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OT’TISK – IMPRINT
An Annual Almanac of Printed Graphic Art
M.K. Publishers
St. Petersburg, 2001
OT’TISK IMPRINT
Annual Almanac of Printed Graphic Art
St Petersburg: M.K. Publishers, 2001
54 pages, b/w illustrations + 11 pages of original graphics,
signed by the artists
In an edition of 150 hand-bound, numbered copies
In Russian and English
Cover of colored card with woodcut
Text offset printed on art paper (160g); engravings printed
on “Hahnemühle” paper (160 g)
Lithograph, etching, woodcut, linocut, photograph and computer
graphic.
Price:
$ 120 + $ 10 postage
For three centuries, the history of Russian graphic art has
been centred around St. Petersburg, arguably Russia’s Mecca
of printed graphics.
Prepared in St. Petersburg, Imprint is Russia’s first
ever specialist publication on printed graphic art, covering
both traditional and innovative printing techniques. The advent
of new technology and the return of Russian art to the international
art scene have directly reflected on the oeuvres of artists,
many of whom have turned to new materials and forms of visual
art.
Conceived as a bibliophilic publication, Imprint is intended
for museum keepers, art historians, collectors and the artists
themselves. This circumstance has dictated the small size of
the print-run – 150 hand-bound, numbered copies – the unusual
format, the use of various types of paper, the original woodcut
cover and the supplementary album section of signed prints.Imprint
is published in two languages – Russian and English.
This particular edition addresses various aspects of printed
graphic art, featuring materials on Russia’s contemporary graphic
exhibitions and biennales, exploring the different trends in
graphic art, such as artist’s books from the Futurists to the
present, graphic art collectors of the past, the Aquilon art
publishing house (1921-1924), graphic art projects associated
with the names of Vera Yermolaeva and Alexei Kravchenko, monographic
articles on Vera Matiukh and Lev Yudin, and a history of local
printing studios over the past thirty years. Contributors to
this Almanac include Moscow and St. Petersburg artists and art
historians E. Bobrinskaya, O. Vlasova, L. Vostretsova, Y. Demidenko,
G. Yershov, I. Zolotinkina, I. Karasik, M. Karasik, N. Kozyreva,
A. Marochkina and Y. Khodko.
The plate section of Imprint includes eleven sheets of
signed graphic art executed in various media – etching, lithography,
woodcuts, linocuts, photography, silk screen and computer prints.
Eminent St Petersburg artists have contributed to this almanac,
including Pyotr Bely, Irina Vasilieva, Svetlana Vedernikova,
Felix Volosenkov, Mikhail Gavrichkov, Vasily Golubev, Dmitri
Goryachev, Filipp Dontsov, Yulia Zaretskaya, Tatiana Kozmina,
Igor Lebedev, Valeriy Mishin, Olga Pen, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Victor
Remishevsky, Dmitri Sirotkin, Vladimir Filipenko, Andrey Chezhin,
Pyotr Shvetsov and Yuri Shtapakov.
Imprint is a formidable collective project, bringing
together artists, art historians, photographers, printers and
translators.
The publishers hope to rekindle interest in Russian graphic
art among experts. We very much count on the help and support
of Russian and foreign colleagues. The subsequent fate of our
publishing initiative largely depends on the spirit of collaboration
and on you – the collectors and the staff of museums and libraries.
Contents:
GLEB YERSHOV. After Engraving. An Essay on Modern Graphic
Art.
The article reviews the current state of graphic art, focusing
on some of the more typical, recurrent features of graphic art
as a sovereign art form; defines the numerous niches occupied
by graphic art today, including mass-circulation computer graphics
and photography, which is treated as ‘the ultimate graphic art
that negates itself.’
LIUDMILA VOSTRETSOVA. Graphics? Graphic Art! (Remarks
on the Novosibirsk Biennale)
Inspired by the success of regular graphic exhibitions in Kaliningrad
and Novosibirsk, the author delineates and studies the key trends
in modern graphic art, asking herself, What is valued in graphic
art today? and What is modern graphic art?
