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[MALEVICH] Taynie poroki akademikov [i.e. The Secret Vices of Academicians]

Malevich, Kliun, Kruchionykh

Moscow: Izd-vo Budetlian, 1915. Item #248

32 pp.: ill. 23x19 cm. Original illustrated wrappers. Small tears of the spine but otherwise a very good copy.

Very rare. One of 450 copies printed.
First edition. This book is the only known collaboration of three key figures of Russian avant-garde - Kazimir Malevich, Alexei Kruchionykh and Ivan Kliun. Includes three сonstructivist illustrations by Kliun, of which one is on the cover. All three have contributed to the text.
The main motive of the publications are the condemnation of the classic art and the proclamation of the avant-garde. Cubo-futurist Ivan Kliun who was inspired by Malevich included his own manifesto ‘The Primitives of XXth century’.
Malevich’s own article includes the thoughts on the fourth dimension. He states: «I warn you about the danger: nowadays the mind seized the art in the 4-dimension box and I ran away foreseeing the danger of 5th and 6th dimension. The 5th and 6th dimension will create a cube where art will choke». This has to do with popular among Russian futurists of the time views of occultist Pyotr Uspensky. Malevich believed that those ideas oppose the suprematism.

Getty 384. MoMA 105.

Price: $5,500.00