Search Results: Authors starting with B from Michael Fagan Fine Art & Rare Books

Prague: Umelecky Besedy, 1914 Quarto 24.2x21cm., wrappers, 6 numbers in 3 issues (all published); 76 (20)pp. Extremely scarce art journal edited by Bohumil Mathesius (1888-1952), known for his work as a poet and translator of Russian literature. It is bi-lingual, in Czech and Russian language. Each issue has 16 plates, featuring traditional work as well as showcasing the cubist architecture projects of Cenek Vorek, artwork by Jaroslav Jare , A. Matka, J. Hory, J. Svítaní, sculpture by Franti ek Bílek. articles by Jare , Malota, Mathesius, Vojta Novák. The journal was terminated when Mathesius was called into the military, where he fought on the Italian and Serbian fronts. No library holdings recorded for this publication, even in the Czech Republic.

Moscow-Leningrad: Tea-Kinopechat', 1928 Octavo 16.5x12.5 cm., wrappers, 16pp. Front and rear covers in blue and brown by Iakov Guminer, 18000 copies. Paul Wegener (1874-1948) was a German actor, screenwriter and film director. In 1912, he turned to the new medium of motion pictures and appeared in the 1913 version of The Student of Prague. It was while making this film that he first heard the old Jewish legend of the Golem and proceeded to adapt the story to film, co-directing and co-writing the script with Henrik Galeen. His first version of the tale The Golem (1915, now lost) was a success and firmly established Wegener's reputation. In 1917, he made a parody of the story called Der Golem und die Tänzerin, but it was his reworking of the tale, The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) which stands as one of the classics of German cinema and helped to cement Wegener's place in cinematic history. Another of his early films was Der Yoghi (1916), in which he played the role of a yogi… Read More

Prague: Sdruzeni vytvarniku, 1937 Quarto 24.2 x 17.2 cm, wrappers, 77 (vi)pp. Edition of 500 numbered copies. Fine original lithograph frontispiece by Frantisek Sutty (1898-1950). Edited by Bohumil Urban, this was an annual publication by an group of contemporary figurative artists working in Czechoslovakia. Contributors includeRene Huyghe, M. Galimbertiova, Frantisek Charvat, Emanuel Poche, et al, and serves as a document of interest for the modernist painters that distinguished themselves apart from the avant-garde. It showcases individual artists and reviews major exhibitions for the previous year. Rare, no copies found in libraries outside of Czech Republic.

Prague: Panorama, 1981 Quarto 29.5 x 20.5 cm, wrapper folio, 36pp. and 18 bromograph photos and contact sheet. The last of the series of Profiles of the Works of Master Photographers of Czechoslovakia. Plicka (1894-1987) was a renowned photographer of the Czechoslovakia, with numerous photobooks to his credit. The text is written by his friend Ludvik Baran, a specialist in Czech ethnographic culture and close to Plicka in his interest to plumb the treasures of their native country. Uncommon, with no library holdings in North America.

Los Angeles, LACMA, 1980. 4to, wrs, 288pp. Fine.

Quarto (31 x 22.5 cm), wrappers, (viii) 20 linocuts, in an edition of 100 copies, signed by the artists. Josef Bartuška (1898-1963) and Oldřich Nouza (1903-1974) were two multi-talented members of the Linie Group which they co-founded in Česke Budějovice in 1931. The group operated as a cooperative of twelve members who contributed to a plethora of arts and educational projects there, and flourished through 1939. Bartuška was a poet, journalist, critic, editor, author of poetic opera librettos and film scripts, photographer, painter, graphic artist, theorist, stage designer, musician, amateur film-maker and teacher. A number of his books have hand-painted graphics; his graphic designs of the 1930s anticipated the flavor graphic design in postwar Europe and the USA. Nouza was a poet, painter, photographer, teacher and journalist. Together with Bartuška he wrote the manifesto published in 1931 titled Poesie imaginerního prostoru (The Poetry of Imaginary Space). He also published with Bartuška a… Read More

