Pro Eto: Ei I Mne. (About This: To Her and To Me)
Rodchenko. Mayakovsky, Vladimir
Moscow. Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo. 1923
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The fragile first edition of Mayakovsky's verse with Rodchenko's famous photomontage cover of Lily Brik.
' ... one of the supreme classics of Constructivist book design and photography.'
From the edition limited to 3,000 copies, this copy inscribed 'Lilya Brik' in Cyrillic in black ink to title and with an arrow drawn from the 'Ei' to Brik's name.
'Pro Eto treats primarily of the poet's [Mayakovsky's] unrequited love, of his jealousy and frustration, but the affair is described in the setting of contemporary Soviet conditions and touches on topical themes such as the new bourgeoisie, Marx, the Kremlin, jazz, etc. Rodchenko illustrates the story by juxtaposing images of the heor and heroine (mayakovsky and Lily Brik) with fragments of this reality - a telephone, a dancing couple, a samovar, an airplane, etc.'. (from John E. Bowit's 'Alexandr Rodchenko as Photographer').
'Alexander Rodchenko's cover and illustrations for the publication of Vladimir Mayakovsky's epic love poem 'Pro Eto' (About This) is [sic] one of the first, and certainly finest, examples of the Constructivist marriage between typography and photomontage ... It is also one of the best examples ... of a union ... between photography and text. For this we not only have Rodchenko's skills as a designer to thank, but also Mayakovsky's conception of the poem's text as a visual as well as a literary experience ... Rodchenko employs the montage technique superbly to crowd each picture space with multiple imagery, containing apparently contrasting juxtapositions and abrupt shifts in scale that suggest all the complexities and paradoxes of Mayakovsky's verse.' (Parr / Badger)
[Rowell & Wye 505 / 506; Parr / Badger I, 91; The Avant Garde in Russia: New Perspectives 305].
' ... one of the supreme classics of Constructivist book design and photography.'
From the edition limited to 3,000 copies, this copy inscribed 'Lilya Brik' in Cyrillic in black ink to title and with an arrow drawn from the 'Ei' to Brik's name.
'Pro Eto treats primarily of the poet's [Mayakovsky's] unrequited love, of his jealousy and frustration, but the affair is described in the setting of contemporary Soviet conditions and touches on topical themes such as the new bourgeoisie, Marx, the Kremlin, jazz, etc. Rodchenko illustrates the story by juxtaposing images of the heor and heroine (mayakovsky and Lily Brik) with fragments of this reality - a telephone, a dancing couple, a samovar, an airplane, etc.'. (from John E. Bowit's 'Alexandr Rodchenko as Photographer').
'Alexander Rodchenko's cover and illustrations for the publication of Vladimir Mayakovsky's epic love poem 'Pro Eto' (About This) is [sic] one of the first, and certainly finest, examples of the Constructivist marriage between typography and photomontage ... It is also one of the best examples ... of a union ... between photography and text. For this we not only have Rodchenko's skills as a designer to thank, but also Mayakovsky's conception of the poem's text as a visual as well as a literary experience ... Rodchenko employs the montage technique superbly to crowd each picture space with multiple imagery, containing apparently contrasting juxtapositions and abrupt shifts in scale that suggest all the complexities and paradoxes of Mayakovsky's verse.' (Parr / Badger)
[Rowell & Wye 505 / 506; Parr / Badger I, 91; The Avant Garde in Russia: New Perspectives 305].
[30 leaves; pp. 43]. 8vo. (230 x 155 mm). Mayakovsky's verse illustrated with eight monochrome photomontage hors-texte plates by Rodchenko, all printed recto only and with captions beneath. Russian text in Cyrillic throughout. Original publisher's printed wrappers by Rodchenko with photomontage illustration incorporating the portrait of Lilya Brik and titles in blue, white and black to front cover, publisher's vignette to rear wrapper in blue and black.
#44250
