David Burliuk

(1882 - 1967)

2793

Velimir Khlebnikov a.o.

Требник троих

Prayerbook for the three

Moscow: Kuzmin & Dolinskii, 1913

210 x 172 mm. 86 pages 

Edition: 1,100

This book contains poetry by Khlebnikov, Maiakovskii, and Burliuk (David and Nikolai). David Burliuk and Maiakovskii, Nadezhda Burliuk, David’s sister, and Vladimir Tatlin contributed illustrations. So it is not clear which three persons the title of this prayer book is referring to. The contents of this anthology is first-rate poetry of a consistently high quality. For this book Maiakovskii wrote these famous verses about shop signs:

Read the books made of iron

Under fat bold capitals 

Smoked fish is laid

And pretzels are heaped in gold

And with a child-like delight

‘Maggi’ stars turn your head.

Tatlin depicted this scene with a fish, a fork and a knife displayed on a small table, while the Maggi cube is positioned on the right foreground. The verses praise the primitive art of signboards and the first Neon light advertisements that could be seen on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg: the Maggi bouillon  cubes for your soup. These signs could be read by the observer with real delight. In this book, all the elements of the Russian Avant-garde flow together: poetry, visual art and folk art moulded into an organic whole, into a prayer book.

References:

Markov 1969, pp. 57-60

Ex libris 1974, no. 41

Ithaca 1976, p.119-120

Compton 1978, p. 98

Paris 1979, no. 147

Los Angeles 1980, no. 17

Berlin 1983, no. 4

Kovtun 1984, p. 70

Marcadé  1989, p. 34

Povelikhina 1991, p. 128-132

Munich 1991, no. 5

Bologna 1993, p. 85

Mainz 1993, no. 55

Munich 1993, no. 19

Paris 1995, p. 66

Otaru, 1996, p. 21

Getty 1997, no. 775

Lavrentiev 2000, p.13

Moma 2002, no. 54

Nijmegen 2004, p. 58

Brussels 2005, no. 14

Hellyer 2006, no. 507

Khachturov 2009, p. 43

Vzorval 2010 no. 86