#lubki

[publicdomainreview]

"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived gloriously, ate sweetly, farted lightly"⠀ ⠀ More on this image and more Russian lubki (colorful broadsides, 16th–early 20th century) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th–19th-century #Caturday

(Print to buy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th–19th-century

[mybookof-you]

A lubok (plural lubki, Cyrillic: Russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki prints were used as decoration in houses and inns. Early examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries were woodcuts, followed by engravings or etchings, and from mid-19th century lithography. They sometimes appeared in series, which might be regarded as predecessors of the modern comic strip. Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks,[1] which mostly consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature or (Cyrillic: Russian: лубочная литература). Both pictures and literature are commonly referred to simply as lubki. The Russian word lubok derives from lub - a special type of board (secondary phloem) on which pictures were printed.

Wiki

[crochetcreationcafe]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Millefiore Beads New Lubky Casino.

[dogandcatcomics]

"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived gloriously, ate sweetly, farted lightly"⠀

Drawn from D. A. Rovinskii's collection of Russian lubki (colorful broadsides, 16th–early 20th century) at the New York Public Library @nypl . Thanks to Public Domain Review for the tip.

[themoderngogoworld]

#it reminds me a lot of don’t starve#but also of something else I can’t put my finger on

(Actually some of my biggest inspirations were Don't Starve, the animation from the Deathly Hallows, Stephen Gammel's artwork, and Brett Helquist's illustrations from A Series of Unfortunate Events! As well as Russian lubki from children's books, since Freya wants to be a folk storybook writer/artist <3)

"Little lamb, the moon is bright tonight. Tell Rolf one of your stories..."

[damsel-in-a-continuous-distress]

Russian Lubki art

[megawhitething]

D. A. Rovinskii’s Collection of Russian Lubki (18th–19th Century)

[tedwardbak]

The first Sea of Time #1 review is incredibly generous. Courtesy of Charles Hatfield at The Comics Journal today:

“I can’t tell whether this is a continuation, companion, or sequel to Bak’s Island of Memory, a nearly decade-old (2013) graphic novella with the same subject: Georg Steller, the 18th-century German naturalist who traveled under the aegis of the Russian Empire and explored Alaska and Kamchatka. Bak has been obsessed with Steller for years, and has long promised a complete graphic biography of him under the title Wild Man. He has referred to Sea of Time as the second volume of Wild Man, but also as “the serialized graphic novel follow-up to Island of Memory.” I don’t get how the two books fit together, or what is supposed to come next. What I do know is that both books are lovely, and that, taken by itself, Sea of Time is hermetic and hard to parse, but stunningly beautiful and transporting. I’m glad that more Sea of Time is promised, because no one else is doing quite what Bak is doing at the intersection of comics, history, and the natural sciences. He treats comics as a way to feed his knowledge of the natural world yet is likewise alert to the political and cultural snares inherent in his subject matter, especially the fraught interchange between imperial and Indigenous ways of knowing. Bak’s sharp, rugged style somewhat evokes the woodcut technique of early Russian lubki, which could be either an apt or ironic framing of the imperial adventurism that underlies Steller’s story. In any case, Bak’s art is getting lovelier, and his graphic worldmaking is something to behold. At only 24 pages, this booklet makes me impatient to see more!”

[leebird-simmer]

Russian Fairy Tales Test Prep: The Influence of Fairy Tales on Russian Visual Culture, pt. 2

II. Folk Art

Lubki: Russian popular prints.

- mid 17th century to early 20th century - singular form: lubok - made via woodblock printing

Stylistic Elements:

- bold colors, expressive lines - balanced composition, simple drawings - inclusion of text

Similarities to icons:

- important figures are disproportionately large - perspective based on multiple points of view - the unity of time is casually violated

Early lubok prints were mostly religious, often illustrating parables from the Bible.

There were also satirical lubki. The text of this one reads something along the lines of “Baba Yaga rides to fight the Crocodile, with a pestle, on a swine, and under a bush they have a glass of wine.” (possibly poking fun at Peter the Great & his wife?)

The Fool appears frequently in lubki, as he is rather cartoonish by nature. The middle inscription reads “This is Savoshka who cannot win even a copper grosh from Paramoshka.” The inscription on the right reads “Don’t cry dumb Savoska, son of a bitch, Paramoshka will also lose, without a hitch.”

This is the town of Palekh. It was formerly famous for the quality of its painted icons, but after the October Revolution and the ban on practicing Christianity, Palekh’s craftspeople switched to folk/fairytale motifs. Their artwork typically takes the form of black lacquered boxes with colorful designs.

