ROSKIN, Vladimir - MAYAKOVSKY, Vladimir.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

150.000.000. First edition, first printing, from an initial print run of 5,000 copies, with unique wrappers of Roskin's own design, inscribed: Oblozhka V. Roskina vypolnena 1921, 14 VIII 80. V. Roskin ("Cover by V. Roskin executed 1921, 14 August [19]80. V. Roskin"). Composed of forms reminiscent of El Lissitsky's Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, the front panel design is an early and intriguing piece of Suprematist art. Vladimir Osipovich Roskin (1896-1984) was a prominent Soviet artist and poster designer. After the revolution of 1917, he quickly became involved in art instruction and in selecting paintings for Russian museums. He was close friends with Mayakovsky, whom he first met in 1916. Between 1919 and 1921, the two men collaborated on Okna ROSTa, the window posters produced under the aegis of the Russian Telegraph Agency, the state news agency, which satirized the enemies of the newly formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The simplified striking forms, strong limited palette, and gestural messaging had a profound influence on the development of Soviet graphic art.Roskin made his first forays into book art at a time when the mass publication of cheap volumes was being undertaken in earnest in Russia. The Futurist designs of the so-called Left Front were increasingly regarded as outmoded, and Constructivism became popular. Roskin drew a great deal of inspiration from the work of his prominent colleague, El Lissitsky, participating in Lissitzky's exhib

• Printing: first

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