Эпопея, Литературный ежемесячник [Epopea, Litrary Monthly], edited by Andrei Bely (Андрей Белый). Issue No. 3. Moscow-Berlin: Helicon (Геликон), 1923. Russian. Cover design by El Lissitzky.
Issue No. 3 of the literary monthly Epopea (Epic), edited by the renowned Russian novelist, poet and theoretician, Andrei Bely (1880-1934). The issue features texts by Maxim Gorky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Viktor Shklovsky, Vladislav Khodasevich, Aleksey Remizov, and Bely himself. The issue's cover was designed by El Lissitzky.
309, [2] pp., 21 cm. Most leaves unopened. Light stains. Minor marginal tears to leaves and cover, not affecting text. Open marginal tear to cover (not affecting text).
Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.
El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (1890-1941), a Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect. A prominent member of Russian avant-garde. Alongside his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich, Lissitzky made a great contribution to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematist movement – an abstract art movement, that centered on pure geometrical abstraction. He designed numerous books, journals, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia, and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe.
In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals. Lissitzky, who perceived books as immortal artifacts, "monuments of the future" by his own definition, used the medium as a tool for spreading the messages of the avant-garde movement, and his artistic philosophy. This is indicated by the large variety of books in whose design, production or illustration he took part – from children's books and poetry books, to catalogs, guidebooks and academic publications.
Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence reality, and bring about change.
