Ermolaeva, V[era].

[AVANT-GARDE FOR SOVIET CHILDREN] Lzhets: basnia Krylova [Liar: a fable by Krylov].

Leningrad; Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1930. Octavo (17.5 × 13 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers; 6 pp. Illustrations throughout. Light foxing throughout; some discoloration due to stock; still about very good. Item #55704

First edition (the second followed in 1931) of this classic fable, illustrated by the graphic artist and painter Vera Ermolaeva (1893–1938), one of the most energetic members of the Russian avant-garde, especially notable for her contribution to children's book publishing. Ermolaeva studied art in St. Petersburg with Mikhail Bernshtein (alongside Tatlin, Shklovsky, and Altman), later traveling to Paris to study Cubism. In 1915 she became one of the founding members of the Futurist group “Bloodless murder”, which published an eponymous journal “similar to the fFuturist publications of Kruchenykh.” Ermolaeva held a deep interest in folk art and “primitive forms,” graduating with a degree in Archeology from St. Petersburg University in 1917. In 1918, she founded the Artel “Segodnia” with the objective of creating affordable illustrated editions of works by “leftist poets” for children. The group also organized cultural evenings for children, decorating these with “enormous drawings of animals and papier maché sculptures,” as well as “live newspaper” evenings, the first of which included readings by Eikhenbaum, Akhmatova, Kuzmin, and Zamiatin (Marzio Marzaduri, Russkii literaturnyi avangard: materialy i issledovaniia, pp. 37–50). In 1919 Ermolaeva was summoned to Vitebsk to teach at the Vitebsk Art Institute alongside Chagall and Lissitzky, eventually taking over the directing position after Chagall’s departure. Malevich came to the Vitebsk on Ermolaeva’s invitation, where with her support he founded UNOVIS (The Champions of New Art), a Suprematist group active 1919–1922. Starting in 1923, Ermolaeva was the head of the color laboratory at GINKhUK (State Institute of Artistic Culture), an innovative center for the scientific study of art. In later years, Ermolaeva worked closely with the Futurist OBERIU (Union of Real Art) poets at Detgiz (Children’s National Publishing House), illustrating books by A. Vvedensky, N. Zabolotsky, N. Oleinikov, D. Kharms, as well as classic works such as this one. Ermolaeva’s contribution to the Russian avant-garde remains understudied, despite the nearly two dozen of her works, including the UNOVIS manifesto, held at MoMA, including a strikingly stylistically similar children’s book Sobachki (Doggies) from 1929.

This volume is not in the Lur'e collection (Kniga dlia detei 1881–1939, Moscow: ULEI, 2009).

As of April 2026, KVK, OCLC show one copy in North America, with two additional holdings of the second edition from 1931.

Price: €1,200.00

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