YULIA DEMIDENKO. Rauschenberg Would Not Have Made It In Russia…
(Art Printing Studios in St. Petersburg)
The author takes us on an insightful voyage through the rarely
discussed realm of ‘art production,’ discussing censors, ‘art
panels,’ print runs, supplies and studio equipment. The author
concludes that being a graphic artist in the Soviet Union was
very different from being one in the West. The article is accompanied
by a list of art printing studios having operated in Leningrad
and then St. Petersburg over the past three decades, specifying
their equipment and naming the artists who worked there.
MIKHAIL KARASIK. Book, Object, Box…
Despite a succession of high-profile exhibitions held in Russia
and abroad over the past decade, artists’ books have not yet
found their rightful place in a Russian museum environment.
The author attempts to define artists’ books as an art form
in its own right.
YEKATERINA BOBRINSKAYA. Time in the Space of the Book
The author’s subject-matter is Time entreasured within the space
of an artist’s book, from the lithographed books of the Futurists
with their fascination with the ‘process,’ their emphasis on
real-time creation, to Alexei Kruchyonykh’s meticulously fragmented
‘hectographics,’ to the albums of Ilya Kabakov in which the
viewing time, the length of the contemplative process, come
to the forefront.
IRINA KARASIK. The Engravings of Lev Yudin
The article looks into a seemingly illogical creative evolution
of Kazimir Malevich’s disciple Lev Yudin as manifested in his
engravings. Yudin’s loyalty shift from Malevich to Mitrokhin,
who became his idol in the 1930s, is still causing much speculation
among researchers. The author attributes Yudin’s sudden about-turn
to his disenchantment with non-representational art, which was
typical for quite a few artists in the 1920s, and his quest
for his own ‘way.’
NATALIA KOZYREVA. “I Have Never Feared Anything…” (The Oeuvre
of Vera Matiukh)
The article is devoted to the oeuvre of Vera Matiukh, one of
St. Petersburg’s oldest graphic artists who started out in the
1930s. Matiukh was one of the graphic art pioneers grouped around
the Experimental Graphic Art Laboratory created in 1933. Her
art remains highly relevant today.
ANTONINA MAROCHKINA. Vera Yermolaeva and “Bloodless Murder”
The article introduces us the to the “Bloodless Murder” ring
formed in 1915 by a group of young artists, Yermolaeva, Le Dantu,
Turova and Lapshin among them, and the eponymous magazine conceived
along the lines of Futurists’ hand-made publications. Yermolaeva’s
work for the magazine was her first experience in illustration.
It was a solid school of painting that would later enable her
to withstand the influences of Cubism and Suprematism.
IRINA ZOLOTINKINA. Aquilon. Characterizing an Art Publisher
The Aquilon publishing house operated in Petrograd in 1921-1923
as one of the last outposts of St. Petersburg’s World of Art
book culture. The article reviews the history and discusses
the concept of Aquilon and its publications. It is accompanied
by the author’s full catalogue of books published by Aquilon.
IRINA ZOLOTINKINA. Alexander Chayanov and Alexei Kravchenko.
Hoffmanniada in Moscow
The article looks back on a vibrant, inspired publishing project
from the 1920s that brought together the famous Soviet graphic
artist Alexei Kravchenko and an eminent economist and writer,
Alexander Chayanov, the author of a book of fantasy tales in
the spirit of Ernst T.A. Hoffmann. The project remained unfinished
as Chayanov fell victim to Stalin’s persecution of the intelligentsia.
YULIA KHODKO. Folk Pictures in the Collection of Fyodor Pliushkin
The voluminous museum amassed by self-styled art collector Fyodor
Pliushkin of Pskov numbered nearly a million exhibits, and was
a subject of controversy for contemporaries. In 1914, the entire
collection was purchased by the government. Some of Pliushkin’s
prints ended up in the Russian Museum. The article focuses on
‘lubok’ folk prints in Pliushkin’s collection.
OLGA VLASOVA. Engravings from Foreign Collections in the
Russian Museum.
Having thoroughly studied the signatures on the engravings in
the Russian Museum, the author traces the history of some eminent
works back to when they belonged to major European museums and
collectors, including the Louvres, Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen
Museen zu Berlin, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Stadelsches Kunstinstitut
Frankfurt am Main, and others.
M.K. Publishers
Mikhail Karasik
Phone/Fax: 356-9087
Phone: 356-4073
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