Search Results: Polish avant-garde from Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books

Moravska Ostrava: Ladislav Elias, 1930 Quarto 26x21.5 cm., stiff wrappers, 28(6)pp. Bibliophile work on handmade paper, numbered 3 in an edition of 5 copies. Six poems translated into Czech by Otto Babler of the poet Emil Zegadlowicz and published in commemoration for his visit to Czechoslovakia in the previous year. Zegadlowicz (1888-1941) was a famed poet, novelist, translator and co-founder of Polish expressionism and was a central figure in the literary avant-garde in Poland. He was a part of the Zdroj group in Poznan from 1917 to 1922 and later the manager of several theater groups and programmer for Polskie Radio. A leftist sympathizer who lived controversially by conservative Polish standards, he was excoriated and hounded by the Church in later years. Already ill with cancer, Zegadlowicz embarked on travels at the time of the German invasion and returned to Sosoniec in Silesia (which happened to be his birthplace) near the Czech border of Ostrava for a cure where he died in 1941. Signed with… Read More

Krakow: Gazetki, 1934 Large quarto 33x20.5 cm., wrappers, 12pp. A student publication employing constructivist covr design and unusual format. The articles are by gymnasium students and touch on book and movie reviews, political and literary topics. Rare, with no library holdings found outside of National Library of Poland holding three numbers. A definite curiosity.

Krakow: Gebethner i Wolff, 1922 Octavo, wrappers, 39 (2) pages. One of Czyzewski's major publications, released at the culmination point in Polish Futurism. Czyzewski was one of the chief participants in the Formyzm movement which was centered in Krakow, a protagonist in both poetry and painting. His futurism was more Italian than Russian, with emphasis on the machine and irrationality, but without the bombast of Italian exaltation of the machine and with an utter absence of sentimentality. Here is introduced the play with typography into the poetic text, which was to reach greater articulation in his later poetry including drawing as part of the poetic text. Czyzewski's futurism began to incorporate elements of Polish mountain peasantry and folk traditions, returning to a root language, in contrast to and relief from the march of technology. Very good condition with cover repairs.

Krakow: Gebethner i Wolff, 1922 Duodecimo, wrappers, 40pp. A short one-act play (The Jackass and the Sun in Metamorphosis. A Burglar from Better Society). Tytus Czyzewski (1880-1945) co-founded the Formisci in 1917 in Kraków and co-edited the journal with Winkler. He exhibited paintings from 1906 and became involved with early modernist experiments before World War I, in both Expressionist writing (poetry, drama) and visual art. Especially pioneering and less a theorist or polemicist than Chwistek or Witkiewicz of the Formist artist group, Czyzewski's works were highly significant from the 1920s to the early 1930s.

Scarce, important Polish interwar periodical of the artsQuarto 24x17 cm., original wrappers in cloth, 656pp. Skamander was one of the most important literary journals of interwar Poland. It appeared from 1920-28 and 1935-39. Five leading poets composed the core of the editorial team: Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Jan Lechon, Julian Twim, Antoni Slonimski, Kazimiersz Wierzynski. In the initial period, the magazine's profile was closely related to the activities of the Skamandrites - it was their tribune, opposing other literary groups of that period. The situation changed after 1935, when the scope broadened to include visual arts, theater and drama and new writers, including Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz. The Schulz masterwork Sanitorium Under the Hourglass premiered over time in its pages. We offer here the complete year of this premier literary and artistic journal (12 numbers in ten issues) which showcased Polish modernism in all the arts. The present volume features first appearances of works by Gombrowicz… Read More

Warsaw: Auriga, 1985 Quarto, cloth, 96pp. A catalogue of paintings and drawings, totalling 108 entries, all illustrated, of works by Witkiewicz from 1908 to 1913 that were lost but recorded in his own photographs, with notations often detailing elements around the works, including biographical comments and opinions. Witkacy took hundreds of photos of his work, most of which were lost in the bombing of Warsaw. These are from a private collection that were spared from destruction and provide a very important document for assessing the earlier work of this misunderstood, multitalented genius. Text in English and Polish. Very good in dust wrapper.

Krakow: Fala, 1921 Octavo 19.5x13.5, wrappers, 90pp. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) nomme de vie Witkacy, was a visionary painter, photographer, playwright, novelist. and philosopher. The present work, The Tumor of Brainowicz, is his first published drama, which lasted for two performances in his lifetime. This and his five other dystopian plays had a decisive impact on Polish theater in the 1960s and 70s and director Jerzy Grotowski, as well as in film productions. It comes with a review from the 1921 Krakow performance by Juljan Slowacky in a newspaper clipping and the original broadside announcement, well preserved, in a very good copy with small chip on front cover. Rare, with 3 North American library holdings. Refs: Gerould: Witkacy,1981 pp. 76-87.