Iskusstvo kommuny [Art of the commune], nos. 7, 8, 9, 11, 14 (January 19-March 9, 1919)

Petrograd: Izdanie Otdela Izobrazitel'nykh Iskusstv Komissariata Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia, 1919. Folios (64 × 45 cm). Original folded newsprint, printed to rectos and versos; 4-6 pp. Striking suprematist lettering in header. Leaves toned and somewhat brittle, as usual; old creases and nicks to folds, corners, and margins. Still good or better. Five of nineteen issues published of the important Russian avant-garde paper, edited by Osip Brik, Natan Al'tman, and Nikolai Punin, which appeared from December 2018 to April 1919. With contributions, among others, by Osip Brik, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Kushner, Ivan Puni, Nikolai Punin, Mark Chagall, and David Shterenberg, including manifestos, articles, reviews, and original poetry. Of particular important are first printings of Mayakovsky's poem "Potriasaiushchie fakty" (no. 7) as well as the declaration of the short-lived futurist group Komfut (short for Communist Futurism) in no. 8 and subsequent discussion of the group in no. 9. The movement was a reaction to the burgeoning "Proletkult" movement, with its focus on more traditionally realist approaches, and an attempt to fuse futurist aesthetics with communist politics. One of the issues features the slogan below the head: "There is no beauty outside of struggle, there are no masterpieces without violence" (Net krasoty vne bor'by, net shedevrov bez nasiliia). Another features the slogan: "Enough marching, Futurists! Take a leap - into the future." The newspaper was issued by the Department of Visual Arts at the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, which had replaced the Russian Ministry of Culture after the October Revolution. The Department was run by many of the contributors to this periodical, who also carried out museum development work and organized art exhibitions. Getty 264. MoMA 169 (pictured on p. 164). See also: Christina Lodder, "Art of the Commune: Politics and Art in Soviet Journals, 1917-20" (in Art Journal, 52, 1). As of April 2019, we can only trace three paper holdings in North America (Yale, Getty, Stanford). (Inventory #: 50376)