Search Results: Avant-garde from Bookvica

Moscow; Leningrad: Gosizdat, 1929. 69, [2] pp. 20x14 cm. Original color wrappers. Slightly rubbed, damp stains in the bottom right corner throughout the book. Otherwise a very good copy. First separate edition. Rare. According to S. Khan-Magomedov (Alexandre Rodtchenko: L'Oeuvre complet, P. 139), Anonymous cover design was produced by Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956). Mayakovsky wrote the play Klop in 1928 based on materials collected by him while working in different newspapers (Komsomol'skaya Pravda [i.e. The Komsomol Truth], etc). "The mass of philistine facts" that the poet came across gave rise to the two main characters of the satire. Mayakovsky defined the main goal of the play as "the exposure of today's philistinism." The bold novelty of the play was in the poet's attempt to look at the philistines of the 1920s through a prism of the future, namely the year 1979. Being curious about how the public would receive The Bedbug, Mayakovsky traveled around the country and read the play to… Read More

Moscow: Staatsverlag für schöne literatur, 1932. No.1: 160 pp.: ill., 2 ills. No.2: 118, [2] pp.: ill. 25,5x17,5 cm. In original constructivist wrappers with flaps of the back covers. #1: Tears of the spine, rubbed, some stains, otherwise very good. #2: Small fragments of the spine lost, faded, minor tears of the spine and covers, otherwise very good and clean internally. In German. Rare. Constructivist cover design and layout of the magazine was produced by Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956). It features a red (Communist) globe that is either "declaring" internationally relevant literature or is being invaded by it. A flap of each back cover contains a table of contents and brief info on the contributors to the issues. The periodical was edited by the Polish writer Bruno Jasieński (pseud. of Wiktor Zysman; 1901-1938), known as the leader of the Polish Futurist movement. In 1929, Jasieński moved to the Soviet Union and settled in Leningrad where he accepted Soviet citizenship. Jasieński became… Read More

#1, 3, 5 for 1926; #20 for 1927; #5, 7, 16 for 1928. Overall 7 issues. Moscow: Teakinopechat', 1926-1928. 26x17,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very good. Tears of the spine (#3, 16, 20), Soviet bookshop's stamp on the back cover (#3, both #5), a few spots. Very rare. The main circus periodical of the 1920s, that was published every 10 days from 1925 till 1930. The periodical features constructivist wrappers as well as caricatures and sketches, photos (sometimes with the use of photomontage). The wrapper of #3 (1926) was designed by Georgy Golts. The wrapper of #5 (1926) was designed by Dmitrii Moor. This is the only wrapper designed by Moor for the periodical, and in our humble opinion the grin on the 'happy' clown drawn by the master of anti-religious satire, could have fitted very well in his periodical 'Bezbozhnik' [i.e. The Godless]. The wrapper of #5 (1928) was designed by Z. Makhlin. The issue was dedicated to the 10 years of 'Gostsirk'. The wrapper of #16 (1928) is designed by… Read More

Odessa: Yugo-LEF, 1924. 16 pp. 26,5x18 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Spine, wrappers, outer corners of pages restored, otherwise very good. Between the last leaf and the back cover, one advertisement from a pre-revolutionary book is inserted. The second of five issues produced. One of 3000 copies. Extremely rare. Cover design created by Nikolay Sokolov (1904-1990). He designed all issues, except for the first one. Yugo-LEF as the group existed for less than a year. It was formed in April of 1924. The editorial board of the magazine included three writers - Leonid Nedolia, Semyon Kirsanov, Sergey Bondarin, and two artists - Nikolay Sokolov and Nikolay Danilov. Ukrainian-born poet Leonid Nedolia became the main manager of the group. At that time he just returned from Moscow where he was the editor-in-chief of the satirical periodical 'Krysodav' [i.e. The Rat-Crusher], so he worked with Mayakovsky, Igor Terentiev, Kruchyonykh, Meyerhold, Dmitrii Moor, etc. Over the course of the year, the… Read More

Petrograd: 17-ya Gos. tip., 1920. 84 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers with a color lithograph by Malevich on each wrapper. Spine restored, otherwise very good copy. A rare example of Malevich's application of Suprematism to book design. Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) famously proclaimed in the catalog to the Tenth State Exhibition in 1917: «I have broken the blue shade of color boundaries and come out into white. Behind me comrade pilots swim in the whiteness. I have established the semaphore of Suprematism.» Yet Nikolai Punin didn't see the Suprematism of Malevich as a new base for national artistic tradition. «For him it was too individualistic to serve this mighty purpose.» However, it did not stop him from being interested in Malevich's work. It is no coincidence that the front cover of this book was designed by the artist. Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin (1888-1935) was a Russian art scholar and writer. His circle of friends included Mayakovsky, Malevich, Tatlin, Lebedev and others. He was also a… Read More

