Auction 69 - Part II - Avant-Garde Art from the Collection of Uzi Agassi
Russland, Die Rekonstruktion der Architektur in der Sowjetunion [Russia, The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union], written and designed by El Lissitzky. Vienna: Anton Schroll & Co., 1930. German.
The first monograph in the Neues Bauen in der Welt [New Building in the World] series, devoted to modern architecture in Russia, the USA and France. The book contains 104 illustration, architectural plans and photographs of models showcasing architectural projects in the USSR, some of them Lissitzky's own work; accompanied by a foreword by Lissitzky and an introduction by the editor of the series, Joseph Gantner. Photomontage on dust jacket by Lissitzky.
103 pp, 29 cm. Good condition. Publisher's soft cover with dust jacket. Small tears and some stains to dust jacket. Dust jacket glued to spine (presumably as issued), with front detached. Spine torn and mostly missing.
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El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (1890-1941), a Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect, one of the most prominent and important members of the Russian avant-garde.
Lissitzky, an architect by training, contributed much, together with his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich (see items 255-257), to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematism movement – the abstract art focused on geometric forms. He also designed numerous books and journals, exhibitions, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe. In his early days, Lissitzky showed much interest in the Jewish culture and many of his works integrated Jewish motifs (during the years 1915-1916, he took part in the ethnographic expedition headed by S. An-sky to various Jewish settlements). Wanting to promote Jewish culture in Russia after the revolution, he became engaged in designing and illustrating Yiddish children's books, creating several children's books which are considered pioneering masterpieces due to their graphics and typography (see for example, the series of children's book he illustrated in 1919, items 234-236, as well as additional children's books he illustrated, items 237, 241). However, several years later, he abandoned the Jewish motifs in favor of developing a more abstract and universal artistic language.
In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals; there he also created some of his most well-known works in the field of book design, including the issues of the journal "Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet", which he founded together with the writer Ilya Ehrenburh (see item 244 and item 249) and a volume of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky (see item 245 and item 250).
Lissitzky, who perceived books as immortal artifacts, "monuments of the future" by his definition, used the medium as a tool for spreading the messages of avant-garde and his artistic perception, as indicated by the variety of books in whose design, production or illustration he took part – beginning with children's books and books of poetry (see items 242 and 243) and ending with catalogs, guidebooks and research books (see items 246 and 248).
Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence and bring about change.
Lot 249 Four Books by Ilya Ehrenburg – Illustrations by El LIssitzky, Alexander Rodchenko and Others
1-2. Two editions of his book Шесть повестей о легких концах [Six Stories about Easy Endings]:
• Moscow-Berlin: Геликон (Gelikon), 1922. First edition. With six illustrations by El Lissitzky.
163, [2] pp, 19.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Insignificant worming. Loose gatherings and several detached leaves. Stamps and handwritten notations on several leaves. Blank cardboard binding (the original binding is missing).
• Moscow: Пучина (Puchina), 1925. Second edition.
140 pp, [2] leaves, 18 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Creases and small tears. Stained cover, with creases and small tears along edges and spine. Stamps and notations on the cover and the title page.
3. Тринадцать трубок [Thirteen Pipes]. Moscow-Berlin: Геликон (Gelikon), 1923. Cover design by artist Lyubov Kozintseva (1899-1970), Ehrenburg's wife.
257 pp, [2] leaves, 19 cm. Good condition. Stains, mostly to cover. Creases and tears to edges of cover. The back cover is partly detached. Stamp and pen notation on the back cover.
4. Материализация фантастики [The Materialization of Fantasy]. Moscow-Leningrad (St. Petersburg): Кинопечать (Kinopechat), 1927. Cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
30 pp, [1] leaf, 17.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Creases and minor abrasions to margins of cover. Stamps and pen notations on back cover.
For information about Ehrenburg, see item 258.
1. Солнце [The Sun]. Moscow-St. Petersburg: Круг (Krug), 1923. Cover design and illustrations by Mikhail Larionov.
Mikhail Larionov (Михаил Ларионов, 1881-1964), a painter, graphic designer and scenic designer, born in Tiraspol (today in Moldova), was one of the leaders of the Russian avant-garde movement. He was also one of the founders of the avant-garde artistic groups "Jack of Diamonds" and "Donkey's Tail" and founded a new style of abstract art called "Rayonism".
