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Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books

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Drevoryty k mystikum a visionarum (Woodcuts to the Mystics and Visionaries)

Drevoryty k mystikum a visionarum (Woodcuts to the Mystics and Visionaries)

Josef Vachal Woodcuts to Mystics and Visionaries. A Cycle of Woodcuts from the Period of 1911-1913. Folio in wrappers (21-5/8 x 15-3/8 inches), prints are 8-1/4 x 8-1/4 inches. Five woodcuts saluting the life of mystics and seers: Strom Zivota (The Tree of Life), Cornelius Agrippa, Jakob Boehme, Angelus Silesius and Katarina Emmerichová, all loose as issued, in paper folio with titles and artist's signature on rear cover. Each print bears Váchal's blind-stamp. These were selected from the original printing of ten images under the title Mystikové a visionari. First edition thus. A number of books and catalogues attribute one image from this set to William Blake, from the mistaken attribution in the great 1994 Váchal memorial exhibition. That refers to another of the original ten and we offer it separately; please inquire. The edition itself, without note of limitation, comes from a later date than the first release in 1913 and was released sometime around 1923. This later edition suggests the selection Váchal chose as the best of the original set. Josef Vachal (1884-1969) was a Czech painter, printmaker, book artist and writer, visionary and idiosyncratic. He is sometimes called the Czech William Blake because of the parallels to the great British artist found in his poems and book making. He occupies a unique place in Czech modern culture. He celebrated Pagan, magical and alchemical traditions with intense spirituality and burning social criticism. An outsider all of his life, he was recognized as an Artist of Merit by the state in his last year as a small token of esteem. OCLC locates two institutional holding worldwide (Thomas Fischer Toronto, Northwestern Univ).
  • $3,200
  • $3,200
ARKHITEKTURNYE FANTAZII. 101 kompozitsiia v kraskakh

ARKHITEKTURNYE FANTAZII. 101 kompozitsiia v kraskakh, 101 arkhitekturnaia miniatiura, ispolneny pri uchastii D. Kampanitsyna i E. Pavlova.

Iakov Chernikhov (Architectural Fantasies. 101 Compositions in Color, 101 Architectural Miniatures, Realized with the Participation of D. Kompanitsyn and E. Pavlova.) Quarto 30.5x21.5 cm., embossed cloth, 102pp., 101plates, released in 3000 copies. Iakov Chernikhov (1889-1951) is known for his theoretical works which are encapsulated in the books he published from 1927 to 1933. As an architect, very few of his conceptions were realized and he spent most of his life in teaching positions at design institutes throughout his professional life. The present work is acknowledged to be the last publication of avant-garde design in Stalinist Russia. It is an amazing feat, with 101 color plates of visionary drawings executed by the author and two design assistants. It also contains numerous black & white renderings, equally remarkable in scope. This work, a statement of publishing excellence and daring architectural vision appeared in spite of the narrowing options left for designers under increased Party strictures. They would soon jell into the dreary Neoclassicism that pervaded the USSR under Stalin. Chernikhov was censured soon after the book's release. One later work, The Construction of Letter Forms, appeared posthumously in 1959. As a working contemporary with Soviet designers, Chernikhov had a great interest in Futurism, Constructivism, and a real affinity with Suprematism; he was a friend of Malevich. But he was too much of an individual with many visual concerns and dimensions to explore to be subsumed into a school other than his own. He emphasized that design must start with pure abstraction. Many of the architectural fantasies in this book are sheer exercises in pure form. These were meant to serve for the bases of extraordinary structures, most beyond the technology of the day for realization. These and other Chernikhov designs have inspired architects and designers starting in the 1980s when there was a reevaluation of Constructivism and Suprematism in Post-modernist circles and individual design pioneers which continue to the present day. This copy with some spine fading, else near fine.
  • $9,500
  • $9,500