Читать книгу Russian Avant-Garde - Evgueny Kovtun - Страница 6

One must also mention the Artel of artists that existed in Petrograd in 1918 and 1919 under the name of Sevodnia (Today). In 1918, poets and painters congregated frequently at the house of Vera Ermolaeva. One could see there, for instance, Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky.[15] These meetings lead to the formation of a group of painters and writers to co-create books, mainly for children. With this objective, the Sevodnia Artel was the prototype of the Detguiz (children’s book publishers) in Leningrad. The painters and writers did everything themselves, from the creation of the book to its sale.

The Artel books were not dense, 4 pages in all. They were printed in limited editions of one hundred and twenty five. Covers and illustrations were made from linocuts. Some of the prints were coloured by the artist himself, with colours varying from one book to another, each copy becoming unique and acquiring the charm of the work of an ‘artisan’. Through the monumental character of her compositions, Vera Ermolaeva managed to reproduce on the cover of Pioneers, by Whitman, the free rhythm of the verse of the great American poet. She used the same visual power for the cover of Nathan Vengrov’s book, Today. The sitting character is highlighted with expressivity in the foreground, on a background of the city’s rickety buildings. The lapidary simplicity of form and the geometrical facets show that the art of this painter had contact with Cubism. The title and name of the author are included in the image and integrated into the composition, a common practice. Here Ermolaeva followed the tradition of painted signs, in which she was particularly interested at the time. Among the best and most interesting books published by Cartel were: The Infant Jesus, by Esenin, Pine Branches, by Vengrov (drawings by Turova), and 8 Hours and a Quarter, by Annenkov (drawings by the author). The work of the Sevodnia Artel was short-lived. In autumn 1919, the Visual Arts department of the People’s Commissariat for Enlightenment sent Ermolaeva to Vitebsk, and the Artel closed its doors.