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[THE 1960S NONCONFORMIST CATALOGUE ON MAYAKOVSKY] Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893—1930). Vystavka: Zhivopis’. Grafika. Risunki [i.e. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893—1930). Exhibition : Paintings. Graphic Works. Drawings].

Item #2674

Moscow: Gos. biblioteka-musei Mayakovskogo, 1963. 14 pp. 21 × 13,5 cm. In original letterpress wrappers. As new.

First and only edition. One of 5000 copies. Very rare.
Cover design by Igor Vulokh (1938–2012), the 1960s nonconformist artist, a leader of the Russian abstract art. Thanks to his work at the Mayakovsky Museum, he was acquainted with the poet Gennady Aigi (mentioned in this catalogue as compiler under his last name Lisin). In the 1960s their collaboration was significant for retrospective shows of the early Soviet art. They organized together exhibitions of such avantgarde artists as Tatlin, Malevich, Larionov, Goncharova, Filonov, et al. Among other figures of Russian avantgarde they studied Mayakovsky and contributed to this edition.

Overall 85 items of this catalogue list paintings, caricatures, drawings in the notebooks, books, letters and notes, luboks, posters and their sketches, book illustrations that Mayakovsky created in 1908—1930. The foreword by director and biographer Vasily Katanyan (1924—1999) contains a sketch on Mayakovsky’s art. Throughout his life, Katanyan family kept the archive
of Lily Brik that included materials on this topic. “Interesting that Mayakovsky first gave a speech as an artist, not a poet’. He emphasized that the art often brought Mayakovsky the only earnings in the pre-revolutionary Moscow. And this side of his life had led him to join Cheremnykh in creating the sharp satirical posters ‘Windows ROSTA’ - the major Mayakovsky’s art
project. The copy contains a loosely inserted contemporary card ‘Window ROSTA #473’ with reproduced Mayakovsky’s poster.

Worldcat locates copies at Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University.

Status: On Hold