SERGEI KONIONKOV

Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1978. Hardcover. Very Good/Good Plus. Sergei Konionkov was an internationally known Russian sculptor, a supporter of the 1917 revolution and of communism, who spent a large part of his working life outside the Soviet Union, including 22 years in the U.S. His art work was largely respresentational. He worked in clay and stone and, during his U.S. stay, most of his subject matter was biblical. This copy is first edition, first English translation from the German, which is also included. About 10 x 12 inches, 240 pages in pictorial cloth covers with some 400 b&w reproductions, many full page. The frontispiece is a full-page reproduction of a 1916 self-portrait in tinted sandstone. Also includes an introduction as well as a catalogue of the illustrations. Boards and text are clean, unmarked and complete, reasonably tight and square, with no noticeable tears, chipping, scratching or creasing. The dustjacket, which has protected the book for 40 years shows moderate wear with several tape-repaired tears along the top edge and wear and chipping at corners and spine ends. The pictorial graphics and design, however, are at least 95 percent whole with most wear and tear limited to its edges. It is interesting to note that Konionkov's stay in the U.S. ended in 1945 at the end of WWII when Stalin sent a ship to transport the sculptor and his wife back to the Soviet Union. It was rumored that his wife, Margarita Vorontsova, had an affair with Albert Einstein, whom they met when Konionkov was commissioned by Princeton to do a portrait of the physicist in 1937. [Due to its size and weight, this book will require additional postage on priority/express orders or orders from outside the U.S.]