Iliazd : a meta-biography of a modernist / Johanna Drucker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Drucker, Johanna, 1952- author.

Contributor:

Project Muse.

Series:

Hopkins studies in modernism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iliazd, 1894-1975.

Iliazd.

Authors, Georgian--20th century--Biography.

Authors, Georgian.

Literature, Experimental--20th century--History and criticism.

Literature, Experimental.

Modernism (Literature).

Futurism (Literary movement).

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 287 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

A captivating portrait of futurist artist Iliazd infused with the reflections of his accidental biographer on the stickiness of the genre. -- 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.

Contents:

1 Encountering Iliazd: The Biographical Project p. 1

Beginning: The rue Mazarine, Winter 1985 p. 1

Time Travel p. 4

The Missing Manuscript p. 4

Work Routines p. 6

Chronologies and Evidence p. 12

Iliazd's Books p. 16

The Biographical Project p. 18

2 1894-1916: Childhood and Formative Years p. 22

Initial Encounters with the Evidence p. 22

Apocryphal Tales p. 24

Introduction to Futurism (1910s) p. 29

Formal and Personal Exchanges p. 37

Larionov and Goncharova p. 38

Pirosmani p. 45

Who Is Iliazd? Evidence and Absence p. 52

3 1916-1920: Futurist Poetics p. 55

The Creation of Forty-One Degrees p. 55

Tbilisi p. 56

Activities of Forty-One Degrees p. 59

Poetics p. 63

Zaum p. 70

How We Came to Know about Zaum p. 74

Russian Futurism and Artists' Books p. 75

The Aslaablitchia Cycle: The Five Plays (Dras) p. 77

Design Development in the Dras p. 83

Reflections on Modernism and the Avant-Carde Book p. 87

4 1920-1921: Transition: Tbilisi, Constantinople, Paris p. 90

Displacement p. 90

The Enormity of History p. 98

5 1921-1926: Paris p. 101

The New Context p. 101

Lectures and Milieu p. 106

The Bearded Heart (Coeur à Barbe), July 1923 p. 116

Interpretation of the Events p. 123

Ledentu p. 124

Anticlimax, 1923-1926 p. 133

6 1927-1946: Family, Fabric, and Fiction p. 135

Taboos about the Personal Realm p. 135

Marriage, Work, and Novels p. 135

Changes of Circumstances and New Books p. 143

Second Marriage p. 151

Notes from the Dead and Boundary Lines p. 153

7 1947-1950: Lettrist Provocations and Poetry of Unknown Words (Poésie de Mots Inconnus) p. 156

Letters from the Past p. 156

Into the Present: The Lettrists p. 171

8 1951-1975: The Editions: Collaborations and Projects p. 175

Deluxe Publications p. 175

Books and Biography p. 177

Editions p. 184

Skinnybones (La Maigre) (1951-1952) p. 185

Treatise on Ballet (Traité de Balet) (1953) p. 190

Horses at Midnight (Chevaux de Minuit) (1956) p. 193

Tale of the North (Récit du Nord) (1956) p. 195

Intangible Wake (Sillage Intangible) (1958) and A Hint (Un Soupçon) (1965) p. 196

Modernism Vanishing: A Day in the Country with Michel Guino p. 201

Editions, Continued p. 206

The Wandering Friar (Le Frère Mendiant) (1959) p. 206

Poems and Woodcuts (Poèmes et Bois) (1961) p. 209

Sentence without Words (Sentence sans Paroles) (1961) and The Twelve Portraits of the Celebrated Orbandale (Les Douze Portraits du Célèbre Orbandale) (1962) p. 213

65 Maximiliana, the Illegal Practice of Astronomy (65 Maximiliana, ou l'Exercice Illégal de l'Astronomie) and The Art of Seeing (L'Art de Voir) (1964) p. 216

The Georgian Itinerary of Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo and the Churches in the Vicinity of Atabegat (L'Itinéraire Géorgien de Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo et les Eglises aux confins de t'Atabégat) (1966) p. 222

Roger Lacourière, Fisher of Plates (Rogelio Lacourière, Pêcheur de Cuivres) (1968) p. 224

Milestones p. 227

The Grotesque Courtesan (Le Courtisan Grotesque) (1974) p. 228

Work in the Form of a Constellation p. 231

9 1971-1972: A Life in Reverse p. 233

Boustrophedon (Boustrophédon) (1971) p. 233

Pirosmanachvili (Pirosmanachvili 1914) (1972) p. 237

10 A Place in History p. 242.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Baltimore, MD Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781421439655

1421439654

Publisher Number:

40030252773

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.