A Collection of Original Lithographs with Manuscript Notes

Major avant-garde lithographs as scrap paper - with interesting notes --- Original lithographs for some of the most famous Russian avant-garde books by two of the main artists of the movement - with curious verso inscriptions on Mayakovsky-led productions of the first Soviet propaganda poster bureau. Some of these lithographs were produced for Pomada [Pomade], a celebrated innovative book by Aleksei Kruchenykh (1886–1968), printed in 1913 in 480 copies, with illustrations by Mikhail Larionov (1881–1964) mounted on gold-leaf paper. These include a nude, a male portrait in the rayonist style developed by Larionov, and a smaller male portrait in the same style in four copies. These, together with several other lithographs originally made for Pomada, were also incorporated into Oslinyi khvost i mishen [Donkey's Tail and Target] published in the same year 1913 in 525 copies. The collection includes seven larger plates by Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962), printed for another of Kruchenykh's groundbreaking and rare avant-garde works, Dve poemy. Pustynniki. Pustynnitsy [Two Poems. Hermits. Hermitess], like Pomada published in Moscow by Kuzmin and Dolinskii in 1913 in an edition limited to 480 copies. This set includes two copies of "Elder on an Ox", bearing the lithographed signature "N" at the lower left; three copies of the rayonist "Trees"; and two impressions of the Gauguin-inspired "Woman with Raised Hands" (or "The Hermitess"). "Elder on an Ox" and "Trees", together with two other lithographs from the same book, were also used in Nataliia Goncharova. Mikhail Larionov, the first book by Ilia Zdanevich (under the pseudonym of Eli Eganbiuri), which, like Oslinyi khvost i mishen, was published by Munster in Moscow in 1913 in an edition of 525 copies. Of particular notice are two copies of blue lithographs by Goncharova, depicting a sprawling flower with a bird and a lion, printed on a folded sheet of thick paper, with the lithograph occupying the upper half and likely intended as the cover of a brochure or small catalogue. Another example we could trace is held at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, where it is catalogued as "Cover Design for the Exhibition of the Russian Lubok in Moscow in 1913". Both lubok exhibitions organised in Moscow in 1913—the first by Nikolai Vinogradov and, a few months later, the second by Larionov—were accompanied by modest catalogues without illustrations. We could trace just one other copy of this lithograph, sold at auction in Russia. All the plates, with the exception of Goncharova's two blue lithographs, bear inscriptions on their versos relating to productions of the short-lived State news and propaganda agency 'Okna ROSTA' ('Windows of the Russian Telegraph Agency'; 1919-21), headed by Russia's foremost revolutionary poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, together with the artist Mikhail Cheremnykh (1890–1962). These notes were most likely made in the 1930s or early 1940s by compilers of ROSTA or Mayakovsky's comprehensive collections, such as V. Duvakin, who published his research of Mayakovsky's opuses for ROSTA in the 1939 and 1949 editions of the poet's complete works. It is possible that our lithographs, printed for Kruchenykh's 1913 editions, were given to Mayakovsky or his ROSTA associates by Kruchenykh himself or his publishers. A close associate of Mayakovsky in the futurist avant-garde, Kruchenykh also worked as an artist in ROSTA's Baku branch in the Caucasus in 1919–20. A committed bibliophile from the outset of his career, he consistently collected the literary and artistic heritage of his time. Many of the plates carry ROSTA poster verses by Mayakovsky and other authors, noting the artists who illustrated them as well as the dimensions of the works. Some verses were issued by ROSTA in collaboration with Glavpolitprosvet (the Main Political and Educational Committee), which succeeded ROSTA in 1922. Other inscriptions include details of a 1919 contest on the theme of Karl Marx; a grid-like plan.…