Russian Art & Literature - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 129. ROZANOVA, Olga Vladimirovna (1886-1918).
Vzorvel (Explodity). Experimental blue hectograph proof for
Vzorvel by Aleksei Kruchenykh and Velemir Khlebnikov. 178 x
110 mm. St. Peterburg: “Euy,” 1913. Unexamined out of frame.
Condition: small crease to upper left corner.
Kruchenykh was the most radical of Russian Futurist poets
and one of the most innovative poets of the twentieth century.
Working directly with his country’s great avant-garde artists, he
redefined the very nature of the printed book. Written in zaum,
Kruchenykh’s invented transrational language, the text of Vzorval
is a combination of lithographed sheets and pages rubber stamped
by the poet himself. The first edition was issued in Spring 1913,
the second the following Fall with some rubber-stamped texts
dropped or replaced by others. This was the first with Rozanova’s
cover; she and Kruchenykh were married in 1912. Due to the
complexity of the book’s composition, it seems unlikely that the
stated edition of 450 copies was ever achieved. Few examples
survive of this text that by itself announced a signal event in the
expansion of poetic and linguistic possibilities of expression.
MoMA 55; Hellyer 25.
$4,000 - $6,000
Lot 130. LEBEDEV.
Lot 129
Iskusstvo v massy [Art for the Masses]. Vladmir Vasilevich
(1891-1967), illustrator.
Nos. 7-8 (November-December 1929. (305 x 215 mm). 48 pp.
Lettered white wrappers designed by M. Roslov with a picture
by V. V. Lebedev on the back. Condition: backstrip perished,
signatures loose, covers creased at corners.
One double issue of the art journal published by the Association
of Revolutionary Artists (AKhR), who were dedicated to
“the reflection of daily life in art.” This proletariat organization
denounced the “Formalism” of the Russian avant-garde as the result
of “unhealthy thinking.” Still it included its share of Mir Isskustva
[World of Art] artists (Kustodiev, Laneere, Petrov-Vodkin) as
well as Modernists (Grigoriev, Maliutin). It held exhibitions,
issued postcards of members’ work and established a publishing
program that included Iskusstvo v massi from 1929 to 1930 in only
20 issues. The organization was disbanded in 1932 and reemerged
as the Union of Artists. The Lebedev picture on the back wrapper
comes from his celebrated collection of ROSTA posters Russian
Placards, 1917-1922 (1923).
$600 - $800
Russian Art 79