St. Petersburg: Obshhestvennaia pol'za, 1911. 172 pp.: ill. 21,5×17,5 cm. In illustrated wrappers, the original front cover preserved. Restored,  some soiling, otherwise good. First edition. Very rare. Cover design and illustrations produced by Boris Grigoriev (1886-1939), the Russian painter and graphic artist whose style was a compromise between cubism and realism. Denying 1917 Revolution, he emigrated in 1919 but was trying to come back home and kept relations with avant-garde Russia. This pre-revolutionary edition features the art pieces that radically differ from his emigre graphic works and paintings in general. In 1910-1911 he followed traditions of 'Mir Iskusstva' society and was closer to art nouveau than avant-garde. This point unites the early works by Grigoriev and Kamensky, both are out of their recognized styles. This is the first prose book by Vasily Kamensky (1884-1961), the futurist poet who is well-known for his 'visual poetry' of the 1910s, including 'Tango with Cows', and… Read More

Kyiv: Kooperativn farlag "Kultur-lige", 1922. XXIII pp.: ill., 5 ills. 34,5x25,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Wrapper is restored from the edges without loss of the image or the text. p. I-XIV have a trace of rust going through them, at the outer margins - also restored. Few stains are also on the last page of the book. Otherwise good. Overall a well-restored and preserved copy of this extremely fragile large-format edition. First and only edition. One of 4500 copies. Extremely rare as a complete copy with 5 illustrations on separate leaves.;; It is 2 more than illustrations in a copy of the Yale University. Elegies for Jewish communities devastated during pogroms that were caused by the Russian Civil War. They were written by Yiddish poet David Hofstein and were published at Kultur Lige which gained the leading position in Jewish social and cultural life. The association enlisted practically all the Yiddish cultural, political, scholarly figures of any fame that lived in Ukraine and Belarus.… Read More

Pair of children's collages, from the first futurist exhibition 'Mishen' [i.e. The Target] showing the landscape and the flower. 11,5x19,5 cm and 18x11,5 cm. Provenance: from the collection of architect Nikolay Vinogradov (1885-1980). Both are reproduced in Anthony Parton's 'The Art and Life of Natalia Goncharova' (London, 2010). The famous Mishen exhibition took place in April and March of 1913 was organized by Mikhail Larionov. The meaning of the name was explained, that the artist considered themselves a target, in which the public is ready to aim. Alongside with Larionov and Goncharova, in exhibition participated Mikhail Le Dantu, Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Shevchenko, Marc Chagall, Kirill Zdanevich and others. For the first time ever Niko Pirosmani's works were included in the exhibition. Along with the affection of the organizers for the primitivism, some lubok prints and children's drawings entered the exhibition including these two collages. The influence of the children's art on Russian… Read More

Kharkiv: Pomoshch', 1922. P. 10-12. 22x26 cm. In very good condition, some tears of the spine and edges, few stains, the outer corners of the front cover were lost. Extremely rare. In Russian. The issue presents a less-known article criticizing dadaism in a short period of its existence in the USSR. In the early 1920s, a short-lived group Nichevoki [Nothingists] existed and could be considered an aftersound of the European Dada movement. This denouncing text was written by Oleksandr Leites (1901-1976), a Ukrainian literary critic who was close with Khlebnikov and Mayakovsky. Later he published memoirs 'Khlebnikov - What He Was Like' (Novyi mir, #1 for 1973) where he characterized sophisticated ideas of this futurist artist. Leites claimed: "There are a lot of symptoms of falling and decaying culture. Dadaism is one of such examples. That's not our zaum, not our budetlyanstvo repainted in the European way. Our budetlyane are principled, they argue and look for something while the main principle of… Read More

Petrograd: Tretiya strazha, 1923. 59 pp. 23х16 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Very good. Spine with tears. First and only edition. One of 2000 copies. Constructivist wrapper designed by wunderkind of Petrograd theatre world Nikolay Akimov (1901-1968). Akimov was working as a book designer full time, but at the same time his career as a theatre designer had started already in BDT with the help of Nikolay Evreinov. Akimov can be regarded as one of the most multifunctional personas in Russian constructivism as he was active as poster and book designer while working as a stage designer, and later as a theatre director. His first work as a theatre director was 'Hamlet' staged in 1932 in Vakhtangov theatre (Shostakovich wrote the score for that particular performance). In 1927 'Academia' printed a book dedicated entirely to 26-year-old Akimov and the same year his first personal exhibition was held. The book written by Petrograd art critic Yakov Brukson (1878- 1933) is analyzing the recent… Read More

Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1932. 22 pp.: ill. 23,5x19,5 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Slightly rubbed and soiled, covers and corners of pages restored, otherwise very good. An early posthumous edition of the famous poem and a good example of the early Soviet design of children's books. Design was created by avant-garde artist Nisson Shifrin (1892-1961), one of the founding members of the Jewish art group Kultur-Liga. In 1918-1919, he studied at the workshop of Alexandra Exter and then in the Ukrainian Academy of Arts in 1920-1921. In the early Soviet period, Shifrin embarked on children's book design, primarily works by Jewish writers. At the same time, he taught in VKHUTEIN, the Institute of Printing Arts and the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts (GITIS). Later he was engaged in theatrical design, frequently collaborating with his spouse, artist Margarita Genke. In 1935-1961, he was the principal stage designer of the Central Theater of the Russian Army. In the 1940-1960s,… Read More

Moscow: Izogiz, 1933. 235, [3] pp. 17,5x20 cm. In original cardboards with renewed spine and modern slipcase duplicating binding. No dust jacket. Covers restored and slightly worn, lower edge of front cover faded, light soiling of some pages, Soviet bookstore stamps on back flyleaf. Otherwise very good. First edition. One of 5000 copies. Text and photographs by Jewish journalist Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) mostly living in emigration at that time. In contrast to the book by Kusikov, this edition is a project that El Lissitzky made for an emigre but released in the Soviet Union. Earlier, their well-known collaboration took place in Berlin in 1922. Together, Lissitzky and Ehrenburg published the international modernist magazine 'Veshch' [Object] of two issues. A whole period of the life and work of Ilya Ehrenburg is associated with Paris. He first arrived in France in 1908 and had lived there until the Russian February revolution. Then he witnessed the October revolution and the Civil War, was arrested… Read More

Berlin: Skify, 1922. 62, [2] pp. 21x14 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Creases of wrappers, few minor stains, private stamp on t.p. and p. 33. Otherwise near fine. One of the Berlin projects produced by El Lissitzky (1890-1941), one of the leading figures in Russian avant-garde art. He is best known for his photomontage experiments and international art projects. In December 1921, Lissitzky moved to Berlin as a cultural representative. He worked on establishing contacts between Russian and German artists, as well as introducing Russian avant-garde into European modernism. In particular, he contributed to "Die erste russische Kunstausstellung" [The First Exhibition of Russian Art] where 150 Soviet artists showed more than 700 artworks. 'Bird without a Name' resembles other designs of that period - "Rabbi", "Object" - altering colored and outlined letters. Along with them, this collection was printed by a Berlin-based Russian emigre publisher "Scythians" [Rus. Skify] The book collects poems by… Read More

Berlin; Paris: Russkoe iskusstvo, 1921-1926. #1-14. Ca. 32x25 cm. Every issue in illustrated wrappers. Generally very good, some mild soiling, with tiny tears and losses of the spine (#1,2,12,14), foxing and piece of tape on the spine (#13). A complete set. Extremely rare in wrappers. Lavishly illustrated throughout with black and white and color plates with captions. Print run was approximately 300 copies. Zhar-ptitsa is 'perhaps the most famous of post-revolutionary art journals, whose contributors threw new light on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century' (Fekula). By the early 1920s, a large Russian emigre colony had formed in Germany, and the hyperinflation that swept over the country turned it into a paradise for publishers who found the conditions under which the output of books was much cheaper than anywhere else in Western Europe. All this caused a 'Russian book boom' on the banks of the Rhine: about 50 Russian publishers worked in Berlin at that time.… Read More

[Moscow, 1921]. 14, [2] pp. 17,5x11 cm (unfolded two leaves, each leaf 34,5x22,2 cm). Uncut and unbound as issued. Near fine. Previous owner's ink stamp on p. 3, erased ink stamp and pen mark on the last page. First edition. Very rare. This is a collection of poems by representatives of avant-garde literary movement close to expressionism called fuism. Boris Pereleshin (18?-1938), Alexander Rakitnikov, Ippolit Sokolov (1902-1974) were in a small group of fuists which existed only for a couple of years from 1921 to 1923. Avant-garde of the 1920s went through many transformations and survived by efforts of many isolated art groups. Fuists (from the french for crazy, 'fou') whose poetry in Igor Vasil'ev's words "displayed elements similar to Surrealism... their fragmented language and confused articulation appeared as a pre-programmed method of reaching for new horizons of the poetic utterance". Fuists made up a small, poorly organized group that set itself the task of enriching "the exhausted element… Read More

