H2SO4, Tiflis, 1924, original printed wrappers

H2SO4 Group

H₂SO₄ [number] 1. Tiflis, 1924

4to (315 x 233mm.), print run of 1,000 copies, 48ff., printed paper wrappers designed by Gamrekeli, wrappers torn, stained and detached, other occasional staining

The H2SO4 Group, a Futurist-Dadaist movement, formed in Tiflis (Tblisi) in around 1922, including Iraklii Gamrekeli, Beno Gordeziani, Niko Chachava and Simon Chikovani. This was one of its few publications, with dynamic typography by Gamrekeli, a set designer at the Rustaveli Theatre.

Tiflis had been a centre of avant-garde activity thanks to Ilya Zdanevich and his brother Kirill, natives of Tiflis, whose group 41o had included Kruchenykh and Terentev in the immediate post-revolutionary period; the Bolshevik invasion of Georgia in 1921 effectively put an end to this group, but their influence on local artists and writers endured. But when Soviet control of Georgia was cemented in 1924, the activity of H2SO4 came to an end.

For another work by the group, see lot 59.

LITERATURE:

The Russian Avant-Garde Book 534