MA-g
The Museum of Avant-garde

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Russia (1893—1930)
Born in 1893 Mayakovsky moved to Moscow very young following his father death. He joined the Social Democratic Labour Party and spent few years in prison due his political activities. In 1910 he studied painting but he soon turned to poetry. He joined a group of futurist artists under the name of Hylaea and in 1912 he got his first poems published in the almanac A slap in the face of public taste. In these early years his work was marked by experimentation and he declared his negative attitude towards the Russian literature, he published A Cloud in Trousers and The Backbone Flute. In 1917 he witnessed closely the Bolshevik insurrections, which he welcomed with hope for change. He returned to Moscow to write political poems, while working in the Russian Telegraph Agency as a painter of posters and boards. In 1924 he composed an elegy on Lenin’s death. He started to travel in Europe, US, Mexico and Cuba. At personal level Mayakovsky suffered from repeated romantic frustrations and towards the end of 1920s he was also alienated by Russian Association of Proletarian Writers: he committed suicide in 1930.
Michael Larionov / Vladimir Mayakovsky

The sun: a poem (Solntse: poema)

Illustrated book / 12.3 x 15.9 cm / Moscow, 1923

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Pavel Filonov / Velimir Khlebnikov / Kazimir Maljevič / Vladimir Mayakovsky

A selection of poems with an afterword by the wordsmith: 1907–1914 (Izbornik stikhov s poslesloviem rechiaria. 1907–1914)

Illustrated book / 11 lithographs, lithographed text, and a halftone reproductive print / 13.7 x 19.9 cm / Saint Petersburg, 1915

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Vladimir Mayakovsky

To the workers of Kursk

Cardboard, loose pages / Lithographs after collages / 34.5 x 49 cm / Moscow, 1924

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Yves Tanguy / André Breton / Salvador Dalí / Marcel Duchamp / Paul Éluard / Max Ernst / Alberto Giacometti / René Magritte / Vladimir Mayakovsky / Joan Miró / Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) / Tristan Tzara

Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution

Journal / Letterpress / 20 x 28.5 cm / Paris, 1930-1933

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Willi Baumeister / Naum Gabo / Hannes Meyer / Jan Tschichold / Ludwig Mies van der Rohe / Walter Dexel / Oskar Nerlinger / Georges Vantongerloo / Lajos Kassák / El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky) / Kazimir Maljevič / Vladimir Mayakovsky / László Moholy-Nagy / Vladimir Tatlin / Piet Mondriaan

ABC

Beiträge zum Bauen / Periodical / 24.7 x 34.5 cm / Basel, 1924-1928

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Vladimir Mayakovsky / Alexander Rodchenko

Sergeiu Eseninu

Book / Letterpress and photomontage illustrations / 13 x 17.5 cm / Tbilisi, 1926

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Vladimir Mayakovsky / Alexander Rodchenko / Varvara Stepanova

Kino-fot

Periodical / Letterpress / 21.9 x 28.9 cm / Saint Petersburg, 1922-1923

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El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky) / Vladimir Mayakovsky

For the voice (Dlia golosa)

Illustrated book / 75 letterpress illustrations / 13.3 x 18.8 cm / Moscow / Berlin, 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Vladimir Mayakovsky / Lyubov Popova / Alexander Rodchenko / Varvara Stepanova

LEF

Levyi Front Iskusstv / Journal / Letterpress / 14.4 x 21.5 cm / Moscow, 1923-1925

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Josef Čapek / Vladimir Mayakovsky

U

Čtvrtletník skupiny Blok / Magazine / Letterpress / 15.8 x 23.8 cm / Prague, 1936-1939

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El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky) / Vladimir Mayakovsky

Good! An october poem (Khorosho! Oktiabr'skaia poema)

Book / Letterpress / 14.2 x 20.8 cm / Moscow / Leningrad, 1927 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Vladimir Mayakovsky

The backbone flute (Fleita Pozvonochnik)

Book / 16.5 x 24 cm / Saint Petersburg, 1916

Ljubomir Micić / Michel Seuphor / Dragan Aleksić / Branko Ve Poljanski / Mihajlo Petrov / Fortunato Depero / Walter Gropius / Wassily Kandinsky / Lajos Kassák / El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky) / Kazimir Maljevič / Filippo Tommaso Marinetti / Vladimir Mayakovsky / László Moholy-Nagy / Pablo Picasso / Vladimir Tatlin / Theo Van Doesburg / Marc Chagall / Egon Schiele

Zenit

International review of arts and culture / Journal / Letterpress / Various sizes / Zagreb / Belgrade, 1921-1923

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Vladimir Mayakovsky / Alexander Rodchenko

About this. To her and to me (Pro eto. Ei i mne)

Illustrated book / 15.3 x 23.2 cm / Moscow, 1923

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Vladimir Mayakovsky / Alexander Rodchenko

A conversation with a tax-collector about poetry (Razgovor s fininspektorom o poezii)

Book / Letterpress / 12.7 x 17.4 cm / Tbilisi, 1926