#1, 2, 3, 4 for 1923, #1, 2 for 1924, #3 for 1925. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1923-1925. # 1 (1923): 252, [1] pp.: ill. + 3 pp. of ads. 24x16 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Fragments of spine lost, minor tears of outer edge of p. 215-216, some soiling, small signature on t.p. Otherwise good. # 2 (1923): 177, [1] pp.: ill. + 2 pp. of ads. 24x16 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Tears of spine and covers, otherwise very good. #3 (1923): 40, [1], 40a, 41-186, [1] pp.: ill.+5 pp. of ads. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Uncut, minor pale water stains on front cover, small tears of spine with small fragments lost. Otherwise very good. #4 (1923, t.p. dated 1924): 222, [1] pp.: ill.+ 1 p. of ad. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Separated to sections. Fragments of spine lost. Some foxing, pale water stain on front cover and following three leaves. Good. #1 (1924): 160 pp:. ill. 23x15 cm. Original constructivist wrappers. Back cover detached, fragments of spine and… Read More

Moscow: Izd. G.L. Kuz'mina i S.D. Dolinskogo, 1913. 86, [2] pp., 15 ills. 21x17,5 cm. In original wrappers with title mounted. Tears of spine with small fragments lost, spine faded with pale water stain, small tears of covers, narrow water stains on outer margin, foxing on front cover. Otherwise very good internally. First and only edition. One of 1100 copies. Rare. Heading to the "typographical revolution», the Hylea group didn't refuse to use illustrations. They were influenced by lithographed books of Kruchenykh and began to add lithographs to publications, beginning with 'Trebnik troikh'. The collection reproduces 2 works by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1 work by Nadezhda Burliuk, 3 works by Vladimir Tatlin, 2 works by Vladimir Burliuk and 7 works by David Burliuk. The edition came out in March 1913. There are obviously more contributors of verses than "the three". Looking for a solution, brothers David Burliuk and Nikolai Burliuk united into someone "D.N. Burliuk" in a publisher's advertising list on… Read More

Moscow, 1930. 19 pp., ill. 21,5х18 сm. In original illustrated wrappers. Rubbed, two small closed tears of the spine. Otherwise a near fine copy. One of 250 copies. Very rare. Published by the author. Cover design by I. Kliun. Illustrations by I. Terentyev. This is one of the last works by Kruchyonykh. There were two versions of the title page: one with stated run of 150 copies, another - of 250 copies. Our copy of this second run. But many experts and researchers of Kruchyonykh's work claim there was only one run of 150 copies. Ivan Kliun (1873-1943) was an important Russian avant-garde painter and teacher who worked for Narkompros and VKhUTEMAS. Igor' Terentiev was another futurist poet who helped Kruchyonykh found the 41° group in Tiflis. MoMA. 873. WorldCat locates four copies in US libraries.

Tbilisi: Samkhedro stamba, 1923. 139, [4] pp. 22.5x15.5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Restored and slightly soiled, blank lower corners of p. 41-44 lost, some pale water stains and small tears, otherwise very good and clean. First edition. One of 1000 copies. A very rare collaboration between two esteemed representatives of Georgian art, Iona Vakeli (1900-1988) and Irakli Gamrekeli. This book is probably one of the only examples by Gamrekeli of a series of abstract drawings for a book of poetry. The main motifs are the industrial city, pictured in chaotic lines and odd angles combined with dancing signboards. The work anticipates the design for H2SO4. Interestingly Gamrekeli used the poor quality of paper available at the time to the advantage of his sharp black & white images. Published in 1923, "Sharavandedi" marked a major breakthrough in the career of the Georgian proletarian poet and playwright, Iona Vakeli. Still only twenty-three years old, the Tbilisi State University student had been… Read More

Moscow: Khud. izd. akts. o-vo AKhR, 1930. 148 pp. 19x13 cm. Publisher's illustrated wrappers. Spine slightly rubbed. Otherwise near fine. First edition. One of 5000 copies. Scarce. Viktor Lobanov (1885-1970), art critic and writer. He often wrote articles in the periodicals about artists, exhibitions, articles for catalogs of art exhibitions; wrote more than a dozen books about Russian artists. But he entered the history of Russian avant-garde as the author of this important well-known book. This was the first work of such kind combining information on all art groups of the most intense period of life and art of the country. This edition came out right on time because in 1932 an infamous decree about elimination of all art formations and styles but one was established. Worldcat locates paper copies at the Frick Art Library, Yale University, Brown University, University of Chicago, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Pittsburgh.