2. Лирика [Lyric]. Moscow-St. Petersburg: Круг (Krug), 1923. Cover design by Anton Levinsky (Антон Лавинский, 1893-1968) – an artist, graphic designer and architect, born in Sochi; one of the prominent representatives of Constructivism.
The logo of the publishing house was designed by Yury Annenkov.
3. О Курске, о комсомоле, о мае… [About Kursk, about Komsomol, about May…]. Moscow: Красная новь (Krasnaya Nov), 1924. Cover design by Ruvim Mazel.
Ruvim (Reuben) Mazel (Рувим Мазель, 1890-1967) began his artistic training at Yehuda Pen's school in Vitebsk. Between 1910 and 1914, he studied at the Munich art academy and later returned to Russia. He was immediately drafted to the army and with it he reached the city of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. He remained in Ashgabat after the war and even founded a school of art there. In ca. 1923 he returned to Moscow, where he worked for several publishing houses.
4. Хорошо! октябрьская поэма [Good! October Poem]. Moscow-Leningrad (St. Petersburg): State Publishing House (Государственное издательство), 1927.
A poem marking the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Cover design by El Lissitzky.
5. Мы и прадеды [We and our Ancestors]. [Moscow]: Молодая гвардия (Molodaya Gvardiya), 1927. Cover designed by Nikolai Ilyin (Николай Ильин, 1894-1954) – a Russian graphic designer, typographer and illustrator who mainly worked as a book designer.
6. Но. С. [New Poems]. Moscow: Федерация (Federation), 1928. Cover design by Alexnader Rodchenko (1891-1956).
Enclosed is an additional copy of the book "Lyric".
A total of 7 items. Size and condition vary. Restored covers to books 3 and 5.
For information about Mayakovsky, see item 252.
• ЛЕФ (LEF) – Left Front of the Arts. Two issues edited by Vladimir Mayakovsky – first year, issue no. 2 (April-May, 1923); second year, issue no. 1 (1924).
• Новый ЛЕФ (Novy LEF) – the New Left Front of the Arts. Issue no. 12, edited by Sergei Tretyakov. [1928].
The covers of all three issues were designed by Alexander Rodchenko. Issue no. 2 (1923) features logos of an airline company designed by Rodchenko, alongside examples of sports clothing designed by his wife, artist Varvara Stepanova.
The Left Front of the Arts was an association of Constructivist and Futurist artists and intellectuals active in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, headed by poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. The LEF journal, edited by Mayakovaky, was published between 1923 and 1925. Renamed "Novy LEF" ("The New LEF") in 1927, the journal went on publishing shorter issues until 1929. In its last months of publication, the journal was edited by writer and playwright Sergei Tret'iakov.
The journal LEF was the first publication in the Soviet Union to feature photomontages. Its successor, the Novy LEF, called for documentation of daily life in the Soviet Union by means of photography and cinema and dedicated many of its articles to the developments in these two fields. It also published works by prominent avant-garde artists.
Three issues, size and condition vary.
Сергею Есенину [To Sergei Yesenin], by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Published by Заккнига (Zakniga); printed in Tbilisi (Georgia), 1926. Russian.
The poem written by Vladimir Mayakovsky in memory of poet Sergei Yesenin who committed suicide in December 1925. Cover design and two photomontage works by Alexander Rodchenko.
15, [1] pp, 17.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Creases and dampstains on the cover and throughout the booklet (dark stains on several pages). Minor blemishes to cover.
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930), a poet and playwright, born in Georgia, one of the leading Futurist poets in Soviet Russia. In 1906, he moved with his family to Moscow, where he became acquainted with revolutionary circles and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. His first poems, so he recalled, were written in the Butyrka prison where he was imprisoned for eleven months in total seclusion. After his release, he decided to focus on literary writing and in 1912 his first two published poems – "Night" and "Morning", appeared in the Futurists' manifesto "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" (Пощёчина общественному вкусу). In 1915, he first met publisher Osip Brik. Brik became his literary patron and his wife, Lily Brik, became the love of Mayakovsky's life and a source of inspiration for his poetry. After the outbreak of the October Revolution, Mayakovsky adopted a radical ideology and became the poet who was most identified with Soviet Russia. During this period, he edited LEF – the journal of the Left Front of the Arts. Although he was considered at the time a poet-propagandist who lends his talent to the service of the party and its leaders, the influence of Mayakovsky's poetry reached way beyond the borders of Soviet Russia, inspiring among others the Hebrew poets Alexander Penn and Avraham Shlonsky (who were scorned by their opponents as "Little Mayakovskys"). Mayakovsky took his own life on April 14, 1930, putting a bullet through his heart. In a letter he left behind, he wrote: "Please do not gossip. The deceased disliked that sort of thing terribly".
