Item #34712 A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One. The Bird Press, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Michael Dumanis, Thorsten Dennerline, and book artist.
A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.
A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.
A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.
A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.
A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.

A Cloud in the Trousers. Prologue and Part One.

Bennington, VT: The Bird Press, 2016. Number 6 of 38 copies, signed and numbered by the artist and translator. A collaboration between the illustrator / book artist and translator. This is a new translation of the prologue and first part of Mayakovsky's first long poem, originally published in 1915. The Russian modernist poet and cultural icon Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930) committed suicide in Moscow 15 years after publishing this piece. According to the translator: "Thorsten Dennerline's twisting artworks suspended against a blue-sky backdrop seemed fitting for the existential crisis in this poem. Mayakovsky writes in verbal cartwheels and associative flights of language, allowing wordplay, sonic riffs, and rhyme to drive his rhetoric and imagery. I sought to preserve both each line's intended meaning and Mayakovsky's rhythm and music. I also attempted to make the poem's diction smooth, accessible, and idiomatically modern to a 21st century American ear." Fascinated with the intensity of Mayakovsky's work and life as well as the historical happenings that influenced him, Thorsten decided to illustrate his work with "monsters." As the drawings developed with layers of ink and detail he "began seeing [them] as bodies, less as monsters and more as physical, mortal, vulnerable beings." Bound in yellow paper wrappers with black title to front cover and binding sewn with red thread along spine. Printed with lithography and letterpress at the Working Dog Press and Horton Tank Graphics. The plate lithographs were printed in sixteen layers of ink. Housed in a grey handmade paper wrapper featuring one of Thorsten's illustrations snaking around the front and rear panels along with another on the inside flap. Thorsten Dennerline creates paintings, drawings, and prints in addition to artists' books. He has exhibited work across the U.S. as well as in Chile and Denmark; and his work is represented in numerous collections including Yale University Library, the Library of Congress, UCLA, Stanford University, and the Kunstindustri Musset (Denmark). Size: 8.5 x 7 inches. ARTB/120120. Fine.

Item #34712

Price: $1,780.00