Risunki Miturich (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Folio 32x28 cm., wrappers, (46) pp. (Piano in the Nursery) The score for eight piano pieces for children, with full page color lithographs and decorations by Pavel Miturich (1887-1956). The October revolution introduced mandatory education in Russia, and brought about a renaissance in children's books and musical works. New values required a new children's literature which often employed a bold visual language set in motion by the Futurists, and articulated by artists eager to promote the avant-garde in the new society. Arthur Lurie (Naum Izrailovich Lur'e,1892-1966) was at the center of the Russian avant-garde before and immediately after the Revolution. As the first Russian Futurist composer, he helped establish experimental music within the new Soviet State. He also set poems by his friends V. V. Mayakovsky and Anna Akhmatova (his lover) to music. Lunacharsky put him in charge of the music division of the Commissariat of Enlightenment, but he quickly grew disillusioned with the Soviet system. He went to Berlin in 1921 on an official mission and never returned to Russia. The present work was composed in 1917 in the midst of the revolution. A reproduction of this book opens the section on Children's Books in the MoMA catalogue The Russian Avant-Garde Book. With color lithos by Petr Miturich (1887-1956), painter and graphic artist. Initially a Futurist and close with Khlebnikov, he later atught at VKhUTEMAS and illustrated many books. Well known for his portraits of Vrubel', Mandelstam, and composer Artur Lurie, he collaborated with the composer on this project with wonderful results. Not in Hellyer. The Russian Avant-Garde Book, p.167. OCLC locates five holdings (Getty, Princeton, NYPL, Morgan, UC Berkeley) in North America. MOMA 309. A near fine copy.