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Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1956) – a Russian artist, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer, a member of the Constructivist movement.
Rodchenko studied art in Kazan (Tatarstan) and Moscow. In his early days, he was inspired by Cubism and Futurism; yet later was influenced by the Suprematism and the geometric abstraction of Kandinsky and Malevich. Rodchenko was a student of Vladimir Tatlin, and also his assistant. In 1916 he participated in an exhibition curated by Tatlin. In 1919, under Tatlin's influence, he started creating three-dimensional works made of a variety of materials (wood, metal and more), characterized by integrated geometrical forms forming airy and dynamic compositions.
During the 1920s, he worked regularly with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrating his books (see items 250 and 252) and contributed photographs and illustrations to the issues of "LEF" (see item 251) as well as to books and publications by other writers, members of the Russian avant-garde movements (see, for example, items 249 and 254); he also regularly published his photographs in the press.
Rodchenko is considered one of the most versatile artists of Russian avant-garde: he was one of the leaders of the Productivist group, which advocated the incorporation of art into everyday life, and subsequently, turned also to applied arts and furniture design; later, he became engaged in the art of photography and photomontage (he is considered one of the pioneers of the field), designed posters, illustrated books, worked as a graphic artist and designed theater and cinema sets.
Избрань, Стихи, 1912-1922, [Selection, Poems, 1912-1922], by Nikolai Aseev. Moscow-St. Petersburg: Круг (Krug), 1923. Russian, Cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
A volume of poetry by Russian Futurist poet Nikolai Aseev (Николай Асеев, 1889-1963), member of the Left Front of the Arts (LEF) association. Cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
128, [4] pp, 20.5 cm. Good condition. Stains (mainly to back cover and first and last leaves). Small tears to edges of cover, small open tears to lower part of spine. A tear along the entire spine splits the book into parts. Bookplate on the second page. Handwritten inscription (Russian) on the first page, dated 1925.
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Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1956) – a Russian artist, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer, a member of the Constructivist movement.
Rodchenko studied art in Kazan (Tatarstan) and Moscow. In his early days, he was inspired by Cubism and Futurism; yet later was influenced by the Suprematism and the geometric abstraction of Kandinsky and Malevich. Rodchenko was a student of Vladimir Tatlin, and also his assistant. In 1916 he participated in an exhibition curated by Tatlin. In 1919, under Tatlin's influence, he started creating three-dimensional works made of a variety of materials (wood, metal and more), characterized by integrated geometrical forms forming airy and dynamic compositions.
During the 1920s, he worked regularly with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrating his books (see items 250 and 252) and contributed photographs and illustrations to the issues of "LEF" (see item 251) as well as to books and publications by other writers, members of the Russian avant-garde movements (see, for example, items 249 and 254); he also regularly published his photographs in the press.
Rodchenko is considered one of the most versatile artists of Russian avant-garde: he was one of the leaders of the Productivist group, which advocated the incorporation of art into everyday life, and subsequently, turned also to applied arts and furniture design; later, he became engaged in the art of photography and photomontage (he is considered one of the pioneers of the field), designed posters, illustrated books, worked as a graphic artist and designed theater and cinema sets.
Последний современник [The Last Contemporary], by Semyon Kirsanov. Moscow: Федерация (Federatsiya), 1930. Russian. Cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
Dystopic poem by Semyon Kirsanov (Семён Кирсанов, 1906-1972), a student of Vladimir Mayakovsky and secretary of the Yugo-LEF journal (Юго-ЛЕФ – the successor of the LEF and Novy-LEF journals edited by Mayakovsky). The poem, describing an imaginary world reflecting the Soviet reality, was severely criticized and was not published again. During the 1940s it even stopped appearing in the poet's bibliographical lists.
Cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
95, [1] pp, 18 cm. Good condition. A few stains throughout the booklet; stains on the cover. A tear of approx. 3 cm at the margin of one of the leaves. Creases, tears and small open tears to the margins of the cover and the spine.
See item 247.
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Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1956) – a Russian artist, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer, a member of the Constructivist movement.
