Description:

[ERMOLAEVA, VERA], ZAICHIK, 1923

ZAICHIK. Detskaia skazka. (Bunny. A children's Tale). Illustrations and book design by Vera Ermolaeva. Petrograd: S. la. Streikh, 1923. Quarto 29x20cm., wrappers, 13 pp. Edition no more than 150. Color linocuts in drawings and text. Extremely rare, superb Ermolaeva work.

LOT NOTES
Vera Ermolaeva presents an ingenious tragic farce in her depiction of a folktale with a political subtext. The juxtaposition of page and text lead the reader ona journey of an assumed murder and subsequently reversed the positions of hunter and hunted, and finally an improbable escape. As a tale for adults, this story has been seen to reflect the social and economic texture of life in 1923 Petrograd, still recovering from the hostilities and bloodshed of the civil war and communist accession to full power where mutual antagonists are bound by a common unity. As an artwork in book form, it is a masterpiece of inventiveness and originality.

Ermolaeva (1893-1937) was a remarkable artist of first rank. She worked in Futurism before the revolution in the Beskovye ubisstvo circle and Soiuz mo/odezhi and worked closely with Malevich, then after the revolution collaborated with Matyushin, designing sets for Victory Over the Sun and Mayakovsky in Voina i mir, predominantly Suprematist in orientation. Ermoleva led the Peoples Art School in Vitebsk in 1919, developed the UNOVIS (Creators of New Art) group with Malevich there and returning to Petrograd she led the color laboratory at State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKhUK) to 1926, all through this time producing ground-breaking work . She was a founder of the Segodnia workshop from 1918, producing lubki (small children's books) with a group of poets and fellow artists, and focused and children's in wonderful collaborations through state agencies during the 1920s. She eventually found alignment with OBERIU writers and artists. This latter connection led to a denunciation and her arrest for subversive activity and ultimate execution in 1937. She was rehabilitated in 1989. The present copy in near fine condition. OCLC locates one institutional holding worldwide (Univ So. Calif).

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