. He presents a layout of covers of a French journal - the 'Anthologie du Cinema'- dated variously from the 1960s and 70s, each bearing the name of a different major film director, and a still image from the film 'Turk Sib' with a text below it suggesting reasons for its importance. The image shows (as the text describes it) "the old wasteful means of transport (camel) and the new fruitful one (the steel road).
Although signed by the artist, the price reflects the fact that this is a proof and the backing image is missing.