Institute of Decorative Art workshop, Leningrad.
25 October (7 November in the New Style) 1917 was the date of the October Revolution in Russia. Palace Square, Winter Palace (where the Provision¬al Government was arrested), Aurora cruiser and the red colour of the tray are perceived as symbols of the Russian revolution. The painted design imitates the technique of collage; the Winter Palace, Alexander Column, Aurora, cannon, armoured car and other objects appear to have been cut out of cardboard. Two rectangles superimposed on one another designate the square-beamed road and the column of marchers carrying flags and ban¬ners, which are viewed as if from above.

Lapshin Nikolai

LAPSHIN, Nikolai Fyodorovich
1888, St Petersburg — 1942, Leningrad
Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer, writer on art. Studied at the primary school of the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing (1900), under Ivan Bilibin, Arkady Rylov and Nicholas Chimona at the School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1909–1912) and at the studios of Jan Ciaglinskj (1911–1912) and Mikhail Bernstein (1913–1914). Contributed to the exhibitions of Target (1913) and No. 4. Futurists, Rayonists, Primitive (1914). Member of Freedom to Art (1917), Art and Revolution (1917), Unification of New Trends in Art (1922–1923) and the Four Arts (1924–1931). Worked for IZO Narkompros (1919‒1921). Assistant director of the Museum of Artistic Culture (1921–1923). Worked at the Decorative Institute (from 1922). Collaborated with the Hedgehog magazine (from 1928). Taught at the Higher Art and Technical Studios (1920–1922), Leningrad Technical College of Construction (1931‒1933) and the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (from 1933).