"Yingl Tsingl Khvat", by Mani Leib – Kiev-St. Petersburg, 1919 – First Edition – Illustrations by El Lissitzky

"Yingl Tsingl Khvat", by Mani Leib – Kiev-St. Petersburg, 1919 – First Edition – Illustrations by El Lissitzky

Yingl Tsingl Khvat [The Mischievous Boy], by Mani Leib [Menachem Leib Brahinsky]. Kiev-St. Petersburg: Yiddisher Folks-Farlag, [1919]. Yiddish. First edition.
Rhymed tale for children by the Yiddish poet Mani Leib – the story of a mischievous boy who succeeds in bringing the first snow of winter to a Jewish town where autumn lingers. The tale is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations by El Lissitzky. Color illustration by Lissitzky on front cover.
[12] pp, 26 cm. Good condition. The leaves are detached from each other (lacking staples). Stamps on several leaves. Stains (the leaves are mostly clean). Tears along the spine. Tears to edges of cover, some open and some restored.
Provenance: The Uriel Kahana Collection (his signature appears on the upper right corner of the front cover).

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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.