www.bookvica.com SUMMER CATALOGUE 2018 1 F O R E W O R D Dear friends and collegues, Bookvica team is excited to present to you the summer catalogue of 2018! The catalogue include some of our usual sections along with new experimental ones. Interesting that many books from our selection explore experiments in different fields like art and science themselves. For example our usual sections of art exhibition catalogues and science include such names as Goncharova and Mendeleev - both were great exepimenters. Theatre section keeps exploring experiments on and off stage of the 1920s under striking constrictivist wrappers. We continue to explore early Soviet period with an important section on art for the masses where we gathered editions which shed light on how Soviets used all available matters to create a new citizen on shatters of the past and how to make him a loyal tool of propaganda. Photography and art of that period is gathered in a separate section with such names like Zdanevich and Telingater among the artists. Books on architecture include Chernikhov fantasies, Stepanova’s design of metro book, study of Soviet workers’ clubs and the most spectacular item is account of the work made by architecture studios in early 1930s led by most famous Russian architects. Probably the jewel of our selection is a rare collection of sheet music from 1920s-30s or more precisely cover designs. We have been gathering them for a year and are happy to finally share our discoveries on this subject with you. Don’t miss too small but very interesting sections of Ukrainian books and items on Women. A separate section is dedicated to Vladimir Mayakovsky’s rare lifetime editions. Bookvica team 2 I ARCHITECTURE 01 [A BRIDGE TO UTOPIA] Chernikhov, Y. Arkhitekturnyye fantazii: 101 kompozitsiya v kraskakh. 101 arkhitekturnaya miniatyura [i.e. Architectural Fantasies: 101 Compositions in Color. 101 Architectural Miniatures]. Leningrad: Leningr. obl. otd- niye Vses. ob»yedineniya «Mezhdunar. kniga», 1933. 102 pp., 101 ill. in color mounted on the leaves: ill. 30,8x22,3cm. In original publisher’s cardboards. Loss of the dust-wrapper, minor wear to the lower right edge, loss of the tiny piece of the spine. Near fine. First edition. Scarce. One of 3000 copies. This is the last and one of the most powerful works published during Yakov Chernikhov’s lifetime (1889-1951). Standing somewhat aside from the 1920s avant-garde circles, Chernikhov investigated the constructive principles of architecture and developed his own unique style characterized by the amalgam of different movements, namely suprematism, cubism, and expressionism. This kind of architectural eclecticism and an idea of a new world proposed by the architecture were unsurprisingly met with considerable resistance from the authorities. Written in 1933, Architectural Fantasies was a culmination of the author’s search for the form and images of a new architecture initiated by him in his previous books: The Art of Graphic Representation (1927), Fundamentals of Contemporary Architecture (1930), The Construction of Architectural and Machine Forms (1931), etc. Although the Soviet Piranesi (as Chernikhov was often referred to) was always distinguished for his revolutionary tendencies, Architectural Fantasies exceeded all expectations: meticulous compositions depicting utopian cities and buildings, fantasies envisioning an industrialized future and colorful designs unordinary for the ‘cloudy’ architecture of the 1920s Soviet Union practically shook society. Against this background, it is a mystery how the censorship allowed something so extraordinary to appear in print. ARCHITECTURE 3 The seeds of the architect’s fantasies never had a chance to germinate in the Soviet Union: his graphical work was denounced as merely fantastical and formal. Chernikhov had no other choice but to continue his practice under the new social-realist revival. From 1935 until his death in 1951, the architect worked continuously on series of drawings in the majority of which he inclined towards historical traditions. The potential of Architectural Fantasies lay dormant until Chernikov and other Constructivist architects were ‘‘rediscovered’’ in the 1980s, inspiring a new generation of architects worldwide in a movement that was labeled ‘‘deconstructivist’’. It is important to note, that few of his designs were built and very few appear to have survived. Amongst the latter is the tower of the Red Carnation factory in St. Petersburg. $8,500 Binding. No 01 Illustration. No 01 ARCHITECTURE 4 Illustrations. No 01 ARCHITECTURE 5 02 [POST CONSTRUCTIVIST SCHOOLS] Shkoly gotovy! Kak my borolis’ za vypolnenie postanovleniia SNK SSSR i CK VKP(b) o novom shkol’nom stroitel’stve [i.e. Schools Are Ready! How We Fought for the Implementation of the Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b.) on the New School Construction]. Moscow: Sovet RK i KD Kirovskogo raiona, 1935. In original cardboards with gilt lettering on the front cover. Very good. No copies located First and only edition. One of 300 copies. Extremely rare. in the Worldcat. This is a triumphal report of the fulfilled plan of school construction in the transitional stage between avant-garde and Stalinist architecture. In 1935 a new plan required the construction of 72 Moscow schools for several months. It was implemented thanks to the early socialist emulation which grew up in the Stalinist era. The five schools were built in Kirov district (on Balchug island and the nearest area) and the creation of these buildings is presented in the book. Two of them are recognized as the evidence of post constructivism. The architects looked for the new images retaining the constructivist forms and combining it with the portals and columns. The first school was designed by architect Leonid Grinshpun (1906-1981), contributed to the construction of Russian State Library and pavilions of VDNKh. The young architect created the experimental plan placing the main entrance on the corner of asymmetric building. In the middle of 1930s the plans lacking symmetry were almost disused in the urban construction and Grinshpun’s design was criticized. The book permits us to compare the drawing itself and the result of building. Another school is the only listed post constructivist memorial building in Moscow. Designed by Ivan Zvezdin (1899-1979), it was called Moscow Suburban Experimental School. The details of design were realized as the architect wanted, but in general his idea was never completely embodied. Zvezdin also planned the gym, stadium and workshops: the gym appeared in almost 20 years, but the innovative workshops didn’t. The report looks really democratic, each school construction was analyzed by different people describing the progress at their site, who helped them and what prevented them from increasing the labor capacity. They paid attention to sabotages of the former kulaks and ARCHITECTURE 6 actions taken against them. Each construction story has a turning point when the disorganized teams rallied, overcame a material shortage and had met the deadline. There are numerous portrait photographs of contributors, the littered areas that were before the construction, the impressive facades and the interior of schools. $1,250 Cover. No 02 Illustrations. No 02 ARCHITECTURE 7 03 [ARCHITECTURE STUDIOS: A NEW ERA] Raboty arkhitekturnykh masterskikh [i.e. Designs of Architecture Studios]. Moscow, [1936]. 2 folders (portfolios) with 12 brochures. 30x22,5 cm (folder), 29x21,5 cm (brochures). Folders in full cloth with blue lettering, brochures in wrappers. All very good, folders with rubbing and a couple of tears, all brochures with ink stamps of the USSR soap making factory in Erevan on front covers, brochure #7 with light soiling and spots on the covers. Every brochure of the print run of 3500 copies. Art director I.I. Lazarevsky, literary editor S.Ya. Zabello, graphics by B.S. Nikiforov. Contents of each folder in Russian and French on a side flap of each folder. Titles, captions, title and half title pages, lists of context and all indexes in Russian and French. Sections 8 and 9 were never published. Worldcat locates First and only edition. Extremely rare, especially complete and copies in NYPL, in such a good condition. Virginia Tech, Getty, University This is the first and only collection of works of architecture and of Michigan, design studios of Mossovet (city administration of Moscow from 1918 to Berkeley and Cleveland Public 1993). It consists of mostly projects of 1934, the first year of the studios. Library. There are 10 issues for each studio (with additional brochure with summary and introduction and a brochure with indexes). The main mass of the projects was created for Moscow, partially the implementation of the general plan for reconstruction. Designs for periphery were created as well: Arkhangelsk, Alma-Ata, Nalchik, Novosibirsk, Tbilisi, Stalinsk and others. In 1933, under the Moscow Soviet, Lazar Kaganovich initiated a new structure: 12 architectural design and 10 architectural engineering studios (or workshops). Together they were called upon to replace (or imitate) the diversity of architectural groupings, bureaus and schools, liquidated in 1932 when the Union of Architects was created. Each studio was lead by an established architect (with vigilant control of party deputies): Zholtovsky, Shchusev, Fomin, Golosov, Fridman, Kolli, Melnikov, Kokorin, Kriukov, Borov. For each brochure architects wrote a short introduction - ‘Principles of Designing Architecture’. Overall there are 156 design projects in this edition. Each project comes with a short annotation, plans, facades, sections, perspectives, details, interior design projects, photos. There was a big diversity of the projects for example street kiosks, metro stations, large public buildings, complexes and city ensembles, living, industrial and technical buildings, furniture, interiors, ARCHITECTURE 8 Folders. No 03 No 03 ARCHITECTURE 9 Illustration. No 03 ARCHITECTURE 10 Illustrations. No 03 ARCHITECTURE 11 Illustrations. No 03 ARCHITECTURE 12 etc. Most of the projects were never realized and this is the only evidence of their existence.