The poet Ilia Zdanevich, known in his professional life as Iliazd, began his career in the pre-Revolutionary artistic circles of Russian futurism. By the end of his life, he was the publisher of ...deluxe limited edition books in Paris. The recent subject of major exhibitions in Moscow, his native Tbilisi, New York, and other venues, the work of Iliazd has been prized by bibliophiles and collectors for its exquisite book design and innovative typography. Iliazd collaborated with many major figures of modern art—Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Max Ernst, Joán Miro, Natalia Goncharova, and Mikhail Larionov, among others. His 1949 anthology, The Poetry of Unknown Words, was the first international anthology of experimental visual and sound poetry ever published. The list of contributors is a veritable Who's Who of avant-garde writing and visual art. And Iliazd's unique hands-on engagement with book production and design makes him the ideal case study for considering the book as a modern art form.
Iliazd is the first full-length biography of the poet-publisher, as well as the first comprehensive English-language study of his life and work. Johanna Drucker weaves two stories together: the history of Iliazd's work as a modern artist and poet, and the narrative of the author's encounter with his widow and other figures in the process of researching his biography. Drucker's reflection on what a biographical project entails addresses questions about the relationship between documentary evidence and narrative, between contemporary witnesses and retrospective accounts. Ultimately, Drucker asks how we should understand the connection between the life of an artist and their work.
Enriched with photographs from the Iliazd archive and a wealth of primary documents, the book is a vivid account of a unique contributor to modernism—and to the way we continue to reevaluate the history of twentieth-century culture. Accounts of Drucker's research during the mid-1980s in the personal archive of Madame Hélène Zdanevich, the poet's widow, lend the narrative an incredible intimacy. Drucker recounts how, sitting in the studio that Iliazd occupied from the late 1930s until his death in 1975, she was drawn into the circle of scholars who had made him their focus and were doing foundational work on his significance. She also coped with the difference between the widow's view of the artist as a man she loved and Drucker's own perception of Iliazd's significance within a critical approach to history. Iliazd is at once a rich study of a significant figure and a thoughtful reflection on the way a biography creates an encounter with its always absent subject.
Rapture Iliazd; Kitson, Thomas J
2017, 20170516
eBook
The draft dodger Laurence yearns to take control of his destiny. Having fled to the highlands, he asserts his independence by committing a string of robberies and murders. Then he happens upon ...Ivlita, a beautiful young woman trapped in an intricately carved mahogany house. Laurence does not hesitate to take her as well. Determined to drape his young bride in jewels, he plots ever more daring heists. Yet when Laurence finds himself casting bombs alongside members of a revolutionary cell, he must again ask: is he a free man or a pawn of history?Raptureis a fast-paced adventure-romance and a literary treat of the highest order. With a deceptively light hand, Iliazd entertains questions that James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Thomas Mann once faced. How does the individual balance freedom and necessity, love and death, creativity and sterility? What is the role of violence in human history and culture? How does language both comfort and fail us in our postwar, post-Christian world?Censored for decades in the Soviet Union,Rapturewas nearly lost to Russian and Western audiences. This translation rescues Laurence's surreal journey from the oblivion he, too, faces as he tries to outrun fate.
Phénomène protéiforme, l’abstraction picturale a bouleversé le monde des arts à l’aube du XXᵉ siècle. En Europe, de la Belle époque aux Années folles, les peintres d’avant-garde ont croisé le chemin ...de poètes et de chorégraphes avec lesquels ils partageaient le même désir de changement. Sous l’égide de mécènes ou d’amateurs éclairés, leurs collaborations ont donné naissance à des spectacles d’un genre nouveau où les frontières entre les différentes disciplines se trouvent abolies. Associer la peinture, art de l'espace, à la danse, qui y introduit le temps, soulève quelques questions qui ont fait émerger l’idée d’un « ballet plastique » se substituant au « ballet dramatique » théorisé par Noverre. L’art chorégraphique et l’art pictural ont exercé l’un sur l’autre une influence réciproque dont la recherche commence seulement à mesurer l’importance. Cependant, peut-on parler d’abstraction totale dans un domaine où rien n’est plus concret qu’un corps qui danse ? S’il n’y a pas une évolution linéaire alliant la figuration à l’abstraction entre 1909 à 1933, certains principes mis en œuvre sur les toiles ont été appliqués à la fois sur la scène et dans les coulisses du ballet. Les peintres vont-ils réussir à rompre l’illusion en sortant de la cage de scène ? En agrandissant leurs toiles, vont-ils réussir autre chose qu’un tableau animé ? Que devient le livret dans un ballet où la lettre s’efface devant les couleurs et les formes ? Poser la question de l’abstraction en littérature revient à remettre en cause l’existence même d’un texte comme support du ballet. Or, le livret, loin de disparaître, se métamorphose et occupe aussi une place de choix dans cette composition abstraite.
In the run-up to the 20th century, a multifaceted phenomenon called pictorial abstraction has turned the art community upside down. In Europe, from the “Belle Epoque” to the Roaring Twenties, avant-garde painters have crossed paths with poets and choreographers with whom they shared their desire for change. Their collaborations with donors and enlightened amateurs gave rise to a new kind of shows in which the boundaries between the various artistic disciplines have been abolished. The association of painting to spatial art and dance that also brought in time, raised questions that led to an idea of a “plastic ballet” as a substitute for “dramatic ballet”; an idea put forward by Noverre. The choreographic and pictorial worlds have had a reciprocal influence on one another; however, the research world is only now starting to consider the significance of these interactions. Anyhow, is it possible to talk about a total abstraction within this particular field, knowing that nothing can be more concrete than a dancing body? This trend is not a linear evolution from figuration towards abstraction between 1909 and 1933 but some principles used on canvases were applied in the ballet world, both on stage and backstage. Will painters manage to break the illusion by breaking out of the cage-like stage? By expanding the sizes of their paintings, will they have anything else to show than animated tableaux? What happens to the libretto in a ballet where letters are outweighed by colours and shapes? Questioning abstraction in literature involves questioning the mere existence of texts as the underpinning of ballets. Yet, the libretto is far from disappearing ; it transforms itself and is thus at the forefront of this abstract composition.
