Universal War in Russian Literature
Universal War was an atypical book for Kruchenykh, since despite training as an artist, he usually only supplied the poetry for his books. This allowed collaborating artists such as Natalya Goncharova, Kazimir Malevich and Rozanova unusual levels of freedom to integrate their pictures with his hand-written words. Universal War featured his own collages, in an abstract style Kruchenykh referred to as 'Non-Objective'. The series of collages run parallel to the poetry printed on the first two sheets. Germany is depicted as a belligerent spiky helmet with its shadow, a black panther, fighting Russia.
The book starts with two pages of poems, under the headline "Universal War will take place in 1985" with page references to associate them with specific images. These poems are followed by 12 related collages, consisting of coloured sheets of card-mostly dark blue, but interspersed with grey, white and pink sheets- with various other papers and fabrics stuck to the sheets. Whilst the copies are similar, they show subtle differences.
Read more about this topic: Universal War
Famous quotes containing the words russian and/or literature:
“Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye
Is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly lust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
“And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)