Rodchenko studied art in Kazan (Tatarstan) and Moscow. In his early days, he was inspired by Cubism and Futurism; yet later was influenced by the Suprematism and the geometric abstraction of Kandinsky and Malevich. Rodchenko was a student of Vladimir Tatlin, and also his assistant. In 1916 he participated in an exhibition curated by Tatlin. In 1919, under Tatlin's influence, he started creating three-dimensional works made of a variety of materials (wood, metal and more), characterized by integrated geometrical forms forming airy and dynamic compositions.
During the 1920s, he worked regularly with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrating his books (see items 250 and 252) and contributed photographs and illustrations to the issues of "LEF" (see item 251) as well as to books and publications by other writers, members of the Russian avant-garde movements (see, for example, items 249 and 254); he also regularly published his photographs in the press.
Rodchenko is considered one of the most versatile artists of Russian avant-garde: he was one of the leaders of the Productivist group, which advocated the incorporation of art into everyday life, and subsequently, turned also to applied arts and furniture design; later, he became engaged in the art of photography and photomontage (he is considered one of the pioneers of the field), designed posters, illustrated books, worked as a graphic artist and designed theater and cinema sets.
Трое [The Three], by Aleksei Kruchyonykh, Velimir Khlebnikov and Elena Guro. St. Petersburg: журавль (Zhuravl), [1913]. Russian. Cover design by Kazimir Malevich. [Printed in 500 copies].
Anthology of poetry and prose, printed in memory of the Futurist poet, writer and painter Elena Guro (Елена Гуро, 1877-1913). The anthology contains works by Guro and by futurist poets Aleksei Kruchyonykh and Velimir Khlebnikov, including the article "The New Ways of the Word", by Kruchyonykh, dealing with the "Zaum" – the new futurist language thought of by Kruchnykh and Khlebnikov.
The anthology also contains four plates, with reproductions of paintings by Kazimir Malevich. The lithographic cover was designed by Malevich.
96 pp, 19.5 cm. Greenish paper. Good condition. Minor blemishes. Loose gatherings. Detached cover, with stains and several small tears.
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Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), an artist and theoretician of the Russian avant-garde. One of the pioneers of abstract art in the early 20th century. Malevich was born in Ukraine to a family of Polish origin, the eldest of fourteen siblings. In 1904, he travelled to Moscow to study art and took part in several of the projects that are most identified with the Russian avant-garde (including the design of the stage-set for the Futurist opera "Victory Over the Sun"). In 1915, he exhibited in the "Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10" one of his iconic works – "The Black Square", which is considered one of the seminal works of modern art (Malevich painted four additional versions of the work in his lifetime). The work paved the way for the new style developed by Malevich, Suprematism, and introduced its major characteristics: using simple geometrical forms and a limited selection of colors. In years to come, Malevich's influence increased and in 1920, backed up by an enthusiastic circle of supporters, he took the place of Marc Chagall at the art school of Vitebsk. Due to political changes, in his final years Malevich was forced to alter his revolutionary style and adopt the model of socialist realism. He died in 1935, in poverty and far from the public's eye.
Two essays about Suprematism by Kazimir Malevich:
1. От кубизма и футуризма к супрематизму. Новый живописный реализм [From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: A New Realism in Painting]. Moscow, 1916. Third edition (first illustrated edition). Russian.
The manifest "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: A New Realism in Painting" was first printed for "The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10", held in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) from December 1915 to January 1916. In this exhibition, Kazimir Malevich displayed for the first time the new artistic style he had founded – Suprematism. In the upper corner of the exhibition hall, a place that in Russian Orthodox houses was designated for hanging icons, Malevich hang what he considered to be the most important work of the exhibition – his painting "Black Square". The suprematist "Black Square" symbolized the end of figurative painting and is considered a turning point in the history of modern art.
Alongside Malevich's description of the principles of Suprematism and its novelty, this booklet features two illustration plates (photolithographs) depicting the works "Black Square" and "Black Circle". The "Black Square" was also printed on the front cover.
The first two editions of this manifest were printed for the opening of the exhibition, without illustrations. This third edition is a revised and enlarged edition, and the first illustrated one.
31 pp + [2] plates, 18 cm. Good-fair overall condition. Stains on several leaves. Blemishes and open tears (sometimes affecting text). The entire booklet was professionally restored. One leaf is detached.
