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[A CONSTRUCTIVIST CHILDREN’S BOOK] Khleb i mashiny [i.e. Bread and Machinery]

Moscow: Izd. “Krest’ianskaia gazeta”, 1930. Item #1397

12 pp.: ill. 15,5x14 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Tears of the spine, some pages repaired along the spine and faded on the inner margin, otherwise very good.

Very rare.
Illustrations were created by the artist Feodosii Bochkov (1901-1952). After graduating from the Vologda State Art Workshops (GOSVOKHUM) in 1922, he moved to Moscow to continue his studies in VKHUTEMAS, at the lithography department. There, he was influenced by N. Kupreianov and P. Miturich. Soon, he became involved in book design, focusing on children’s books.
Khleb i mashiny is one of Bochkov’s early works and a fine example of avant-garde design in Soviet children’s books of the 1920 and the 1930s. The artist played with perspective, color, and shape. On one page, two airplanes are flying over a city in the dark sky. Half of this illustration was created as color spots, while the other half looks like a color-ink sketch. The airplanes are separated by the art techniques that the creator used for each half. Similar combinations of linework and watercolor are showcased on the rest of the pages. Moreover, the artist added photographs and supplemented them with coloring or drawn elements. Thus, the last double-page spread illustrates the work of tractor drivers. Two photos of tractors are outlined in green ink, complemented by drawings of people, and placed above color spots, serving as the background.
The story is about the vehicles that are first involved in the delivery of grain from collective farms to a large-scale bakery, and then in the distribution of bread to cities where factory workers produce such equipment as tractors, harrows, cultivators, etc. The text was written by Gennadii Solov’ev, known for other children’s books published in the 1920s and 1930s.
The book came out as a supplement to the magazine Druzhnye rebiata [i.e. Friendly Children].

Worldcat doesn’t track this edition.

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