Ausstellung J. Ryback. Berlin: Lutze & Vogt, 1923/1924. German.

Catalogue for an exhibition of Issachar Ber Ryback, containing seven reproductions of his works (printed on separate leaves and tipped in to the catalogue pages).

[8] leaves (including cover), Approx. 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Minor blemishes. Front and back covers detached from each other and from the body of the booklet. Tears and blemishes to cover. Inscription on cover margin.

In Tovl fun Vent (zamlunk), by David Hofstein. Berlin: Funken, 1923. Yiddish.

A book of poetry by Yiddish poet and writer David Hofstein (1889-1952). Cover was designed by Nathan Altman.

60, [4] pages. 25.5 cm. Fair condition. Most pages and both parts of the cover detached (spine mostly missing). Large tears and open tears to title page and preceding page. Creases, tears and wear to cover edges.

Nathan Altman (Натан Исаевич Альтман;1889-1970), born in Vinnytsia (present-day Ukraine), an avant-garde artist, painter, graphic designer, sculptor, book illustrator and stage designer. His varied work belongs to various styles – Cubism, Constructivism, Futurism, and Suprematism – and reflects the many changes in his world, both artistic and political.

He began his art studies in Odessa; in 1910 he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies and associated with the artists of the "Machmadim" group which advocated Zionist Jugendstil. In 1912, Altman returned to Russia and settled in St. Petersburg. He spent the summer of 1913 sketching reliefs found on Jewish tombstones and developing a Cubist style based on Jewish folk art. At that time, he founded a Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Altman was an enthusiastic supporter of the Bolshevik revolution, after which he was appointed a member of the IZO-Narkompros (the Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education). In 1919, he became one of the prominent artists of the "Kom-Fut" group (Communist Futurists). He worked for the Monumental Propaganda plan conceived by Lenin, and created agitprop art.

During the early 1920s, Altman worked as a stage designer for HaBimah Theater and the Jewish State Theater Goset. His Constructivist costume design for the play "The Dybbuk", staged by HaBimah Theater in 1922, incorporated elements taken from Jewish folk and religious art; and his stage design for the Goset production of "Uriel da Costa" was his most advanced Constructivist work at the time. In 1922, his works were exhibited at the "First Russian Art Exhibition" in Berlin and alongside works by Chagall and Sternberg in the "Exhibition of the Three" of the Kultur Lige group. In the early 1920s, Altman was a prominent artist whose works expressed the spirit of the party and the revolution – the rebellion against the old degenerate order – and in this capacity he created a series of sketches and a bust of Lenin. In 1928, Altman went on a tour with the Goset theater and remained in Paris until 1935. While there, the Party's attitude towards art went through a transformation. Already in the mid-1920s the party began furthering socialist realism and restricting the activity of avant-garde groups, claiming art should serve defined goals, be simple and understood by everyone and portray the beauty of communist reality. In 1932, with Altman still out of the country, the central committee of the communist party banned any union of independent artists. From then on, the party imposed its new and preferred style, socialist realism, and avant-garde was pushed to the new status of "bourgeois" art, enemy of the revolution. Returning to Russia in 1936, Altman settled in Leningrad, and as an undesirable artist worked mainly as a graphic designer, book illustrator and stage designer, trying to adhere to the party's new line.

Literature: Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change 1890-1990, edited by Susan Tomarkin Goodman. Prestel Publishing, Munich / New York, 1995. p. 146.

Five issues of Jewish-Soviet periodicals, including various texts about Jewish cultural life in Soviet Russia, accompanied by illustrations and photographs, and reproductions of various artworks.

1-4. Emes-zhurnal, an illustrated cultural supplement of the Jewish-Russian daily "Der Emes", a bi-weekly edited by Moshe Litvakov (Моисей Ильич Литваков; 1875-1937). Issues 1-4. Moscow: Эмес (Der Emes), January-February, 1928. Yiddish. Cover illustration of issue no. 1 by Nathan Altman.

5. Der apikoyres, organ fun Ts.R. fun farband krigerishe apikorsim [The Heretic, organ of the Central Committee of the Union of Militant Heretics], a satirical journal edited by M. Altshuler. First year, issue no. 4. Moscow: Эмес (Der Emes), June 1931. Yiddish.

The journal "Der Apikoyres" was published in Soviet Russia between 1931-1935 and dealt with the dissemination of atheistic ideas among the Jewish population, aiming to strengthen the communist ideology. The texts are accompanied by various images and satirical caricatures and illustrations.

Five booklets: 18 pages each issue. 30.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, creases, tears and minor blemishes.

Three children's books and poetry books, with covers, illustrations and engravings designed by Sarah Shor.

1. A ber iz gefloygn [A Bear Flew], tales by Y. [Yitzhak] Kipnis. Kiev: "Kultur-Lige", 1924. Yiddish.

Four tales by Yitzhak (Itzik) Kipnis (1896-1974) – Jewish-Ukrainian children's writer, Yiddish poet and translator. Accompanied by thirteen black and white illustrations by Sarah Shor. The booklet cover was also designed by Shor.

37, [2] pages, 21.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dark stains. Wear and minor tears. Inscriptions. Hardcover with original cover pasted on; tears and blemishes to cover.

2. Бэн [Ben], Russian translation of a youth story by author Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Moscow-Leningrad: Государственное издательство, 1928. Russian. Cover and four illustrations by Sarah Shor.

23, [1] pages. 16.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Inscriptions and stamps. Loose pages and binding. Paper labels on binding.

3. Стихи и легенды [Poems and Legends], by Maxim Gorky. Moscow-Leningrad: Academia, 1932. Russian.

Selection of poems and legends by the renowned Russian author Maxim Gorky; accompanied by various illustrations and nine engravings (mezzotint prints) by Sarah Shor, including an original signed engraving (portrait of Gorky). The book's binding with gilt embossing was also designed by Shor.

[8], 15-173, [10] pages + [9] printed plates. Pages [9-14] missing (introduction by Lev Kamenev). Approx. 15 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. One plate detached. Stamps. Stains and wear to edges of bindings.

Sarah Shor (Сарра Марковна Шор; 1897-1981), Jewish-Russian painter, graphic artist, and theater designer; studied at art schools in Kiev and St. Petersburg and was involved with the "Kultur-Lige" group. She worked in book illustration and theater set design, and later as an illustrator for the "Academia" publishing house in Moscow.

Two books with illustrations by Gregory (Hersh) Inger:

1. In Shvern Gang [On a Hard Journey], poems by Moshe Khashtewatsky [Moshe Khaschavetsky]. Moscow: Tsentralfarlag, 1929. (On the cover: "Tsentralfarlag – Kharkiv"). Yiddish. With the author's dedication.

155, [3] pages. 17.5 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes and tears, with slight damage to illustration on cover, and spine. Minor tears to edges of spine, some restored. Pen markings.

2. Мальчик Мотл [Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son], by Sholem Aleichem. Moscow: ОГИЗ: Государственное Изд-во "Дер Емес", 1945. Russian.

89, [3] pages. Approx. 20 cm. Good condition. Minor stains and creases. Minor tears to edges of the cover and spine.

Hersh Inger (Герш Бенционович (Григорий Борисович) Ингер, 1910-1995), Soviet-Jewish artist born in Ukraine. Known for his illustrations of Sholem Aleichem's works and series of paintings on musical themes. His work was concerned with Jewish life and the Shtetl, and combined traditional Jewish motifs with modernist style.