Lavinskaia, Elizaveta, illustrator.

[PHOTOMONTAGE – SOVIET BOOK CATALOG ABOUT AMERICA] Amerika: politika, ekonomika, byt, khudozhestvennaia literatura: katalog knig [America: politics, economics, everyday life, literature: a catalog of books].

Moscow–Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1927. Octavo (21 × 14.5 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 87, [1] pp. With eight full-page photomontages and twelve smaller photo-montage vignettes, in addition to the wrapper, printed in black and blue. About very good; light wear to spine, with partial loss to lower spine extremity; and front wrapper splitting at spine extremities. Item #54429

A striking catalog of books, posters, and other artifacts produced by the State Publishing House about all aspects of US culture, including, notably, a section entitled “Negroes in America” (Negry v Amerike), and published on the ten-year anniversary of the October Revolution (possibly to complement a similar, but more extensive catalog issued about the Soviet Union). With eight elaborate full-page photomontages incorporating typographic lettering, each of which reflects the catalog’s thematic sections, and several smaller vignettes.

All illustrations are by the Constructivist artist Elizaveta Lavinskaia (1901–1949). Lavinskaia studied at VKhUTEMAS and was a member of the LEF group along with her husband Anton Lavinskii (1893–1968). Working primarily in agitational art, Lavinskaia designed public holiday displays, store windows, political posters, collaborating with avant-garde artists such as Varvara Stepanova, Elena Semenova, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. She also collaborated with her husband, most notably on the film poster “Dom na Trubnoi”(1928). Another notable poster work, “Budem okhraniat’ elektroprovoda” (1928), is held by MoMA. Overshadowed by her more famous collaborators, Lavinskaia’s work remains understudied.

In spite of a significant print run of 10000 copies, the book is very uncommon: as of May 2024, KVK and OCLC show five copies, all in North America. We also cannot trace the book at the Russian State Library, possibly due to the reference to writers whose works fell out of favor in the 1930s, resulting in confiscations and removal of the book from public holdings.

Price: €2,000.00

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