|  The world of collectible art books is crammed with specialist niches. Michael Fagan Fine Art and Rare Books is a bookselling business devoted to the avant-garde movements and modernism (1900 to 1950) with a strong focus on artists from central and eastern Europe.
When AbeBooks called, Michael was preparing for the Prague Antiquarian Bookfair – one of the key dates (October 5-6) on his calendar. For this bookseller, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Rumania and the former Yugoslavia are sources for some of the most remarkable art books of the 20th century.
His inventory ranges across Bauhaus and constructivist art and publications, Hungarian avant-garde books and art from 1910 to 1938, Yugoslavian art and books from 1918 to 1940, Czech art and publications from 1895 to 1948, and Polish modernist art and books from 1915 to 1938 as well as architectural and design journals.
A bookseller in one form or another since 1967, Michael's bookselling odyssey began in Berkeley, California, where, as a 26-year-old, he co-founded a bookstore called Shambhala that specialized in the occult, alternative medicines and spiritual paths – a true example of the West Coast counter-culture movement. Shambhala also evolved into a publishing business and although Michael went in another direction in the 1970s the bookstore was around for more than 30 years while the publishing business still exists today.
"I first got into rare bookselling while at Shambhala," he explained. A switch to Denver saw Michael mix his love of art with bookselling for the first time then further moves took him to Chicago and eventually Boston. He describes Massachusetts, a state packed with high-end antiquarian booksellers, as a "more congenial" place to do business. Dealer-to-dealer transactions are an important part of his business.
The period of Michael's specialism, 1900 to 1950, covers five decades of massive upheaval in central and eastern Europe, including the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, two world wars and the rise of communism.
Aside from a major library of reference books, languages are an important tool for this bookseller. Michael, who is fluent in German, says he's been studying Hungarian for 35 years and describes as it as a very difficult language to master. He's studied Czech for 18 years and can also read Russian and is familiar with Serbo-Croatian.
Michael is particularly passionate about Czech art books. "The Czechs had an incredible book culture," he said. "A host of leading artists collaborated with publishers and not just for high-end special editions – it's possible to see art from this period on mass market books too. Prague itself was one of the wealthiest places in central Europe prior to the arrival of the Nazis. There was affluence everywhere and it can be seen in its art and architecture. Czech cubism took place around the same as Picasso's work but the Czechs made wide use of diamond type shapes and these designs can be seen in houses, chairs, doors, and so many things."
Among the books offered by Michael is a 1934 signed first edition of Grafika by artists Josef Bartuska and Oldrich Nouza priced at $2,500. Bartuska and Nouza were part of the Linea Group – a group of 12 influential artists that contributed to many projects until 1939. The Linea Group's work was suppressed by the Germans and is very scarce. Grafica features 20 linocuts and was limited to just 100 copies.
One artist close to Michael's heart is Josef Váchal – who, in layman's terms, could be considered the Czech William Blake. A writer, painter, graphic designer and book-printer, Váchal died in poverty in 1969 after being ostracized by the communist rulers of Czechoslovakia. One of his finest pieces of work is Satanu – a dramatic interpretation of a poem by the Italian Giosuč Carducci. Michael has one copy for sale at $22,500 and he suspects he will never see another one.
"Váchal himself is a great study in contrasts as he expressed a vital spirituality beyond traditional religion," said Michael. "Personally a loner and social reject, he thrived on the edges and enjoyed taking on all forms of the established order. In Satanu, the poem by Carducci gave him visual license to explore new limits of the outrageous."
Váchal made the paper for the copies of Satanu by hand, created the 1000 printed characters of his own making, and printed it in his Prague studio. The book is numbered by using thumbprints and fingerprints.
Michael's inventory also includes work by Karel Teige – a key figure in the Czech avant-garde movement as a graphic artist and photographer in the 1920s. His work was also suppressed by the Communists.
"One of my favorite books I have sold was an archive of architectural drawings, specifications and letters by the Czech architect Josef Gocar, including his interaction with a famous designer Franta Anyz for a project in the late 1920s," said Michael. "Another was Ladislav Sutnar's catalogue for an exhibition of Polish industrial designs in splendid metallic-inked lithos. Frank Lloyd Wright's Ausgefuehrte Bauten und Entwuerfe sets of lithographed masterpiece designs was another. This list could go on." |
