Collection of Books with Covers Designed by Alexander Rodchenko – Soviet Union, 1920s – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ilya ...

Collection of Books with Covers Designed by Alexander Rodchenko – Soviet Union, 1920s – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ilya Ehrenburg, Semyon Kirsanov, Ivan Mikhailov and Others

Ten books of philosophy, poetry and prose with modernist covers designed by Alexander Rodchenko. Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tiflis, 1923-1930. Russian.

• Маяковский улыбается, Маяковский смеется, Маяковский издевается [Mayakovsky Smiles, Mayakovsky Laughs, Mayakovsky Mocks], a collection of poems and satirical texts about life in Russia in the first years after the Soviet Revolution, by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Moscow-Peterburg: Krug, 1923. MoMA 504.

• Сергею Есенину [To Sergei Yesenin], a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky in memory of the poet Sergei Yesenin who took his life in December 1925. Tbilisi: Zakkniga, 1926. MoMA 659.

• Разговор с фининспектором о поэзии [Conversation with a Tax Collector about Poetry], a satirical poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Tiflis: Zakkniga, 1926. MoMA 657/658.

• Испания. Океан. Гаванна. Мексика. Америка [Spain, Ocean, Havana, Mexico, America], a collection of poems and travel impressions by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1926. MoMA 655.

• Мое открытие Америки [My Discovery of America], travel impressions by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1926. With several photographs and reproductions. MoMA 655.

• Но. с., (Новые стихи) [... New Poems], by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Moscow: Federatsia, 1928. MoMA 752.

• К живому Ильичу [To the Living Ilyich], a literary collection in memory of Vladimir Lenin, by the "Moscow Association of Proletarian Writers" (Московская ассоциация пролетарских писателей). Moscow: Krasnaya nov', 1924.

• Материализация фантастики [Materialization of Fantasy], essays on cinema by Ilya Ehrenburg. Moscow-Leningrad: Kinopechat', 1927. MoMA 714.

• Четверть века подпольщика [A Quarter Century of an Underground Revolutionary], memoirs by the Bolshevik revolutionary Ivan Mikhailov (Иван Константинович Михайлов; 1881-1950). [Moscow-Leningrad]: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, [1928]. Title page missing.

• Последний современник [The Last Contemporary], a dystopian poem by Semyon Kirsanov (Семён Исаа́кович Кирса́нов; 1906-1972). Moscow: Federatsia, 1930.

MoMA 891.

- Habdwritten dedication by the author, to Soviet writer and critic Vassili Katanian (Васи́лий Абга́рович Катаня́н; 1902-1980).

Size and condition vary.

Alexander Rodchenko (Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; 1891-1956), Russian artist, designer, sculptor, and photographer, member of the Constructivist movement. Rodchenko studied art in Kazan, Tatarstan, and Moscow. He began his career in Cubist and Futurist styles, later gravitating towards Suprematism and geometric abstraction, influenced by Kandinsky and Malevich. Rodchenko served as Vladimir Tatlin's assistant, was his student, and participated in a 1916 exhibition curated by Tatlin. Under his influence, in 1919 Rodchenko began creating three-dimensional works made from various materials (wood, metal, etc.), characterized by interlocking geometric shapes forming airy and dynamic compositions.

During the 1920s, he worked regularly with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrating and photographing his books, issues of the "Left Front of the Arts" (LEF; ЛЕФ) journal, as well as books and publications by other Russian Futurist and avant-garde creators, and regularly published his photographs in the press.

Rodchenko is considered one of the most versatile artists of the Russian avant-garde: he was among the leaders of the Productivist faction, which advocated strengthening the connection between art and industrial production, and between it and the working and consumer population, thus turning to furniture design and applied arts; later he was drawn to photography and photomontage and engaged in them extensively (considered one of the pioneers of the genre), designed posters, illustrated books, worked in graphics and typography, and created sets for theater and cinema.