Kavaleria [The Cavalry].
[St Petersburg], Molodaia Gvardiia, 1931
Valentin Ivanovich Kurdov (1905 - 1989) was an artist, poster designer, children's book illustrator and a member of the 'Lebedev school' of design. Kurdov initially studied at art schools in Ekaterinburg and Perm before enrolling at Vkhutein in 1923 under the supervision of Petrov-Vodkin and also taking classes at GINKhUK under Malevich. His paintings from the 1920s are very much inspired by Malevich in their cubist and suprematist style but by the end of the 1920s his focus had turned to children's books.
Kurdov had served in the Red Army and Kavaleria combines the political ideologies he would have witnessed with the rigid geometric structures of Malevich. The horses, text and characters all fall within a clear suprematist formula and the result is a striking example of graphic design. Scarce. No copies found on WorldCat.
Sole edition, square 8vo (22.5 x 19 cm); illustrated throughout by Kurdov; original illustrated wrappers, a fine copy, 12pp.
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