Lot 242
"Legion" – Gabriel Talphir – Cover Design by Henryk Berlewi
Legion, a long poem by Gabriel Talphir. Warsaw: "Pratzim", 1925. Hebrew.
The debut book of poet Gabriel Talphir; an impressive Futurist long poem depicting a vision of Hebrew legions conquering Palestine. The cover was designed by Henryk Berlewi (signed in the plate: "H. Berlewi"). At the beginning, a printed note with corrections.
The Jewish-Polish artist Henryk Berlewi (1894-1967) was one of the leading constructivist artists in Poland in the 1920s. He studied art in Warsaw, Antwerp and Paris. During the years 1919-1921, he worked with the artistic and literary avant-garde group Jung Jiddisch. Berlewi designed and illustrated books; especially remembered are his illustrations for books by poets Uri Zvi Greenberg and Peretz Markish. In 1924, Berlewi published a theoretical essay titled "Mechano-Faktura" in which he introduced the artistic method he had developed – using mechanical means to create texture. The "Mechano-Faktura", which is based on arrangements of lines and simple geometric forms, using the colors black, white and red, rejects the illusion of space in favor of two-dimensionality. In late 1920s, Berlewi moved to Paris, where he mainly focused on painting portraits. After World War II, his works were displayed in several large exhibitions in Paris, as well as in Berlin, Warsaw, Zürich and New York.
80 pp. approx. 27.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Ownership stamp on first page. Stains, creases and blemishes to margins of some leaves. Several leaves with tears to inner margins. Worn and slightly stained cover. Tears and missing parts to spine.
