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[UKRAINIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM] Trush

Khmuryi, V.I.

Kharkiv: Rukh, [1931]. Item #660

40, [2] pp.: ill., 12 ill. 25,5x18 cm. In original wrappers. Covers detached from the text block, tear of the spine, some foxing, otherwise very good.

First and only edition. One of 2000 copies. In Ukrainian.
A stunning constructivist cover design produced by Vasyl Krychevsky (1873-1952), architect and artist who formed the Ukrainian Art Nouveau. In 1918 he was entrusted with the new Ukrainian coat of arms which became an excellent evidence of the new style. Staying between avant-garde and traditional art, Krychevsky was designer of the first Ukrainian films in the 1920s and the first color film in this country released in 1937.
This is the first book about one of the founders of Lviv art life Ivan Trush (1869–1941). It was written by journalist and art critic Vasil’ Khmuryi (1896-1940), who observed the Ukrainian avant-garde theatre and art until he was repressed in 1933. Ivan Trush was a student of realist artist Anton Ažbe. Despite the fact that the same time Ažbe taught the avant-garde artist V. Kandinsky, Trush followed the realistic manner of mentor depicting the portraits and landscapes (the book presents 13 of them). Standing far from the avant-garde, he tried his own experiments. His innovative impressionist works laid the foundation of a new era of art in Galicia which later formed Lviv avant-garde art.
This is the first book published in a series ‘Ukrains’ke maliarstvo’ (Ukrainian Painting).

The only copy located at Yale University.

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