Bookvica

[GAMREKELI PRE-H2SO4] Sharavandedi: Leksebi da p’oemebi. Ts’, 1 [i.e. Aureole: Verses and Poems. The First Book]

Vakeli, I.

Item #2655

Tbilisi: Samkhedro stamba, 1923. 139, [4] pp. 22,5 × 15,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Wrappers are slightly restored (edges of the spine were missing). Otherwise near fine condition.

First edition. One of 1000 copies.
A very rare collaboration between two esteemed representatives of Georgian avant-garde, Iona Vakeli (1900–1988) and Irakli Gamrekeli (1894—1943). This book is probably one of the only examples by Gamrekeli of a series of abstract drawings for a book of poetry. The main motifs are the industrial city, pictured in chaotic lines and odd angles combined with dancing signboards. The work anticipates the design for H2SO4 periodical, that came out the next year. Interestingly Gamrekeli used the poor quality of paper available at the time to the advantage of his sharp black & white images.

Published in 1923, “Sharavandedi” marked a major breakthrough in the career of the Georgian proletarian poet and playwright, Iona Vakeli. Still only twentythree years old, the Tbilisi State University
student had been trying for several years to achieve success as a writer. Until “Sharavandedi” he had not managed to publish anything more than a pair of verses in the Georgian magazines “Rider”, “Theater and Life” and “The Communist”. Vakeli would go on to write many poems as well as an astonishing body of work in other fields — thousands of pages of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Goethe translations, and brilliant plays that were regularly performed on the Tbilisi stage, including “Shamil” (premiered on December 30, 1935; director, Dodo Antadze and Sergo Chelidze; stage designer, Tamar Abakelia), and “Aprakune Chimchimeli” (premiered on May 18, 1934; director, Vaso Godziashvili and Niko Godziashvili; stage designer, Petre Otskheli), etc.

Chepyzhov. New Georgian Book Design, 21.

Worldcat locates one copy at Johns Hopkins University.

Price: $2,900.00