The Frog Princess

Tsar Saltan

Vasilisa the Beautiful

Letter to the Red Army

Snow Maiden

Shrovetide

Night on the Day of Ivan Kupala

“Apple Savior: The Fruits of the Earth are Consecrated”

Russian folk culture also produces very fine embroidery, with many regional variants. You can learn more about that here: https://www.russianfashionblog.com/index.php/2013/05/russian-embroidery/

[publicdomainreview]

"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived gloriously, ate sweetly, farted lightly"⠀ ⠀ More on this image and more Russian lubki (colorful broadsides, 16th–early 20th century) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th–19th-century #Caturday

(Print to buy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th–19th-century

[mybeingthere]

Illustrations for "Little Dogs" by Vera Ermolaeva. Vera Ermolaeva (Russian: 1893 – 1937) was a Russian painter, graphic artist and illustrator who participated in the Russian avant-garde movement.

As a child, Ermolaeva fell from a horse, an accident which crippled her legs. Her parents consulted doctors in Europe, but she was still unable to walk without the aid of crutches. Ermolaeva was educated in Europe. In 1904, the Ermolaev family returned to Russia, and in 1905, they moved back to St. Petersburg. Vera's father sold his estate, established a cooperative society called “The Labor Society,” and began to publish a liberal journal called “Zhizn’” (Life).In 1910, Vera graduated from the Princess A. A. Obolenskaia Gymnasium.

 In 1911, her father died.In 1912, her older brother, who had become involved with revolutionary ideas and menshevism, was arrested by the Tsarist government and exiled to an area near Irkutsk.In 1918, Ermolaeva became a founding member of the book-publishing studio “Today” (Segodnya) in Petrograd. The studio published small runs of lubki and picture-books, created primarily by hand. This studio included the artists N. Lapshin, Yu. Annenkov, N. Altman, N. Lyubavina, and Ye. Turova. They produced 13 books. 

On December 25, 1934, Ermolaeva was arrested at the same time as several other artists. She was found guilty of “anti-Soviet activity, expressed in propaganda promoting anti-Soviet ideas and for associating herself with anti-Soviet intelligentsia.” She was sentenced to three years of incarceration. In 1937, she was found guilty a second time and sentenced to death. She was shot in a labor camp near Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

[russianfolklore]

Russian caricature of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. 

The text reads: “Cat Vas’ka from Prussia is the enemy of Russia.”

The caricature was made in lubok style.

A lubok (plural lubki, Russian: лубо́к) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Early examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries were woodcuts, then engravings or etchings were typical, and from the mid-19th century lithography. They sometimes appeared in series, which might be regarded as predecessors of the modern comic strip. Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks, which mostly consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature. Both pictures and literature are commonly referred to simply as lubki. The Russian word lubok derives from lub - a special type of board on which pictures were printed.

[c86]

Taken from Dmitry Rovinsky's collection of Russian lubki (18th–19th Century)

[copperbadge]

The Public Domain Review has a nice gallery up this week of Russian lubki! (x)

[seanos-zone]

Online

Class this week was the first online class for Comm Design Studies with Ben (class tutor) and my first online class ever. I’m glad the class was organised and wasn’t as chaotic as I expected. We went through elements & principles, something we all most likely did in vce, however it was the question Ben made after presenting each design that created interesting conversation, “Is this design good, or bad?” This led me to think after class about what design I like, currently I’m more attracted to design that is colourful, detailed, noisy and sometimes obtrusive. But what I like is constantly evolving which is also what this blog documents, which brings me to next part of our online class.

http://50watts.com/Kits-Sarapikus

We looked at 50watts.com a blog dedicated to archiving interesting and historical illustration and design. We were told to look through 50watts and find something to share to the online class chat and talk a bit about why we like it. I never got a turn (my mic doesn’t work anyway so it’s not like I would’ve had a chance), however I found these illustrations by Jaan Tammsaar from Estonia, published in 1984. It’s exactly what I love, the bold line work and how it’s used to create form, the interesting vibrant colour palette, and the overall composition of each illustration is incredibly captivating and well balanced against the type. Most of his work isn’t like the illustrations featured here, because these illustrations are inspired from Russian Lubok, a style used in mid the 17th century and remained to be relevant for centuries as new technologies in printing, such as lithography, were being discovered.

Here are some links about Lubok if you’re interested: 

https://russia.rin.ru/guides_e/7309.html 

http://russia-ic.com/culture_art/visual_arts/491/#.XoAKQW5xWqA

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th%E2%80%9319th-century

Lubok has been around for a long time so there’s a lot of rich history about its importance during times such as the Napoleonic era and Russo-Japanese War. Here are some pieces of Lubok I find interesting that share similarities to Tammsaars’ work.

Reference:

1. "Gromadnyi kot." [Big Cat], 1881 Anonymous (A lot of these works don’t have the source on the artists, due to a lack of preserving the artists name throughout history)

2. An Animal Found in Spain Anonymous, January 27th 1775

3. The Book of Divination  Anonymous, 1881

[drzito]

Lubki rusos de los ss XVIII-XIX.