Zenit

Zenit 4, May 1921, cover.

Zenit 13, April 1922, cover.

Zenit 17-18, September-October 1922, cover.

Mihailo Petrov, Poster for the first Zenit international exhibition, collage, 1924.

Zenit: International Review of Arts and Culture was a Yugoslav avant-garde magazine published in 43 issues in Zagreb (Feb 1921-May 1923) and Belgrade (Jun 1923-Dec 1926). Its founder, editor and the chief ideologist of the Zenit programme Ljubomir Micić, poet and art critic, intended to introduce social and artistic principles of avant-garde to Croatia and Serbia, particularly constructivism, futurism and Dada.

The magazine covered poetry, literature, fine arts, theatre, film, architecture, music, with contributors from Yugoslavia, Russia and the West, often printing their texts untranslated. Special numbers were dedicated to young Czech artists, and the new Russian Art (No. 17-18 edited by Ilya Ehrenburg and El Lissitzky).

After the last monthly issue of May 1923 it was published irregularly. Its format and design was changing with every few issues.

Programmatic texts include "Man and Art" (Micić, Feb 1921), "Zenitist Manifesto" (Goll, Jun 1921), "The Categorical Imperative of the Zenitist Poet School" (Micić, Apr 1922), and "Zenitosophy, or, the Energy of the Creative Zenitism" (Micić, 1924).

Collaborators included Marijan Mikac, Jo Klek (Josip Seissel), Vilko Gecan, Mihailo Petrov, Boško Tokin, Stanislav Vinaver, Rastko Petrovic, Branko Ve Poljanski (Branko Micić), Dragan Aleksic, Milos Crnjanski, Dusan Matic. Contributors included also Ivan Goll, Alexander Archipenko, Ilya Ehrenburg, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Louis Lozowick, Alexander Blok, Jaroslav Seifert. Visual contributions by Jo Klek and Mihailo Petrov epitomized Zenitist art and painting.

Zenit cooperated with other avant-garde reviews such as De Stijl, L'Esprit nouveau, Der Sturm and MaHer Oberzic. It also involved book publishing; organizing lectures, exhibitions, and soirees; and art collecting. [1]

The last issue (No. 4, December 1926) was banned because of the involvement of Russian artists and M. Rasinov's article "Zenitism Through the Prism of Marxism" [Zenitizam kroz prizmu marksizma].[2]

Issues

In PDF: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17-18, 19-20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26-33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. All issues in ZIP.

Scans in Digital National Library of Serbia. (Backup at Archive.org).

Scans in World Digital Library.

Reprint

The monograph Zenit 1921-1926 published by Narodna biblioteka Srbije i Prosvjeta Zagreb in 2008 includes studies about literary and visual culture of Zenit, the complete chronicles of the periodical, biographies of all the contributors, a bibliography, a list of literature on Zenit and zenithism, as well as a valuable webography. The book was printed in full color, on 530 pages, and equipped with illustrations from the magazine, as well as with photographs of contemporary celebrities. Some of the photographs appear for the first time.

The same year another reprint was published by Horetzky in Zagreb.

Literature

• Irina Subotić, "'Zenit' and 'Zenitism'", trans. Ann Vasić, The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 17: "Yugoslavia" (Autumn 1990), pp 14-25. (English)
• Irina Subotić, "The avant-garde visionary and utopian model proposed by Ljubomir Micic and his journal Zenit", Balkan Studies 3-4 (1996), pp 54-57. (English)
• Dragan Kujundzic, Jasna Jovanov, "Yougo-Dada", in Gerald Janecek and Toshiharu Omuka (eds.), The Eastern Dada Orbit. Crisis and the Arts. The History of Dada 4, New York, 1998, 58ff. (English)
• Irina Subotić, "Istorijske avangarde: dadaizam - zenitizam - nadrealizam", in Od Avangarde do Arkadije, Belgrade: Clio, 2000. (Serbo-Croatian)
• Milan Grba, "Belgrade", in Stephen Bury (ed.), Breaking the Rules. The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937, London: The British Library, 2007, pp 74-76. (English)
• Vidosava Golubović, Irina Subotić, Zenit 1921-1926, Belgrade: National Library of Serbia, and Zagreb: SKD Prosvjeta, 2008, 516 pp. (Serbian),(English)
  • Vidosava Golubović, "The Zenit Periodical (1921-1926)", pp 469ff. (English)
  • Irina Subotić, "The Visual Culture of the Zenit Periodical and Its Publications", pp 477ff. (English)
• Darko Šimičić, "Strategije u borbi za novu umjetnost. Zenitizam i dada u srednjoeuropskom kontekstu", in Moderna umjetnost u Hrvatskoj, 1898.-1975., Zagreb: Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2012, pp 40-65. (Croatian)
• Jasmina Čubrilo, "Yugoslav avant-garde review Zenit (1921-1926) and its links with Berlin", Centropa 12:3 (Sep 2012). (English)
• Sezgin Boynik, "Marxist-Leninist Roots of Zenitism: On Historical Avant-Garde Corrections Introduced by Karpo Godina's film Splav Meduze", in On the Cinema of Karpo Godina: or a book in 71383 words, ed. Filmkollektiv Frankfurt, Frankfurt: Filmkollektiv, 2013, pp 133-139. (English)

Film

• Splav meduze, dir. Karpo Acimovic-Godina, 1980.