2. От Сезанна до супрематизма [From Cézanne to Suprematism]. [Moscow?]: The Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat (Отдел Изобразительных Искусств Наркомпросса), [1920]. Russian.
16 pp, 18.5 cm. Good condition. Stains, mostly on the back cover.
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Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), an artist and theoretician of the Russian avant-garde. One of the pioneers of abstract art in the early 20th century. Malevich was born in Ukraine to a family of Polish origin, the eldest of fourteen siblings. In 1904, he travelled to Moscow to study art and took part in several of the projects that are most identified with the Russian avant-garde (including the design of the stage-set for the Futurist opera "Victory Over the Sun"). In 1915, he exhibited in the "Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10" one of his iconic works – "The Black Square", which is considered one of the seminal works of modern art (Malevich painted four additional versions of the work in his lifetime). The work paved the way for the new style developed by Malevich, Suprematism, and introduced its major characteristics: using simple geometrical forms and a limited selection of colors. In years to come, Malevich's influence increased and in 1920, backed up by an enthusiastic circle of supporters, he took the place of Marc Chagall at the art school of Vitebsk. Due to political changes, in his final years Malevich was forced to alter his revolutionary style and adopt the model of socialist realism. He died in 1935, in poverty and far from the public's eye.
Первый цикл лекций, читанных на краткосрочных курсах для учителей Рисования - современное искусство [First Cycle of Lectures, read at Short-term courses for Teachers of Drawing – Contemporary Art], by Nikolay Punin. Petrograd (St. Petersburg), 1920. Russian.
Transcription of a series of lectures by Russian art historian and critic Nikolay Punin. The lectures, which dealt with new trends in art, were given by Punin in 1919, when he was head of the Petrograd Visual Arts Department (IZO) of the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment (Narkompros).
Suprematist cover design by Kazimir Malevich.
Nikolay Punin (1888-1953), a Russian theoretician and curator, known as the "savior of art collections". In 1914, he graduated from the art history department of the St. Petersburg University and became a critic and editor. His closeness to the revolutionary circles of the day, among them the Constructivists and Formalists, made him one of the important voices in the world of Russian art and in 1918 he was appointed People's Commissar of two of the most famous museums of St. Petersburg and the entire world – The State Russian Museum and the Hermitage Museum. In this role, Punin protected the Western art treasures in the museums, masterpieces by leading European painters, with great ferocity, strongly refusing to enable their destruction.
In the early 1920s, Punin became the partner of poet Anna Akhmatova and their home became a meeting place for the literary milieu of St. Petersburg. When he was arrested for the first time in 1930, Akhmatova sent a petition to Joseph Stalin, which led to his release. Nineteen years later, after claiming that several of Lenin's portraits were tasteless, Punin was arrested for a second time and sent to a Gulag in northern Russia. He died in 1953, after four years of hunger and sickness, in a barrack crowded with two hundred prisoners lit by one light bulb. Anna Akhmatova left his coat hanging on a rack in her house as a memorial. It hangs to this day.
84 pp, 21.5 cm. Good condition. A few stains. Creases and small tears to margins of several leaves. Pen notation on the title page. Stamps on the last page and on both sides of the back cover. Stains and blemishes to the margins of the cover and spine. The spine is completely restored.
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Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), an artist and theoretician of the Russian avant-garde. One of the pioneers of abstract art in the early 20th century. Malevich was born in Ukraine to a family of Polish origin, the eldest of fourteen siblings. In 1904, he travelled to Moscow to study art and took part in several of the projects that are most identified with the Russian avant-garde (including the design of the stage-set for the Futurist opera "Victory Over the Sun"). In 1915, he exhibited in the "Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10" one of his iconic works – "The Black Square", which is considered one of the seminal works of modern art (Malevich painted four additional versions of the work in his lifetime). The work paved the way for the new style developed by Malevich, Suprematism, and introduced its major characteristics: using simple geometrical forms and a limited selection of colors. In years to come, Malevich's influence increased and in 1920, backed up by an enthusiastic circle of supporters, he took the place of Marc Chagall at the art school of Vitebsk. Due to political changes, in his final years Malevich was forced to alter his revolutionary style and adopt the model of socialist realism. He died in 1935, in poverty and far from the public's eye.
