ISAAK I AVRAAM [text in Russian]

Book Description

[St. Petersburg: Izd-vo. M.K., 1994].. Narrow quarto (29 x 15.2cm). Forest-green paper over boards, printed paper label. Printed on one side only of accordion fold-out text block. Fine in board slipcase. First edition in this format, with color lithographed double-page title, and four full-page color plates, by Karasik. One of a total edition of forty-seven numbered copies, signed by the printer/illustrator, and with each of the lithographs initialed in pencil in the lower margin. An innovative presentation of Brodsky's text, conceived and executed by one of the central figures in the revival of the artist's book in post-Soviet Russia. "Mikhail Karasik’s crede [sic] is 'a book made by an artist,' he has been working on it since 1987 when he made his first lithographic book 'Christmas,' inspired by a poem by Pasternak. Karasik is the pioneer of the book made by an artist in Russia: he has published over 40 litho-books of this caliber in small editions. Moreover, he has been working hard as curator, organizer of exhibitions and festivals devoted to the book made by an artist in Russia and outside. Karasik draws upon the tradition of the Russian futurist books of the 1910- 20s, the illustrated editions by K. Malevich, M. Larionov, N. Goncharova, O. Rozanov, P. Filonov. While these futurist slipshod bulky-section-books, which were deliberately anti-aesthetic, were meant to show off, Karasik’s books, on the contrary, are exquisitely aesthetic. The artist carefully chooses all elements of decoration, he experiments with paper trying craft- and laid-paper, signs and vellum, patterns and cardboard. The elaborateness of form is of conceptual importance, for the book is a full- dress metaphor of its content" - RUSSKIALBUM.

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