Fall/Winter 2003

Cover Story

Portrait of Akmal Ikramov, first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, blacked out with india ink by Alexander Rodchenko in 1938 after Ikramov’s show trial and execution. The portrait appeared in Ten Years of Uzbekistan, a political album Rodchenko designed in 1934. In the Stalin era, Rodchenko, like many others, blacked out portraits of liquidated Communist officials in the books in his personal library. From David King, The Commissar Vanishes (Metropolitan). Courtesy David King Collection.
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