Ilya Ehrenburg's book on modern art in the early 20th century and the Constructivist movement in particular. Featuring images of works by various artists (Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, Jacques Lipchitz and others), a photograph of New York, a photograph from one of Charlie Chaplin's films, and more. In addition, the book features three Modernist portraits of The Tramp from Charlie Chaplin's films, by Fernand Léger.
A comment printed by the publishing house at the beginning of the book, notes that "the author wants to emphasize that the book was printed in the old orthography against his will". The author's dedication, printed on the following page, reads: "By means of this book I salute the poets, the painters, the designers, the editors, the comedians, the circus artists, the musicians, all those who are building new things in Russia".
Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (1891-1967), a Jewish-Soviet writer and poet, one of the most important political writers of the 20th century. Ehrenburg grew up in Moscow, where his father was a director of a brewery. In 1905, he joined the Bolshevik underground movement, influenced by his schoolmate Nikolai Bukharin (later one of the leaders of the October Revolution); however, after being caught and tortured by the secret police he left Russia and moved to Paris.
In Paris, he continued to be involved in communist activity (during this period, he even met with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin); however, the Parisian bohemian life and the horrific impressions of World War I distanced him from his original views and he became an anarchist. When he returned to Russia in 1917, he opposed the revolution and published his blunt poem "Prayer for Russia", which compared the storming of the Winter Palace to rape. Subsequently, Ehrenburg was arrested once again by the secret police, this time for espionage for the other side, the Tsar's allies. He was released only due to the intervention of his childhood friend Nikolai Bukharin and in 1921 moved back to Paris.
After the defeat of France in World War II, he returned for the third time to Russia, this time as one of the most fervent supporters of the communist ideology and its leaders. During this period, he published his most radical writings (among them, the article "Kill!" – calling for indiscriminate killing of Germans) and grew closer to Joseph Stalin. In 1946, in collaboration with the writer Vasily Grossman, he published the "Black Book" – one of the earliest collections of testimonies by victims of the Nazis. His close relationship with Stalin, the great liberties he was allowed and the fact that he survived Stalin's Great Purge cast a long shadow over his integrity and his literary work during this period.
Ehrenburg was known as a fierce opponent of Zionism, calling Israel a "Bourgeois State" and David Ben-Gurion "The lowliest Jew in the world". In 1948, when he met the first Israeli ambassador in Moscow, Golda Meir, he refused to speak to her in Yiddish claiming it was a "bastard daughter" of German. Nevertheless, in his last will, he bequeathed the Jewish part of his archive to the "Yad Vashem" Institute in Jerusalem, where it was secretly kept for twenty years. Ehrenburg died in 1967 in Moscow.
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (1881-1955), a French painter, sculptor and filmmaker. Léger initially trained as an architect; yet in 1900 decided to move to Paris, got to know the avant-garde artistic circles of Montparnasse and became a painter himself. With the outbreak of the World War he was drafted to the French army; he was wounded during a mustard gas attack and after prolonged hospitalization was discharged. During his entire military service, he never stopped sketching. He returned to Paris in the 1920s and became a prominent figure in the artistic life of the city; in those years, he also became interested in scenic design and filmmaking, since he believed that "the future of abstraction [was] in mural rather than easel paintings". In 1935, his works were exhibited for the first time at the Moma Museum in New York. Among his well-known works are the paintings "Mona Lisa with Keys", "The Builders", the abstract film "Ballet Mécanique" and many others.
139, [3] pp + [8] plates (printed on both sides), approx. 22 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes, mostly to margins of leaves. Detached cover, with minor creases, a few stains and blemishes.
A volume of poetry by Mikhail Tsetlin (Михаил Цетлин, 1882-1945), a Jewish-Russian poet, writer, playwright and translator, known by the penname Amari; a grandson of Zeev Kalonymus Wissotzky (the founder of the Wissotzky tea company) and a descendant of the Jewish philantropist Joshua Zeitlin.
Alongside the poems, the book contains illustrations by the French cubist artist André Lhote (1885-1962) and three plates with sketches by the French sculptor and painter Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). The poem headings were designed by the Russian sculptor and painter Ivan Efimov (Иван Ефимов, 1878-1959). Bound in a fine parchment binding decorated by hand.
[1] leaf, 123, [5] pp, [1] leaf + [3] plates, 20 cm. Good condition. Some stains and small tears to edges of several leaves. Uneven edges. Two unopened leaves. Handwritten inscription on title page (Russian). Stamp on one endpaper. Minor blemishes to binding.