Ceske Budejovice: Edice Gemini, 1937 Large octavo 18.5 x 12 cm., wrappers, 20pp., printed on hand-made paper in an edition of 200. Book design, typography and three illustrations by Bartuska in the sixth of the Edice Gemini series. Exquisite bibliophile production for the poems of Ružená Žižková. A fine copy. Worldcat finds this in 5 North American libraries

Quarto 19.8x16 cm. Original illustrated wrappers, with title page and 8 illustrations by Lissitzky. Mild toning, rubber stamp to front wrapper and p. 5. 10, [2] p. Unknown edition size.
"After 1923, Lissitzky ceased illustrating Yiddish books and concentrated his great talents on Constructivism, photomontage and architectural design, making significant contributions in all of them... His illustrated Yiddish books remain unsurpassed to this day." (Tradition and Revolution, p. 66) Although this side of his work was little known until fairly recently, Lissitzky produced several extraordinary Yiddish children's books while living and working in Kiev soon after the Revolution. As a member of IZO Narkompros (People's Commissariat of Enlightenment), he helped set up the Kultur-Lige there. In 1919, he and the writer Ben Zion Raskin signed a contract with Yidisher Folks Farlag Kooperativ for 11 children's books in the "Kinder Gorten" series. Only two titles other than this one were ever published: "The Miller,… Read More

Berlin: Situationen 60, 1963 Square octavo 22.5 cm., wrapper folio, housing two leporellos, one with a screenprint transparency and contains 4 screenprints; the second has 6 screenprints; one free-standing broadside with critical reviews of the exhibition; one with a two-page descriptive statement and the colophon. The transparency is meant to play against the various designs in the leporellos. The folio covers contain a 3-page biography and bibliography. This is a very inventive catalog for the Berlewi exhibition held in Berlin featuring the artist's works of op-art and kineticism. Text by Eckart Neumann.

Prague: Cin, 1926 4to, wrappers, 54pp., with 3 full page lithos by Josef Capek. Very good copy with crease on front cover, interior fine. Number 565 of an unstated edition (under 1000).

Prague: Hyperion, 1925 Small octavo, wrappers, 62pp. The first edition of Biebl's cycle of verses, Zlom (The Rupture, or Fracture). Cover design by Fuchs, book design by Cyril Bouda. OCLC locates 13 library holdings in North America.

Budapest: A Ház, 1909 Quarto 32.5x25.4 cm., clothbound, 282(x)pp. The complete run of ten numbers for the second year. A Haz appeared from 1909 to 1911. Extensive drawings and two essays by Károly Kós (here Kosch), original lithographs by Gyula Tichy, several drawings by Lajos Kozma, József Rippl-Rónai, elevation drawings by Csorna, Bábolnai, Kocsis, Sárkány etc., with photo reproductions of artworks and built projects by a host of contemporary Hungarian painters, designers and sculptors. A HÁZ (The House) was a journal dedicated to the building and visual arts, which appeared for four years under the directorship of Béla Málnai. It is a major document of the Hungarian art and architecture of the era, as well as examining the building and design of Traditional Hungarian arts and crafts. From the late 19th century up to 1918, the territories under Hungarian rule employed a unique form of Secessionist architecture which has… Read More

Bucharest: Vremea, nd, 1936 Octavo, wrappers, 88pp. Frontispiece portrait of author by S. Perahim. Max Blecher (1909-1938) writer of genius who contributed to the interwar Romanian avant-garde, a surrealist whose writings show strong kinship to Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Robert Walser, with the special talent of “making a home in misfortune" (Crohmalniceanu). His work began in 1930 with sketches published in the journal Bileta de papagal of Tudor Arghezi and his correspondence with Geo Bogza, I. Voronca, Sasa Pasa, Mihailescu et al in Romania as well as international literary and philosophical luminaries of the day. Marked by a tragic development at 19 (bedridden by a bone tuberculosis, Pott's disease) Blecher died at 29. Max Blecher’s prose is found in three novels, Intamplari in irealitatea imediata (1935), Inimi cicatrizate (1936) and Vizuita luminata, the latter only published in 1971. They are all of great literary significance. Only recently are they appearing in translation.… Read More

