Beschreibung:

LISSITSKII, El -- Katalog' vistavki kartin' i skul'pturi khudozhnikov' Evreev' . [Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Jewish Artists]. Moscow: Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, [April] 1917. 8° (158 x 115mm). (Date on title just trimmed, as issued, one leaf loose.) Original illustrated stapled card wrappers, by Lissitzkii (spine starting). WITH A COVER ILLUSTRATION BY LISSITSKII. The catalogue of this very influential exhibition of Jewish art held at Moscow's Lemercier Gallery. With the Petrograd exhibition of 1916 also organised by the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, this was THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF EXCLUSIVELY JEWISH ART EVER HELD IN RUSSIA (Apter-Gabriel, p.48). The gallery, Moscow's only professional private art outlet at the time, was an 'eminently respectable, middle-class gallery -- indicating a dramatic change in the Moscow public's attitude towards "things Jewish"' ( idem ). The JSEA exhibitions drew attention to a new, forward thinking Jewish art, led to detailed critical analyses -- among these the first major appreciation of Chagall -- and set a precedent for similar post-Revolution exhibitions. Apter-Gabriel, Tradition and Revolution. The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant-Garde Art , pp.48-9; Bush-Reisinger Museum Catalogue 1917/3 (attributing cover to Lissitzkii); The Russian Avant-Garde Book 144 (incorrectly attributing the cover to Al'tman).