Various.

[LATVIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM AND CUBISM IN BERLIN – INTERNATIONAL AVANT-GARDE] Laikmets [Contemporary times], no. 4 (of four published).

Berlin: Izdevniecība "Latvijas telnieks", 1923. Quarto (28.5 × 21.5 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers on light orange stock; [2], 75–94, [2] pp. Eighteen black and white reproductions, including several full-page plates; printed on good paper stock. Wrappers with repair to spine fold; the original staples removed; paper lightly wavy to edges; else internally about very good. Item #55505

Single issue of this exceedingly uncommon, yet highly important Latvian avant-garde journal published in Berlin, which stands as one of the key documents on the Latvian avant-garde and a testament to the Latvian contribution to the dynamic international art world of 1920s Berlin. With four issues published from January to April 1923, the journal was edited by Karlis Zale (also known as Zalite and Zalit; 1888–1942) and Arnolds Dzirkals (1896–1944). Zale was a Latvian sculptor who lived and studied in Moscow and worked in Berlin from 1921–23 before returning to Latvia. Both Zale and Dzirkals were part of the international community of avantgardists active in Berlin in the early 1920s, which included Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Puni, and Archipenko, among others: "[in Berlin] finden sich Anfang der zwanziger Jahre häufig lettische Künstler ein, um sich an den dortigen Kunstaustellungen zu beteiligen ... und um Gemeinschaftsausstellungen mit verschiedenen deutschen Avantgarde-Gruppen zu veranstalten (zum Beispiel die "Rigaer Künstlergruppe" mit der "Novembergruppe"). ... Der Bildhauer Karlis Zale ... der sich als Teilnehmer der ersten Ausstellung russischer Avantgarde-Kunst in der Van Diemen Galerie in Berlin aufhält... gründete die lettischsprachige Zeitschrift für Avantgarde-Kunst "Laikmets" (Nr. 1-4/1923). Fast alle weltweit bedeutenden Künstler und Kunsttheoretiker, die der synthetischen Avantgarde zuzurechnen sind, wirkten daran mit. Bereits 1922 verteidigte Karlis Zale gemeinsam mit Jaan (Ivan) Puni diese Kunstkonzeption gegenüber den Vertretern der analytischen Avantgarde auf dem ersten und vorerst einzigen Weltkongreß der Avantgarde-Kunst in Düsseldorf" (Baltinavietis 13).

The issues all features the same accomplished Constructivist wrapper illustration, as well as occasional smaller vignettes throughout, most likely by Konrad Ubans (1893–1981), later known as a Latvian painter of the Academy. This issue contains articles on and reproductions of work by Ludolfs Liberts, Jānis Siliņš, Ozenfant, Ivan Puni, Constructivist sculpture, Julijs Madernieks, Vinicio Paladini, as well as a poem by A. Kurcijs, the leftist art critic who had authored a Cubist manifesto the same year.

As of January 2026, KVK, OCLC only show one complete run in North America. Not held by the Berlin State Library.

Price: €1,800.00

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