Bookvica

[AVANT-GARDE ARCHITECTURE FOR PROLETARIAT] 10 rabochikh klubov Moskvy: Arkhitektura klubnogo zdaniia [i.e. Ten Workers’ Clubs of Moscow... Architecture of a Club Building] / edited by D.E. Arkin.

Item #1250

Moscow; Leningrad: OGIZ-IZOGIZ, 1932. 108 pp.: ill. 17x18 cm. Designed by M.A. Il’in. In the original photomontage dust wrapper. In white blank wrappers. Very good. Spine is slightly restored and the dust-jacked is rubbed at the creases.
Very rare, especially with a fragile dust wrapper. One of 5000 copies. The edition is prepared by the group for studying architecture of workers clubs that existed in the State Academy of Art History in Moscow (GAIS)
The book is dedicated to the massive phenomenon of Soviet workers’ clubs which construction occurred in the 1920s. Social, ideological, educational functions were laid upon them when created in the beginning of the century. This nature was very attractive for architects of the time, sparking with ideas. Almost all architects of the 1920s thought workers’ clubs should stand out from everything else. Clubs built in 1927-1930s were avant-garde innovations created by famous Vesnin brothers, Melnikov, Golosov and others, and it’s well-known since 1930s architecture and art in general had to take different turn towards socialist realism and central state planning (after all the clubs in 1920s were financed by unions). These clubs were the last birds of free creative process, and today they are world famous and considered architectural monuments.
The book is dedicated to principles of planning and design of workers’ clubs and consists of an introduction, description of each of 10 clubs, and a conclusion on architecture of clubs.
The book itself is an interesting example of constructivist book design. The size of the dust-jacket unfolded is almost a meter. On the front size of it the photographs of the clubs next to the laconic numbers and red rectangles are shown. On the rear side the plans of the same clubs are depicted. Without the dust-jacket the book looks like a humble white square. On the title page the composition of 10 clubs and their names with numbers are appearing again, slightly altered. The typographic layouts throughout the edition show the understanding of constructivist composition by both artist Ilyin and the technical editor S. Zaskalskiy.
The photography in the edition is overlooked by the Cabinet of Experimental and Applied Photography in GAIS and executed by D. Kozlov and Ilyin himself.

Worldcat locates the only copy at Columbia University Libraries.

Sold