See also

• The First Zenit International Exhibition of New Art
• Ljubomir Micić
• Croatia#Avant-garde
• Serbia#Avant-garde

Links

• Zenit magazine at Monoskop Log.
• Zenit at DADA & Modernist Magazines
• Zenit at Virtual Museum of Avant-Garde Art, Marinko Sudac Collection, Varazdin, Croatia.
• Selection of writings from Zenit
• Zenit at Wikipedia
• Zenitism at Wikipedia

	Avant-garde and modernist magazines
Poesia (1905-09, 1920), Der Sturm (1910-32), Blast (1914-15), The Egoist (1914-19), The Little Review (1914-29), 291 (1915-16), MA (1916-25), De Stijl (1917-20, 1921-32), Dada (1917-21), Noi (1917-25), 391 (1917-24), Zenit (1921-26), Broom (1921-24), Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet (1922), Die Form (1922, 1925-35), Contimporanul (1922-32), Secession (1922-24), Klaxon (1922-23), Merz (1923-32), LEF (1923-25), G (1923-26), Irradiador (1923), Sovremennaya architektura (1926-30), Novyi LEF (1927-29), ReD (1927-31), Close Up (1927-33), transition (1927-38).

	Full list
Entretiens politiques et littéraires (1890-93), Moderní revue (1894-1925), Volné směry (1897-1948), Mir iskusstva (1898-1904), Vesy (1904-09), Poesia (1905-09, 1920), Zolotoe runo (1906-10), The Mask (1908-29), Apollon (1909-17), Ukraïnska khata (1909-14), Der Sturm (1910-32), Thalia (1910-13), Rhythm (1911-13), Trudy i dni (1912), Simbolul (1912), The Glebe (1913-14), Ocharovannyi strannik (1913-16), Revolution (1913), Blast (1914-15), The Little Review (1914-29), Futuristy (1914), Zeit-Echo (1914-17), The Egoist (1914-19), L'Élan (1915-16), 291 (1915-16), Orpheu (1915), La Balza futurista (1915), MA (1916-25), SIC (1916-19), flamman (1916-21), The Blindman (1917), Nord-Sud (1917-18), De Stijl (1917-20, 1921-32), Dada (1917-21), Klingen (1917-20, 1942), Noi (1917-25), 391 (1917-24), Modernisme et compréhension (1917), Anarkhiia (1917-18), Iskusstvo kommuny (1918-19), Formiści (1919-21), S4N (1919-25), La Cité (1919-35), Aujourd'hui (1919), Exlex (1919-20), L'Esprit nouveau (1920-25), Orfeus (1920-21), Action (1920-22), Proverbe (1920-22), Ça ira (1920-23), Zenit (1921-26), Kinofon (1921-22), Het Overzicht (1921-25), Jednodńuwka futurystuw (1921), Nowa sztuka (1921-22), Broom (1921-24), Život (1921-48), Creación (1921-24), Jar-Ptitza (1921-26), New York Dada (1921), Aventure (1921-22), Spolokhi (1921-23), Gargoyle (1921-22), Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet (1922), Kino-fot (1922-23), Le Coeur à barbe (1922), Die Form (1922, 1925-35), 7 Arts (1922-28), Manomètre (1922-28), Ultra (1922), Út (1922-25), Dada-Jok (1922), Dada Tank (1922), Dada Jazz (1922), Mécano (1922-23), Contimporanul (1922-32), Zwrotnica (1922-23, 1926-27), Secession (1922-24), Stavba (1922-38), Gostinitsa dlya puteshestvuyuschih v prekrasnom (1922-24), Putevi (1922-24), Klaxon (1922-23), Akasztott Ember (1922-23), MSS (1922-23), Perevoz Dada (1922-49), Egység (1922-24), L'Architecture vivante (1923-33), Merz (1923-32), LEF (1923-25), G (1923-26), The Next Call (1923-26), Russkoye iskusstvo (1923), Disk (1923-25), Irradiador (1923), Surréalisme (1924), Almanach Nowej Sztuki (1924-25), La Révolution surréaliste (1924-29), Blok (1924-26), Pásmo (1924-26), DAV (1924-37), Bulletin de l'Effort moderne (1924-27), ABC (1924-28), CAP (1924-28), Athena (1924-25), Punct (1924-25), 75HP (1924), Le Tour de Babel (1925), Periszkop (1925-26), Integral (1925-28), Praesens (1926, 1930), Sovremennaya architektura (1926-30), bauhaus (1926-31), Das neue Frankfurt (1926-31), L'Art cinématographique (1926-31), Dokumentum (1926-27), Kritisk Revy (1926-28), Novyi LEF (1927-29), i 10 (1927-29), Nova generatsiia (1927-30), ReD (1927-31), Dźwignia (1927-28), Tank (1927-28), Close Up (1927-33), Horizont (1927-32), transition (1927-38), Discontinuité (1928), Munka (1928-39), Quosego (1928-29), Urmuz (1928), Unu (1928-32), Revista de Antropofagia (1928-29), 50 u Evropi (1928-29), Documents (1929-30), L'Art Contemporain - Sztuka Współczesna (1929-30), Adam (1929-40), Art concret (1930), Zvěrokruh (1930), Alge (1930-31), Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution (1930-33), Levá fronta (1930-33), Kvart (1930-37, 1945-49), Nová Bratislava (1931-32), Linja (1931-33), Spektrum (1931-33), Nadrealizam danas i ovde (1931-32), Ulise (1932-33), Die neue Stadt (1932-33), Mouvement (1933), PLAN (1933-36), Karavan (1934-35), Ekran (1934), Axis (1935-37), Acéphale (1936-39), Telehor (1936), aka (1937-38), Plastique (1937-39), Plus (1938-39), Les Réverbères (1938-39).