Dvanáct: revoluční epos [The Twelve: a revolutionary epic]

This 1925 Czech translation of Russian poet Aleksandr Blok's "The Twelve" ("Dvenadtsat'") features illustrations by the Czech avant-garde artist and illustrator Václav Mašek (1893-1973). Blok's epic poem (written in 1918) is translated by Bohumil Mathesius, a prolific translator from a number of European languages. Dvanáct is an example of the flourishing avant-garde print culture in 1920s Prague, when artists and writers radically re-thought the aesthetics of the book, experimenting with cover design, typography, illustration, and the relationship between word and image. Mašek, a relatively under-studied artist, was close to the Devětsil Artistic Union, a group of avant-garde Czech writers, artists, and designers who had strong artistic ties to the Russian and French modernist movements, as well as to the Russian theorist Roman Jakobson. Devětsil was both a political and aesthetic movement, with an "avowedly Marxist" orientation, closely following the artistic developments in the young Soviet Union. Blok was a Russian Symbolist poet, who in the "broken music" of this poem captures both the excitement and ambiv- alence of revolutionary upheaval. Mašek's bold and unsentimental black and white illustrations accompany his powerful verse, which, in Trotsky's words, is a "cry of despair" for both the "dying past" and "in hope for the future". Scarce in comparable condition. This 1925 Czech translation of Russian poet Aleksandr Blok's "The Twelve" ("Dvenadtsat'") features illustrations by the Czech avant-garde artist and illustrator Václav Mašek (1893-1973). Blok's epic poem (written in 1918) is translated by Bohumil Mathesius, a prolific translator from a number of European languages. Dvanáct is an example of the flourishing avant-garde print culture in 1920s Prague, when artists and writers radically re-thought the aesthetics of the book, experimenting with cover design, typography, illustration, and the relationship between word and image. Mašek, a relatively under-studied artist, was close to the Devětsil Artistic Union, a group of avant-garde Czech writers, artists, and designers who had strong artistic ties to the Russian and French modernist movements, as well as to the Russian theorist Roman Jakobson. Devětsil was both a political and aesthetic movement, with an "avowedly Marxist" orientation, closely following the artistic developments in the young Soviet Union. Blok was a Russian Symbolist poet, who in the "broken music" of this poem captures both the excitement and ambiv- alence of revolutionary upheaval. Mašek's bold and unsentimental black and white illustrations accompany his powerful verse, which, in Trotsky's words, is a "cry of despair" for both the "dying past" and "in hope for the future". Scarce in comparable condition.