Arbeyter-Luach… [Almanac for the Worker, for the year 1921], second year. Warsaw: Lebns Fragen, 1921. Yiddish. Front cover illustration by Henryk Berlewi (signed in the plate).
Almanac for the Jewish worker for the year 1921. The almanac contains historical-social articles from a socialistic perspective, various reviews of the Jewish society in Poland and Jewish community institutions, with tables and statistical data and biographies of prominent figures in the Socialist movement. At the beginning of the almanac, a Gregorian calendar marking Jewish holidays and festivals, a chronicle of historical events related to the working class and Socialism, and a chronicle of events leading to the founding of the Bund movement.
The Jewish-Polish artist Henryk Berlewi (1894-1967) was one of the leading constructivist artists in Poland in the 1920s. He studied art in Warsaw, Antwerp and Paris. During the years 1919-1921, he worked with the artistic and literary avant-garde group Jung Jiddisch. Berlewi designed and illustrated books; especially remembered are his illustrations for books by poets Uri Zvi Greenberg and Peretz Markish. In 1924, Berlewi published a theoretical essay titled "Mechano-Faktura" in which he introduced the artistic method he had developed – using mechanical means to create texture. The "Mechano-Faktura", which is based on arrangements of lines and simple geometric forms, using the colors black, white and red, rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality. In late 1920s, Berlewi moved to Paris, where he mainly focused on painting portraits. After World War II, his works were displayed in several large exhibitions in Paris, as well as in Berlin, Warsaw, Zürich and New York.
286, [10] pp. 19.5 cm. Fair condition. Brittle paper. Detached leaves and gatherings. Front and back cover detached. Spine Missing. Creases, tears and small open tears to margins of leaves and cover (not affecting text).
One listing only in OCLC.