Moscow: Gosizdat, 1928. Octavo (22.3 × 15.2 cm). Original photo-illustrated wrappers by Aleksandr Rodchenko; 47, [1] pp. With two leaves of plates, each featuring photographs by Rodchenko to verso and recto, on somewhat thicker paper stock. Additional illustrations throughout. Light overall wear; upper right corner slightly bent; spine extremities rubbed; still about very good.

A single issue of this leading avant-garde journal of the eponymous artistic group Levyi front iskusstva (Left front of the arts: LEF) edited by the futurist poet and artist Vladimir Mayakovsky. Contributors to this issue include members of the journal’s editorial board Osip Brik, Nikolai Aseev, Sergei Tretiakov, Viktor Shklovsky, with a photograph and a closing letter on photography by Aleksandr Rodchenko. The original LEF, published 1923–1925, introduced Constructivist design and formulated “productivism” as a movement in the arts. The editorial team also understood art as playing a central role in the class struggle. The 1927–1928 issues focused on Factography or “photography of fact,” with a special interest in left-leaning cinema. The new publication positioned itself against the “poor taste” and “lack of class-consciousness” of art of the NEP period. Aware of the upcoming drives toward industrialization, the editorial team understood “twinning of art with production a necessary factor in the industrialization of the country.” This issue includes first publications of Viktor Shklovsky’s famous analysis of War and Peace, as well as Tretiakov’s “Chem zhivo kino” (What makes cinema live), a talk he delivered in The Hague about the left wing of Soviet cinema. Published monthly 1927–1928, twenty-four issues of the journal appeared in total. Scarce in the trade. One of 2400 copies printed. Getty 593.

Book ID: 51847

Price: $500.00