Bucharest: Universala, nd, 1937 Octavo, wrappers, 232pp. Max Blecher (1909-38) was a remarkable writer of genius who was confined to a body cast after being diagnosed with Pott’s disease at age 19. Blecher carried on regular correspondence with literary and philosophical luminaries including Gide and Heidegger, published in Breton’s La surrealism au service a la revolution, and won his place easily among the Romanian surrealists (Voronca, Bogza, Pana, etc) as a working member. His work is completely remarkable and fresh, and compares favorably with Bruno Schulz, Walser and Kafka in scope and depth. Two books were published in his lifetime and this soon after. He died shortly after completing Inimi Cicatrizate (Scarred Hearts), a novel depicting life, love and death in a sanitorium. This novel was finished immediately after Blecher’s surrealistic fantasy Intamplari in irealitatea imediata. Blecher's friend Sasa Pana had INIME CICATRIZATE published shortly after the author's… Read More

Quarto 24x16.2 cm., wrappers, 385 (ii)pp. The first edition of a major biography of Endre Ady (1877-1919) with many illlustrations. The contemporary photos of Paris are by André Kertész, commissioned by the author of this biography and a devoted aficionado of Ady himself. Kertész also designed the book. Includes the famous Kertész photo of Ady's favorite café table. Most of the earlier photos are by Aladár Székely (1870-1940), also a close friend of Ady's noted for his early 20th century portraits. Hungarian text throughout. As for the subject, Endre Ady (1877-1919) was the poet who gave birth to a 20th-century voice for Hungarian identity and exerted an overwhelming influence on Hungarian letters up to WWI. He was born into a Transylvanian Calvinist town and family, and tormented throughout life by an uninhibited passion for sensual experience and freedom against a strict conscience and authority. At the same time he was committed to profoundly infusing Hungarian life and culture with a… Read More

Novi Sad: Urania, 1938 Quarto, wrappers, 184, 206pp. An almanac published over two years,from 1938 to 1939, consisting of articles, poems and graphics by modernist authors and artists of the Vojvodina. Works of Petar Dobrovic, Milan Konjovic, Ivan Tabokovic, Milenko Šerban, and other artists as well as many regional writers and poets. Rare, one complete holding found in North American libraries.

Bucharest: Unu, 1933 Quarto 24 x 16 cm, wrappers, 40pp. Edition of 250 numbered copies.A major publication of the surrealist group UNU. Frontispiece has photo of the author's fingerprints. UNU (actually, unu, no upper case) was one of the strongest manifestations of the surrealist movement beyond Paris; it produced a journal from 1928 to 1935 and published several books by the participants who included Geo Bogza, Ilarie Voronca, Sasa Pana, Stephan Roll, and the legendary Urmuz. Bogza (1908-1993)a poet, theorist and journalist, was a rebellious social critic, highly controversial for his work, jailed twice for pornography and his acclaimed revelatory articles in the press during the 1930s. He is considered one of the most important surrealists in Romania. He was jailed for the present work, Poemul invectiva (Contemptuous Poem). Includes a flyer which is a catalog of unu publications with a foreword by Sasa Pana and a drawing by Victor Brauner Rare, only one copy of this first edition found in North… Read More

Bucharest: Universala, 1934 Octavo, wrappers, 202pp., with illustrations by Egon Schiele. One of 500 copies. Novel by Horia Bonciu (1893-1950)---novelist, journalist, poet, translator, noted for his unique, individual place in the Romanian avant-garde. He is known for his contributions in all literary fields. Associated with Romanian surrealists but never adhered to doctrine. Bonciu and Geo Bogza were both arrested on obscenity charges at the same time. The present work, "Luggage.Confessions of a Man on All Fours," was Bonciu's first novel. It is a highly modernist work, and includes drawings by Egon Schiele, emphasizing an expressionist bent that kept Bonciu apart from doctrinaire surrealism while employing elements thereof. Rare, with no institutional holdings in North America.

New York: Abbeville, 1986. 4to, cl, 144pp. Fine in DJ

Budapest: Corvina, 1979. 3d printing. 4to, dec cl, 222pp. Hungarian language edition of the catalogue raisonne. Fine in DJ.