Zenit, International Review of Arts and Culture, No. 1-43 (1921-26) [SH/FR/DE/RU]

Zenit, International Review of Arts and Culture, enjoyed a reputation as the only Yugoslav avant-garde journal, which was part of the international avant-garde scene at the beginning of the 1920s. 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.

It was launched in February 1921 and published monthly in Zagreb (1921-23) and Belgrade (1923-26) until December 1926, when it was banned by the authorities. A total of 43 issues were published (including special number dedicated to young Czech artists, and No. 17-18 to the new Russian Art, edited by Ilya Ehrenburg and El Lissitzky), as well as one poster, “Zenitismus”, and one issue of a daily Zenit newspaper dated 23 September 1922.

The magazine brought together a number of collaborators: 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 and others. Other collaborators and contributors included the French poet Ivan Goll, Alexander Archipenko, Ilya Ehrenburg, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Louis Lozowick, Alexander Blok, Jaroslav Seifert. The visual contributions by Jo Klek and Mihailo Petrov epitomized Zenitist art and painting.

Zenit at Monoskop wiki

PDF (single issues, PDF)
PDF (all issues, ZIP, 148 MB)

Gerald Janecek: Zaum: The Transrational Poetry of Russian Futurism (1996)

“This is the most comprehensive treatment of a significant episode of the historical avant-garde period to which many refer but with little concrete background. According to Charlotte Douglas (Russian and Slavic Studies, NYU), Zaum ‘is an encyclopedic account of zaum or ‘beyonsense,’ the most distinctive feature of Russian avant-garde art and poetry early in the 20th century. Janecek has mined a myriad of arcane and inaccessible sources, gathered the entire historical record in one place, and made it readable and comprehensible. His account of zaum theory and practice will be indispensable for anyone interested in modern poetry and art. Certainly it will become a standard text for all students of Russian Futurism.'”

Publisher San Diego State University Press, 1996
ISBN 1879691418, 9781879691414
xi+427 pages
via greatjob

Review: Walter Comins-Richmond (Slavic and East European J, 1997).

Publisher
Worldcat

PDF (removed on 2017-8-21 upon request of the publisher – read the Introduction)

See also Vladimir Markov’s Russian Futurism: A History

Vladimir Markov: Russian Futurism: A History (1968)

“Vladimir Markov’s Russian Futurism: A History is the classic in its field. Its learned account of Russian avant-garde poetics with respect to various forms and genres-poems, plays, artist’s books, manifestos-is still the first I turn to when I want to review the critical information about Futurist manifestos or Khlebnikov’s long poems and stories, or the collaborations of Goncharova and Kruchenykh.” – Marjorie Perloff

Publisher University of California Press, 1968
ISBN 9780520008113
467 pages
via greatjob

Reviews: Helen Muchnic (Russian Review, 1969), Xenia Gasiorowska (Slavic and East European Journal, 1970), Maurice Friedberg (Problems of Communism, 1970), Edward Wasiolek (Modern Philology, 1972).

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