The Russian Avant-Garde Book. 1910 - 1934

February 11 - May 5, 2003 /
Sabatini Building, Floor 3, Paper Gallery
Varvara Stepanova. Ominous Laughter: Rosta Windows, by Vladimir Maiakovskii, 1932. Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Varvara Stepanova. Ominous Laughter: Rosta Windows, by Vladimir Maiakovskii, 1932. Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

The book, used to disseminate written knowledge, broadens its use as a format and develops variations as it becomes an object of art. Therefore, there are differences between the livre d’artiste and artist's book - the first contains etchings, lithographs, screen prints and xylographs engraved by hand, and is published in limited, numbered editions that are intended for collectors. One of the earliest examples is Pierre Bonnard's Parallèlement (1900), containing poems by Paul Verlaine. However, the artist's book is developed later; the artist that devises it is interested in the book as a format and its access to a wider public with large print runs at a low cost. Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1962) by Ed Ruscha is is one of the first examples of this genre.

This exhibition represents the greatest display of the history of Russian avant-garde books to date. It brings together three hundred and fifty livre d’artiste dated between 1910 and 1934, a time when avant-garde movements flourish in Russia as they encompasse waves of modern art that predominate Western Europe; for instance, French Cubism, Italian Futurism, German Expressionism and Dutch Neo-plasticism. Equally, they combine with Russia's own movements, such as Cubo-Futurism, Constructivism and Suprematism. Around this time, artists, poets, architects, novelists, photographers, set designers and playwrights unite to produce work that is key to 20th century art.

The exhibition is divided into three large sections entitled, “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste 1910 - 1924”, “Transform the World! 1916 -1933” and “Building Socialism 1924 - 1934”. These sections look at the early avant-garde manifesto, the Social Realism propaganda under Stalin and the 1917 Revolution and its repercussions.

Russian artists are no strangers to the literary revivals taking place in France with Stéphane Mallarmé and Guillaume Apollinaire, in Italy through Filippo Tommaso Marinetti or Dada in Switzerland and Germany. This is in addition to the traditions of icon painting, calligraphy painting and the popular luboks and xylographs. Furthermore, the experimentation with the graphic identity of words leads to what is known as Zaum, a poetic form of abstraction that has been translated as “beyond” or “behind”. Consequently, Russian books break away from norms of production. Their handmade appearance and innovative nature, for instance printed manuscripts, stamps with rubber or potato seals, illustrations with margins that hold discourse with the text, the blending of images, the use of collage, additive technique and pictorial traces all represent a full-scale revolution in the concept of a book.

Aleksander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Varvara Stepanova apply Constructivism in the visual experimentation with book covers. The associations between the painter Mikhail Larionov and the poet Aleksei Kruchenykh, the latter with his wife, the painter Olga Rozanova, and the collaboration between Rodchenko and Vladimir Mayakovsky give rise to some of the volumes present in the exhibition, along with a comprehensive catalogue, a key bibliographical reference on the subject in Spanish.

Together with the books by masters such as Kazimir Malevich, Rozanova, El Lissitzky and Rodchenko, further publications from other areas of interest are exhibited, such as material from provinces, children's literature, architecture and Jewish texts, all of which belong to the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Exhibition´s details

Organized by: 
The Museum of Modern Art MoMA, Nueva York, in collaboration with Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Curatorship: 
Deborah Wye and Margit Rowell
Exhibition Tour: 

Museum of Modern Art, New York (March 28 - May 21, 2002)
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (October 25, 2002 - January 19, 2003)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (September 24, 2003 - January 25, 2004)

