167. LISSITZKY, El [Lazar Markovich] (1890-1941) and Ilya Grigorevich ERENBURG (1891-1967) (editors). Vesch/Gegenstand/Objet [Object]. Berlin: Skify, 1922. 32 pp. 4to (310 x 235 mm). Nos. 1 and 2; two parts in one volume. Original decorated red construction paper wrappers designed by Lissitzky. Condition: occasional light soiling, short split at foot of of fold, a few small abrasions to lower wrapper.
Lissitzky and Erenburg started this short-lived, but important, periodical intending to feature contemporary Russian art to Western Europe, mainly focusing on new Suprematist and Constructivist works, with the text in German, French, and Russian. In this first issue, El Lissitzky wrote: “We consider the triumph of the constructive method to be essential for our present. We find it not only in the new economy and in the development of the industry, but also in the psychology of our contemporaries of art. Veshch will champion constructive art, whose mission is not, after all, to embellish life, but to organize it.” Contributors range from Le Courbusier to Vladimir Mayakovsky to Blaise Cendrars to Boris Pasternak. The third and final issue was published later the same year. MoMA 410.
est. $1000 – £1500