Semen Kirsanov, S.B. Telingater design, photomontages
Octavo 20x14cm., original decorated cloth, 176pp., 10000 copies. Book design with 8 double-sided photgravures by Solomon Telingater. "The Five-Year Plan" is a major poem. The author Semen Kirsanov (1906-1972) established the Southern Association of Futurists as a teenage poet, and apprenticed under Mayakovsky and Aseev. He was a strong promoter and member of LEF, and felt that he had inherited Mayakovsky's torch after the latter's death in 1930. At that time Mayakovsky had sketched a beginning to the plan and Kirsanov felt the urgency to complete it for him in a paeon to the vision of Lenin and Stalin and the forthcoming triumph of their aims. He collaborated with the design wizard S.B. Telingater (1903-69) here, who provides a stunning example of Constructivist book design, with photomontages and typography living up to the aspirations of the poem. OCLC locates seven North American holdings. Getty 331. Provenance: S. Polivanskii, N.A. Drachev, with their bookplates and stamps. Near fine with slight edgewear.
V. Babushkin
Octavo 19.5x14 cm., decorated boards, 127pp. Two-color photomontage cover by N. Pinus (Natalia Sergeevna Bukharova, 1901-1980). Pinus studied at VKhUTEMAS-VKhUTEIN and was a member of the Artists Union of the USSR. She is best known for her powerful agit-prop posters. She devoted her later life to painting. Along with Valentina Kulagina, she was among the top of the Soviet women photomontage artists of her generation. Viktor Babushkin (1894-1958) was a Soviet editor, author and journalist from Saratov. After a varied background he participated in the First Congress of Soviet writers, headed various newspapers and magazines, and flourished until he was expelled from the party as a double-dealer and participant in the Sapronov leftist opposition, was tried and sentenced for three years in the gulag. Prohibited from writing, he distinguished himself as a mechanic during WWII and received numerous honors. He was finally reinstated in the party and the Writers' Union in 1954. OCLC locates copies at LOC, Columbia.
Octavo 18x13 cm., wrappers, 228 (5) pp. Erenburg wrote this set of satirical stories using one of the pipes from his collection. Cover design by Liubov' Kozintsova or Kozintseva (1898-1978) wife of Erenburg. She studied under Aleksandra Ekster, Robert Falk and Rodchenko and exhibited in Berlin, participating in the 1st Russian art exhibition, in Der Sturm Gallery and the left wing of the joint exhibition of the Berlin Union artists and Union of German Architects, collaborated in the journal Veshch-Objet-Gegenstand, exhibited constructivist graphics in Hanover, Prague, Brno and Antwerp, and from 1924 in Paris with the Autumn Salon. She illustrated several books of her husband and on returning to the USSR in 1940 and ceased exhibiting. The present work is the second edition and differs from her cover design in 1923 with a more complex composition. The book was widely translated and received fine cover designs by Heartfield, Zarnower, Strakhov. OCLC finds 3 holdings for the 1924 edition (Columbia, Amherst, UBC).
Octavo 22x17.5 cm., original wrappers, 111, 112 pp. Nos. 1-2 (all published). Illustrated with drawings by Kuznetsov, Lopukhin, and with photographs. Contributors include A. Tairov, K. Bal'mont, Shpet, Toporkov, inter alia. OCLC locates six North American institutional holdings. No.1 has light stains on first two pages, No. 2 fine.
(15 Years of the First Cavalry Army. Ogonek special number) Quarto 29.5x22.5 cm., stiff wrappers, 114 pp. A special number of Ogonek celebrating 15 years of the First Red Cavalry. Full cover design by N. Zhukov, with photos by Giorgii Zel'ma, A. Bunimovich, D. Debabov, M. Markov, A. Skurikhin. Graphics by Boris Efimov, V. Mikhailov, A. Chernomordik. Articles by Voroshilov, Budenny, the poet Kirsanov, inter alia. OCLC locates holdings at Yale, NYPL, Unv IL, IN. A superb copy.
Folio 32x28 cm., wrappers, (46) pp. (Piano in the Nursery) The score for eight piano pieces for children, with full page color lithographs and decorations by Pavel Miturich (1887-1956). The October revolution introduced mandatory education in Russia, and brought about a renaissance in children's books and musical works. New values required a new children's literature which often employed a bold visual language set in motion by the Futurists, and articulated by artists eager to promote the avant-garde in the new society. Arthur Lurie (Naum Izrailovich Lur'e,1892-1966) was at the center of the Russian avant-garde before and immediately after the Revolution. As the first Russian Futurist composer, he helped establish experimental music within the new Soviet State. He also set poems by his friends V. V. Mayakovsky and Anna Akhmatova (his lover) to music. Lunacharsky put him in charge of the music division of the Commissariat of Enlightenment, but he quickly grew disillusioned with the Soviet system. He went to Berlin in 1921 on an official mission and never returned to Russia. The present work was composed in 1917 in the midst of the revolution. A reproduction of this book opens the section on Children's Books in the MoMA catalogue The Russian Avant-Garde Book. With color lithos by Petr Miturich (1887-1956), painter and graphic artist. Initially a Futurist and close with Khlebnikov, he later atught at VKhUTEMAS and illustrated many books. Well known for his portraits of Vrubel', Mandelstam, and composer Artur Lurie, he collaborated with the composer on this project with wonderful results. Not in Hellyer. The Russian Avant-Garde Book, p.167. OCLC locates five holdings (Getty, Princeton, NYPL, Morgan, UC Berkeley) in North America. MOMA 309. A near fine copy.