RUSSISCHE BOEKTYPOGRAFIE /
RUSSIAN BOOKCOVERS 1922 – 1932
Ada Stroeve [introduction] and Vladimir Krichevsky [essay]
Ada Stroeve [introduction] and Vladimir Krichevsky [essay]: RUSSISCHE BOEKTYPOGRAFIE / RUSSIAN BOOKCOVERS 1922 – 1932. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1999. First edition [SMA Cahiers no. 17]. Text in Dutch and English. Slim quarto. Thick printed wrappers. 36 pp. 66 color illustrations. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Catalog designed by Walter Nikkels. Minor shelf wear, otherwise a fine copy.
7.5 x 9.5 soft cover book with 36 pages and 66 small full-color illustrations. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam [Jan 30 – March 14, 1999].
66 small full-color illustrations of covers include work by Nikolay Akimov, Yury Annekov, Anatoly Borisov, Sergey Chekhonin, Michail Cheremynkh, Olga Deyneko, Aleksandra Ekster, Georgy Fisher, Aleksey Gan, Georgy Goltz, Nikolay Ilin, P. Kharybin, Gustav Klutsis, Anton Lavinsky, El Lissitzky, L. Lozovsky, Vladimir Milashevsky, Ignati Nivinski, G. Noskov, A. Pavlov, Nikolay Prusakov, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Aleksandr Samokhvalov, S. F. Sokolov, Georgy Stenberg, Georgy en Vladimir Stenberg, Adolf Strachov, Aleksandr Surikov, Faik Tagirov, Solomon Telingater, Boris Titov, Michail Tsekhanovsky, Nikolay Tyrsa, Konstantin Vyalov, and Boris Zemenkov.
Russian avant-garde books made in the decade between 1922 and 1932 reflect a vivid and tumultuous period in that nation's history that had ramifications for art, society, and politics. The early books, with their variously sized pages of coarse paper, illustrations entwined with printed, hand-written, and stamped texts, and provocative covers, were intended to shock academic conventions and bourgeois sensibilities.
After the 1917 Revolution, books appeared with optimistic designs and photomontage meant to reach the masses and symbolize a rational, machine-led future. Later books showcased modern Soviet architecture and industry in the service of the government's agenda. Major artists adopted the book format during these two decades. They include Natalia Goncharova, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Olga Rozanova, the Stenberg brothers, Varvara Stepanova, and others. These artists often collaborated with poets, who created their own transrational language to accompany the imaginative illustrations.
Three major artistic movements, Futurism, Suprematism, and Constructivism, that developed during this period in painting and sculpture also found their echo in the book format.