Marc Chagall - Evening Editions New York Thursday, April 21, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Fernand Mourlot 387-389

  • Catalogue Essay

    Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was a Russian poet, playwright and important part of the early 20th Century Futurism movement.
    Frank O’Hara
    Mayakovsky from Meditations in an Emergency, 1957
    1
    My heart’s aflutter!
    I am standing in the bath tub
    crying. Mother, mother
    who am I? If he
    will just come back once
    and kiss me on the face
    his coarse hair brush
    my temple, it’s throbbing!
    then I can put on my clothes
    I guess, and walk the streets.
    2
    I love you. I love you,
    but I’m turning to my verses
    and my heart is closing
    like a fist.
    Words! be
    sick as I am sick, swoon,
    roll back your eyes, a pool,
    and I’ll stare down
    at my wounded beauty
    which at best is only a talent
    for poetry.
    Cannot please, cannot charm or win
    what a poet!
    and the clear water is thick
    with bloody blows on its head.
    I embrace a cloud,
    but when I soared
    it rained.
    3
    That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest
    oh yes, I’ve been carrying bricks
    what a funny place to rupture!
    and now it is raining on the ailanthus
    as I step out onto the window ledge
    the tracks below me are smoky and
    glistening with a passion for running
    I leap into the leaves, green like the sea
    4
    Now I am quietly waiting for
    the catastrophe of my personality
    to seem beautiful again,
    and interesting, and modern.
    The country is grey and
    brown and white in trees,
    snows and skies of laughter
    always diminishing, less funny
    not just darker, not just grey.
    It may be the coldest day of
    the year, what does he think of
    that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
    perhaps I am myself again.

17

Maïakovski series

1963
The rare complete set of three lithographs (one in colors) and the unsigned lithographic poster in colors, on Arches paper, with full margins,
various sizes, largest approx. S. 25 x 20 in. (63.5 x 50.8 cm)
the three prints all signed and numbered 15/15 in pencil (there were also 5 artist's proofs),(M. 389) the colors attenuated otherwise all generally in good condition, all unframed.

Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000 

Sold for $16,250

Evening Editions

21 April 2011
New York