OTTISK / IMPRINT. Almanac of Printed Graphic Art
Conceived as a bibliophilic publication, Imprint is intended for museum keepers, art historians, collectors and the artists themselves. This circumstance has dictated the small size of the print-run—150 hand-bound, numbered copies—the unusual format, the use of various types of paper, the original woodcut cover and the supplementary album section of signed prints. Imprint is published in two languages—Russian and English.
Ottisk / Imprint #1
St Petersburg: M.K. Publishers, 2001. 56 pages, b/w illustrations + 11 pages of original graphics, signed by the artists. Cover of colored card with woodcut. Lithograph, etching, woodcut, linocut, photograph and computer graphic.
This particular edition addresses various aspects of printed graphic art, featuring materials on Russia’s contemporary graphic exhibitions and biennales, exploring the different trends in graphic art, such as artist’s books from the Futurists to the present, graphic art collectors of the past, the Aquilon art publishing house
Ottisk / Imprint #2
St Petersburg: M.K. Publishers, 2003. 68 pages, b/w illustrations + 14 pages of original graphics (50 copies) or 5 pages of original graphics (100 copies). Cover of colored card with linocut. Original graphics by St Petersburg artists: lithograph, etching, woodcut and photograph.
Contents:
Yuri Gerchouk. Graphics for Art’s Sake?
Mikhail Karasik. Leningrad Engraving: Lessons of the Art Market
Irina Zolotinkina. The Will to Create. The Story of Nikolai Brimmer
Ekaterina Klimova. Pyotr Shvetsov: Between Art and Technology
Natalia Kozyreva. Valentin Gerasimenko: Disintegration of Form
Alina Yartseva. Operation Wrap. Leningrad. Late 1920s
Ekaterina Kroupnikova. Le papier
Other contributions to the issue include: Maria Korosteleva on the oeuvre of Pyotr Bely (book graphics and wood engravings); Antonina Marochkina on the background of Vera Yermolaeva’s illustrations for Reineke the Fox; Erast Kuznetsov on contrasting presentation of St. Petersburg’s graphic art, and why St. Petersburg graphic art is unique; Serge Stommels and Albert Lemmens (The Netherlands) on Petropolis, an influential Russian-German publishing house in the 1920s, whose books are rare and highly valued today. They include albums and monographs on N. Altman, Y. Annenkov, M. Dobuzhinsky, B. Grigoriev, M. Chagal and others. A full Petropolis catalogue is appended.
Ottisk / Imprint #3 (The Artist’s Book in Russia 1990–2005)
St Petersburg: M.K. Publishers, 2005. 112 pages, b/w illustrations + 9 pages of original graphics, signed by the artists: illustrations from the books by Yulia Zaretskaya, Nikolai Klimushkin, Marina Spivak, and Dmitry Sayenko; Yevgeny Strelkov, Andrei Sazdalev, and Gunel Juran; Yury Shtapakov; Andrei Chezhin. Cover of coloured card with linocut by Yulia Zaretskaya. The almanac is divided into three sections: art history — articles, main bibliography, list of exhibitions, artist’s book projects etc.; catalogue — biographies of 40 artists, selected books; illustrations — original prints and excerpts from publications;
Contents:
Gleb Ershov. The Avant-Garde and The Artist’s Book
Helgard Sauer. Artist’s Books and Original Graphic Magazines in the Collection of the Saxon State and University Library Dresden
Mikhail Karasik. Russian Artist’s Books in Foreign Private Collections
Gleb Ershov. Kharmsizdat in the Russian Museum
Xenia Bezmenova. Artist’s Book at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Lyudmila Vostretsova. Toy Books for Children and Adults
Tatyana Lebedeva. Book Artists and the Artist’s Book at the Yaroslavl Museum of Art
Inga Lander. The Collection of Artist’s Book at the Russian National Library