Bookvica

[FEMALE FUTURIST POET & ARTIST] Nebesnye verbliuzhata [i.e. Heavenly Baby Сamels]

Guro, E.

Item #1671

St. Petersburg: [Zhuravl’], 1914. 126 p.: ill. 22x17 cm. In original wrappers with letterpress design. Covers and spine restored, some soiling, otherwise very good.
First and only full edition. One of 750 copies. Cover design features letterpress design by seven-year-old niece of Guro, Marianna Erlich.
It is the last book that futurist painter and writer Elena Guro (1877-1913) completed on her own. It was published after her untimely death, by her spouse Mikhail Matyushin and sister Ekaterina Nizen.
Guro studied with Bakst, Dobuzhinsky, Petrov-Vodkin and Matyushin in private art studios. At the same time, she became close to representatives of modernist movements in literature and arts. In 1908, she established her own studio. Since that time, her home had been an important meeting place for discussions on art and literature. In 1909, she and Matyushin founded the Union of Youth art society but left it in 1910. She also joined the literary group Gileya [Hylaea], the most leftist association in contemporary Russian literature.
Guro’s works embody an original synthesis of poetry, prose, painting and graphics. According to Matyushin, “The Story of a Poor Knight”, “Heavenly Baby Camels” and “Autumn Dream” were conceived in the summer of 1910. During Guro’s lifetime, only “Autumn Dream” and fragments of “Heavenly Baby Camels” were published. Those fragments were introduced in the second issue of ‘A Trap for Judges’ (February 1913, the same publishing house “Zhuravl’”). There were writings and some artworks on about 35 pages. When Kruchenykh noted works by Guro in ‘A Trap for Judges’, he wrote to her: “You have everything sketched out in aerial disorder – this is a pleasant contrast to the artificiality of others. I ought to say the same about your drawings. And I just thought it would be interesting to decorate with your drawings such a book of airy sadness as ‘Old-Time Love’. Works by others are too skillful and simultaneously trite”.
This particular book includes prose and verse writings, as well as reproductions of about 20 artworks in various techniques, printed or mounted. They are reproduced by zincography and halftone. The edition contains a portrait of Guro with an easel, captured by Matyushin.
Copies are located in Princeton University and Getty Institute.

Status: On Hold