Artists:
Samuil Adlivankin, Aivazovskii, Leonid Akishin, Meer Aksel’rod, Vera Aleksandrova, Nikolai Alekseev, Natan Al’tman, Aleksandr Andreev, M. Andreevskaia, Andronova, Boris Anisfeld, Iurii Annenkov, Alexander Archipenko, Aleksandr Arnshtam, B. K., Aleksei Baeev, P. Bakharev, Leon Bakst, T. Balaginaia, Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné, Viktor Bart, A. K. Barutchev, W. Baxter, Liverii Bazankur, Aleksandr Bazhbeuk-Melikov, Elena Bedumovaia, Evgenii Belukha, Grigorii Bershadskii, Ivan Bilibin, Ver Blank, Volodymyr Bobryts’kyi, Kseniia Boguslavskaia, Hryhorii Bondarenko, N. Borovkov, Serhii Borovyi, Elena Bortsova, Leonid Brailovskii, Sergei Brobrov, I. I. Brodskii, Lev Bruni, E. A. Brylov, B.Tatarinov, N. Bugoslavskaia, David Burliuk, Nadezhda Burliuk, Vladimir Burliuk, David Buryshkin, Marc Chagall, Iosef Chaikov, Il’ia Chashnik, Sergei Chekhonin, Vasilii Chekrygin, Vladimir Chembers, Iurii Cherkesov, Iakov Chernikhov, Avenir Chernomordik, Nikolai Chernyshev, Galina Chichagova, Olga Chichagova, Aleksei Chicherin, P. Chichkanov, L.E. Chirikov, N. Danylov, Iurii Degen, Aleksandr Deineka, Olga Deneiko, Nikolai Denisovskii, Viktor Deni, Aleksei Den’shin, Volodymyr Diakov, Mecheslav Dobrokovskii, Mstislav Dobuzhinskii, Elizaveta Dorfman,, Oleksandr Dovgal’, H. Dubyns’kii, Duplitskii, Valerian Dvorakovskii, Georgii Echeistov, B. Efimov, Vladimir Egorov, V. M. Elin, D. El’kina, Vasilii Elkin, Boris Ender, Gennadii Epifanov, L. Epple, Marko Epshtein, Boris Erdman, Il’ia Erenburg, Marianna Erlikh, Vasil Ermilov, Vera Ermolaeva, Evgeniia Evenbakh, Alexandra Exter, F. P. K., Vadim Falileev, Vladimir Favorskii, Sandro Fazini, D. Fedorov, A. Fedorski, S. Fedotov, Vs. Filippov, Pavel Filonov, Georgii Fisher, Moisei Fradkin, Boris Friskin, Petr Galadzhev, Iraklii Gamrekeli, Aleksei Gan, Aleksei Ganin, M. Gerasimov, Sergei Gerasimov, Geronskii, Grigorii Gidoni, Andrei Gippius, Aleksandr Gladkov, Tat’iana Glebova, Evgenii Goliakhovskii, N. Golubchikov, Leonid Golubev-Bagriaporobnii, Natalia Goncharova, Sinovii Gorbovets, D. P. Gordeev, Beno Gordeziani, Naum Granovsky, A. Gribatnikov, Boris Grigor’ev, A. Gromov, V. Gruental, Lado Gudiashvili, Elena Guro, Nikolai Gushchin, El’brus Gutnov, L. Horokh, V. A. Horovyts, H. S. Hural’nik, Aleksandr Iakovlev, Georgii Iakulov, Vasyl’ Iermilov, Iliazd (Il’ia Zdanevich), Nikolai Il’in, N. Istselennov, Solomon Iudovin, Nina Ivanova, Vera Ivanova, Viacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Izenberg, Izoram, K. E. B., Mikhail Kalashnikov, Mykola Kalmykov, Vasilii Kamenskii, Vassily Kandinsky, A. Kanevskii, Lev Kaplan, A. Karra, Vasyl’ Kasiian, Valentin Kataev, Vasilii Katanian, Mane Katz, Khabias (Nina Komarova), P. Kharybin, Velimir Khlebnikov, Valentina Khodasevich, R. Kh., Leonid Khyzhins’kyi, Ivan Kliun, Gustav Klutsis, Vasilii Komardenkov, Vladimir Konashevich, Petr Konchalovskii, Borys Kosariev, Mariia Kotliarevs’ka, V. Kovrigin, Liubov’ Kozintseva, Vladimir Kozlinskii, Kraft (El Lissitzky), M. Kraian, G. Krastashevskii, Aleksei Kravchenko, Iu Kri’d’n, Mykola Kriukov, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Vasyl’ Krychevs’kyi, Valentina Kulagina-Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina, Nina Kul’bina, Nikolai Kul’bin, Nikolai Kupreianov, A. Kurskaia, Boris Kustodiev, Pavel Kuznetsov, Marko Kyrnars’kyi, Aleksandr Labas, Maria Lagorio, Evgenii Lansere, Mikhail Larionov, Anton Lavinskii, Nikolai Lavrent’ev, Vitalii Lavrov, Sarra Lebedeva, Vladimir Lebedev, Fernand Léger, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ivan