Bookvica

[NEW YORK IS NOT AMERICA] New York: (An Outline)

Item #2113

Planned and compiled by John Kashkeen; il. and maps arranged by F. Tahiroff; suppl.: vocabulary and explanatory notes by M. Lorie: Leningrad: Co-operative publishing society of foreign workers in the U.S.S.R. (Comintern Press), 1933. 157, [3] p.: ill., [8] pages, [2] Manhattan maps folding. 21X14,7 cm. Covers are slightly bumped, a tear to one of the folding maps. Private French ex-libris on the title page. Otherwise in very good condition.

The first and only edition, produced by one of the main Tatar designers of all time, the founder of TatLEF, Faik Tagirov (1906-1978).

Tagirov was familiar with the experience of contemporary constructivist artists. Influenced by them, he at the same time focused on national culture. He became an active member of the TatLEF or SULF (1923-1926) along with K. Chebotarev and A. Platunova. Lacking its own periodical, TatLEF had made its tribune of wall newspapers and Tagirov designed the Tatar language posters ‘Sulf’. In his work, Tagirov synthesized the ancient traditions of Islamic art with the techniques of the European avant-garde, combining Arabic graphics with constructivist aesthetics and actively using photomontage.
In 1925, Tagirov enrolled at the Printing Department of VKHUTEMAS and started to design books in the Tatar language for the Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the USSR. He created some books together with Alexandra Korobkova (1905–1998), his colleague and wife. Further creative and scientific activity of Tagirov was associated with the type design. He stayed in Moscow where he was able to fully implement LEF’s slogan “Art for Production”. From 1930 to 1934, Tagirov was a postgraduate student at the Moscow Printing Institute where he taught the course of the theory and practice of type design.
The book was printed “for export purposes”; American apologists of the USSR took part in its creation: Dreiser, Dos Passos, John Reed, etc. But the main advantage of the book is Tahirov’s left progressive design; this is his only book designed entirely from the cover to photomontages and fonts. The rest of his book design is dominated by decorated covers, a rare example of a book
assembled by him in its entirety.
This book can be compared with “For the Voice” by Lissitzky/Mayakovsky; according to critics, in it Tagirov demonstrated the creation of a “new architecture” of the book.
The book was created after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and the USA, so we can “enjoy” the rather curious pro-American pathos of Soviet propaganda.

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