Collection of Booklets – Covers Designed by El Lissitzky: "Epopeia", All Four Issues – Moscow-Berlin, 1922-1923 / ...

Collection of Booklets – Covers Designed by El Lissitzky: "Epopeia", All Four Issues – Moscow-Berlin, 1922-1923 / "Vladimir Mayakovsky" by Ivanov-Razumnik – Berlin, 1922

Collection of booklets with covers designed by El Lissitzky:

• Эпопея, Литературный ежемесячникъ [Epopeia, Literary Monthly], edited by Andrei Bely (Андрей Белый). Moscow-Berlin: Геликон, 1922-1923. Russian.

All four issues (issue nos. 1-4; issue no. 1 appears in two copies).

Issues of the literary journal "Epopeia" (Epic), edited by Russian writer, poet, and theorist Andrei Bely (Андрей Белый [Борис Николаевич Бугаев; 1880-1934]). The issues include texts by editor Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok, Alexei Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Viktor Shklovsky, Vladislav Khodasevich, Alexei Remizov, and others.

Original covers in various colors designed by El Lissitzky.

Issue no. 1 (April 1922 – two copies): 272 pages, [8] leaves. Issue no. 2 (September 1922): 298, [2] pages. Issue no. 3 (December 1922): 309, [2] pages. Issue no. 4 (June 1923): 304 pages, [3] leaves. 21.5 cm. Fair condition. Dry and brittle paper. Stains, creases and wear. Small tears and open tears. Stamps and inscriptions. Uncut pages. Detached or loose covers and signatures; stains and wear on covers; spines torn and mostly missing.

MoMA 403.

• Владимир Маяковский ("Мистерия" или "Буфф"), analytical essay on Vladimir Mayakovsky's work by writer and literary critic Razumnik Vasilyevich Ivanov-Razumnik (Разумник Васильевич Иванов-Разумник; 1878-1946). Berlin: Скифы, 1922. Russian.

Cover designed by El Lissitzky.

55, [1] pages. Approx. 21 cm. Fair-good condition. All pages and cover detached; spine torn and missing.

MoMA 412.

El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (Лазарь Маркович "Эль" Лисицкий; 1890-1941), 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, 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. 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 and a volume of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

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 and ending with catalogs, guidebooks and research books.

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.