Leonidov, Efraim Lesov, Aleksei Levin, Moisai Levin, El Lissitzky, Sophie Lissitzky, Litvak, Nadezhda Liubavina, Aleksandr Liubimov, Liushin, Aleksanr Lopukhin, Louis Lozowick, Mikhail Makarov, Sergei Makletsov, Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Manatiev, Oleksii Marenkov, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Il’ia Mashkov, Vasilii Masiutin, Mikhail Maslianenko, Mikhail Matiushin, Tat’iana Mavrina, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ruvim Mazel’, W. Mehl, Evgen Mei, Henke Meller, Vadym Meller, D. M., E. M., Vladimir Meshkov, Miankal’, I. Mikhel’son, Grigorii Miller, E. S. Minin, Dmitrii Mitrokhin, Petr Miturich, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Dmitrii Moor, Aleksei Morgunov, P. Moskalenko, Otakar Mrkvicki, Vera Mukhina, Iukhym Mykhailiv, Mykola Myshchenko, N. K., Natal’ia Nagoskaia, Sofiia Nalepins’ka, Gerogii Narbut, Boris Naumov, Evgenii Nekrasov, N. Nekrasov, A. Nikitin, A. A. Nikolaev, Ignatii Nivinskii, Georgii Noskov, October Brigade, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, P. A. F., Ivan Padalka, Viacheslav Pakulin, Viktor Pal’mov, A. Paramonov, Pavel Filonov’s School, Mykola Pavliuk, Vera Pestel, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Anatol’ Petryts’kyi, Vasyl’ Picheta, Mikhail Plaksin, Fedor Platov, Illarion Pleshchinskii, Sergei Podgaevskii, Sergei Poliakov, Liubov’ Popova, Alisa Poret, V. I. Pozharskii, Sergei Pozharskii, Pravosudovich, Proletkul’t, Nikolai Prussakov, Ivan Puni, A. Radishchev, V. A. Raevskaia, Raspopina, E. Ravdel, Bor R., Aleksei Remizov, Ivan Rerberg, L. Ridiger, G. Riftin, Vladimir Roberg, Aleksandr Ródchenko, Varvara Rodchenko, I. Roginskii, Nikolai Rogovin, Sergei Romanovich, Vladimir Roskin, G. Roslov, Konstantin Rotov, A. Rozanova, Olga Rozanova, Grigorii Roze, N. Rozenfel’d, E. Rozhdestvenskaia, O. Ruban, Ia. Rudens’kyi, Lev Rudnev, Issacher ber Ryback, Iurii Sadylenko, E. S. Samorodov, Nikolai Sedel’nikov, Vasyl’ Sedliar, Mykhailo Semenko, N. Semenov, Sergei Sen’kin, Ser-Gei (Sergei Skripitsyn), Mykhailo Shcheglov, N. Shebuev, Lev Shekhtel’, Aleksandr Shevchenko, Nisson Shifrin, N. Shikalov, Iosif Shkol’nik, Il’ia Shlepianov, Georgi Shlikht, Liudmila Shmit-Ryzhova, E. Shol’te, L. Shteiner, Ir. Shtemberg, David Shterenberg, Oleh Shymkov, Sigina, Pavel Sil’vanskii, N. M. Siniagin, Mariia Siniakova, Illarion Skuie, A. Slavin, A. Smolianskii, Nina Soboleva, Dmitrii Sobolev, Antonina Sofronova, Mikhail Sokolov, Nikolai Sokolov, Evgeniia Spas’ka, I. Spas’ka, N. Spirov, Georgii Stenberg, Vladimir Stenberg, Varvara Stepanova, Adol’f Strakhov, Sergei Sudeikin, Nikolai Suetin, I. Sunderland, Aleksandr Surikov, P. Suvorov, Svetlov, Liubov’ Tagrina, Mikhail Tarkhanov, Vladimir Tatlin, Karel Teige, Solomon Telingater, Igor’ Terent’ev, V. I. Ter-Pogosov, B. Timov, Boris Titov, Nikolai Troshin, N. A. Trotskii, Heorhii Tsapok, Jan Tschichold, N. Tsitskovskii, Ben-Zion Tsukherman, Mikhail’ Tsybasov, Boeslav Tsybys, K. Turganov, Ekaterina Turova, Nikolai Tyrsa, Aleksandr Tyshler, V. Ul’ianishchev, UNOVIS, Oleksii Usachov, Vitalii Usenko, A. Vabbe, Konstantin Vakhrameev, Sigizmund Valishevskii, Evgenii Vashchenko, Aleksanr Vesnin, Vera Vil’koviskaia, M. N. Vladimirova, Aleksandr Volkov, Boris Voronetskii, Lev Zak, Sof’ia Zaklikovskaia, Pavel Zal’tsman, Il’ia Zdanevich, Kirill Zdanevich, Vladimir Zdanevich, M. A. Zelikson, Boris Zemenkov, Boris Zenkevich, V. Zhmurov, B. Zhukov, Grigorii Zimin, Georgii Zolotukhin, K. Zotov, Leonid Zusman View more
Program:
Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación