JULY 2020. NEW ACQUISITIONS F O R E W O R D Dear friends, We are excited to present our new catalogue of 36 latest acqusitions! Through these items we continue to explore the world of the Soviet Union and most importantly - of a Soviet man. Hie everyday life is reflected in the first section titled ‘Byt’ with particularly interesting item #3 - Moscow’s ‘yellow pages’. The index includes many advertisments which help us learn more about products Soviet people used (or desired to use at least) and activities they engaged into. A book on experimantal art of Armenia (#6) is in the second section of the catalogue ‘Art of the 1920s-30s’ as well as beautiful edition about A. Deyneka, one of the most important Soviet artists (#7). Our usual section of Science include interesting books by Bekhterev (#8) and Zander (#9) researching a mind of a Soviet man as well as his attempts to fly in outer space. A collection of 5 anti-NATO pamphlets with striking photomontage wrappers can be found in the next section (#10). Experiments in both Soviet film and Ukrainian theatre are described in the next section (p.23). Five beatiful books are gathered in the section ‘Art of the Book’: type specimen (#14), handbook for typesetters, excellent book design by Solomon Telingater (#18), et al. One of our favorite sections is dedicated to Architecture (p.35): design and construction of buildings especially in the early Soviet years was fascinating and quickly changing. Some of the designs are left only on paper, others can be found on the same place today. Architectural periodicals are particularly interesting in this regard (#20-21). We also have sections on Feminism (p.62), World War II (p.54), Photo Books (p.47) with many illustrated and rare books and periodicals. The closing section of Misc. is very diverse - from a book on Erzya language (#33) to Ukrainians in the USA (#34) to the Soviet pavillion at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 (#36). We hope you enjoy this catalogue as much as we do! Bookvica team July 2020 BOOKVICA 2 Bookvica 15 Uznadze St. 25 Sadovnicheskaya St. 0102 Tbilisi Moscow, RUSSIA GEORGIA +7 (916) 850-6497 +7 (985) 218-6937 [email protected] www.bookvica.com Globus Books 332 Balboa St. San Francisco, CA 94118 USA +1 (415) 668-4723 [email protected] www.globusbooks.com BOOKVICA 3 I BYT 01 [BYT MANIFESTO] Arkin, David. Iskusstvo bytovoi veshchi [i.e. The Art of The Everyday Object]. Moscow: Izogiz, 1932. 170, [3] pp. 21x15 cm. Original photomontage wrappers. Very good, spine is restored. Ex-library copy (the stamp ‘allowed for resale’ of Russian Public Historic Library). Original wrappers’ design by Solomon Telingater (1903-1969), in the composition included the pieces of furniture, drawings of children, abstract architectural elements, pieces of fabrics and tableware. Illustrated throughout. The illustrations include the designs of a room by El Lissitzky, a working club room designed by A. Rodchenko, as well as a stage costume designed by him, examples of textile and agitational porcelain. No 01 BOOKVICA 4 Worldcat shows First and only edition. Very rare. This work, produced by art copies at Stanford and Columbia historian, the head of the department of industrial design of Moscow Universities. University David Arkin (1899-1957), was his debut work but also one of the most interesting ones. Written by him under the influence of Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and productive arts of the USSR of the 1920s, it could be seen as a kind of manifesto of left art in the design of furniture, tableware and everyday objects. Arkin makes the argument that in a harmonious co-existence of the machine-produced items and the artist the crucial ‘sight point’ is the everyday object. He understands it as any item that surrounds a person in his daily life from furniture to tableware as well as clothing and anything inside man’s house. All of these objects are analyzed in the book from the perspectives of the ‘new style’ and with many references to the achievements of the European designers. In the chapter ‘From William Morris to Constructivism’ Arkin tries to prove that only Soviet design has the advantage of creating the most universal and advanced style. It’s achieved because of the belief that art is the function of everyday life and is serving the everyday life and its objects. Arkin’s work is enjoyable because in the following year the wind has changed and under the accusations of formalism a lot of ideas he was promoting was discharged and disallowed in USSR. David Arkin went on to focus on the books on architecture, No 01 BOOKVICA 5 with his classical ‘Contemporary Architecture of the West’ coming out the same year (El Lissitzky designed the book). ON HOLD 02 [CONSTRUCTIVIST FURNITURE] Za novuiu mebel’ [i.e. For the New Furniture]. Moscow: GOSTEKHIZD, 1933. 87 pp.: ill. 17x12,5 cm. Original illustrated wrapper. Near fine. Worldcat doesn’t Extremely rare. The book includes two theoretical works track this edition. by Benenson and Murashov on the development and goals of the Soviet furniture industry and the chapter by N. Guchev. The chapter by N. Guchev describes the results of the contest, that was called collectively by 25 different organizations, including the all-Union committee for unification, central committee of wood and carpenter workers, Soyuzmebel and others. The content entered 149 projects, the examples of them are given in the chapter. The jury included engineers, urban planners, wood workers and one delegate from the Communist academy. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the actual projects with illustrations provided (total of 57 images). Despite the progressing attack on the formalist art in Soviet art the projects included the examples of constructivism and even Bauhaus-inspired designs. The same year Hans Meyer has created the famous Birobidzhan city plan, partly embodied in the Soviet Far East. However there is not much information about the influence of Bauhaus on Soviet furniture design of the 1930s. The projects however show that the anonymous designers have gained some inspiration from there. The shortlist of laureates included the projects like ‘Cheiorniy kvadrat’ [i.e.’Black square’], ‘Na perehodnom etape’ [i.e. During the transmission period], ‘Zeleniy shum’ [i.e. Green noise]. Apart from the projects ‘The Black Square’ there’s also ‘Black and Red Square’ which alludes to Malevich. He was probably unaware of this projects, but the analogy is interesting. The bed ‘Black Square’ has a large headboards with black squares located on it in the chaotic order. One of the most surrealist projects is ‘The Green Noise’, in which the table has skyscraper like catalogue shelves from both sides of the chair, allowing the minimal space in between. Overall, an interesting overview of the Soviet furniture that BOOKVICA 6 No 02 stayed in drafts and was never produced. ON HOLD 03 [THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE MOSCOW EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE 1930s THROUGH ADVERTISMENTS] Spisok abonentov Moskovskoi gorodskoi telefonnoi seti [i.e. List of the Moscow City Telephone Line Subscribers]. Moscow: Izd. Upravleniia Moskovskoi gorodskoi telefonnoi seti, 1939. L, 496, 112, [16] pp. 26,5x20 cm. One of 30000 copies printed. In original wrappers. Small losses and tears of the spine and covers, rubbed, ink note on p. 110 (additional info about subscriber), otherwise very good. Worldcat doesn’t Extremely rare. As the purpose of the edition was to be placed track this edition. in the city telephone booths, the chances of survival to present days were little. This version of Moscow’s ‘Yellow Pages’ shows the life of the capital of the USSR in the brutal era of repressions and arrests from a completely different point of view than the books or periodicals of the time. It mirrors the everyday life of the city giving us the insight into the needs and opportunities of the Moscow dweller in the late 1930s. BOOKVICA 7 No 03 Targeted to a telephone user the book contains a lot of advertising showing the business side of the city where still (until 1956) small businesses existed, including the private enterprise. By the 1950s in the Soviet Union 2 million people were employed by such businesses. For example, some of the advertising Azerbaijani and Armenian wines, mineral water, scrap metal recycling, hotels, grocery BOOKVICA 8 shops, cacao and ice-cream, cigars, et al. The back cover contains Glavtorgvodtrans advertisement of canteens and restaurants on board of ships that went on the Moscow- Volga Canal. As it announced the first-class suburban restaurant with jazz and dances was located in ‘Khimki’ port. Even the spine of the book had an ad for the Aeroflot company (as well as the full schedule of the flights of the company on p.3 of the ad section). Booksellers advertised literature in foreign languages as well as pre-revolutionary editions. On another page an ad for the language courses could be found. A very interesting ad section was given to museums in whish most of Moscow’s existed museums were given space to place information about their open hours and exhibitions. The museum of the art of the serves in tsarist Russia was advertised alongside with Anna Golubkina’s workshop (that was closed in 1952 but reopened in the 1970s). Already actively working both Mayakovsky’s museum and Anti- religious museum near Tverskaya St. Some temporary exhibitions included the exhibition on the protection of motherood and the exhibition of the calculating machines and accounting equipment. The ‘health and beauty’ advertising section gives us the overview of the medical market in Moscow at the time, including a cosmetic clinic and a radiology institute.