Ivan Puni - linocuts

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PAINTINGS 1912-1913
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The first publication of Ivan Puni's linocuts took place in March 1922 in a Hungarian-language magazine published in Vienna. Four abstract compositions illustrated the cover of the magazine's third issue of 1922 and an article by Ernő Kállai (Kállai Ernő. Iwan Puni. MA Aktivista Folyóirat, No.3, 1922). The fifth linocut in this series was not printed in the magazine, but is known from the copies in the BnF and in the prints cabinet of the Geneva Art Museum. The originals of these linocuts are very rare.


1922. Four linocuts by Ivan Puni, published in the magazine MA Aktivista Folyóirat, No.3, 1922, and the fifth sheet from the BnF

In the same year (1922) Paul Westheim, fascinated by Puni's art, published a portfolio with eight linocuts by Puni at the Ernst Wasmuth publishing house in Berlin (the same one who would print Puni's catalogue raisonné 50 years later), accompanied by his very complimentary introduction. According to the colophon, each linocut was hand-coloured by the author with gouache, and the edition was 25 copies. Puni based these engravings on his own figurative drawings of 1915-1919, somewhat generalising the composition and discarding a number of small details, believing that this better suited the linocut language.



1922. Ivan Puni. Eight linocuts. 1. City. 2. City. 3. Staircase. 4. Lantern. 5. Billiard Player. 6. Staircase. 7. Window. 8. Houses. (Iwan Puni (Ivan Pougni). Acht Linoleumschnitte. Mit einer Einleitung von Paul Westheim. Verlag Ernst Wasmuth AG Berlin [1922])

This concludes the list of Puni's original (cut by the artist) linocuts.
However, it was not that simple: in 1964 Xana intervened. She organised the printing of a linocuts portfolio entitled "Pougny. Dix linogravures originales. 1914-1920. L'Atelier. Poème de Jacques Prévert".
Each folder was enclosed with a poem by Jacques Prévert dedicated to the Pougny's workshop.
The colophon gives a total edition of 195 copies, printed on four different types of paper. It also states that the engravings were cut by Puni in Leningrad, Vitebsk and Berlin between 1914 and 1920, and that each sheet was coloured by Cardin and Bogratchew using the artist's original layouts.
The linocuts are not only labelled "original" - which already implies that the plate was cut by the artist himself. It also explicitly states that the plates were cut by him between 1914 and 1920.
In fact, Puni certainly did not cut these plates himself; otherwise the linocuts would not be an exact repetition of his drawings and besides, at least one early print would be known.
The 1964 portfolio is nothing but reproductions of Puni's early drawings, executed in linocut technique with hand-colouring. The plates were cut at the same time, eight years after his death. It is not known who actually cut the engravings; it was probably the aforementioned Claude Bogratchew (b. 1936, engraver and illustrator, now a famous sculptor) and his wife Annie Cardin. As Bogratchew writes in his autobiography, Xana contracted them back in 1960 for various works, including helping to prepare material for the catalogue. Xana herself is not mentioned in the portfolio's output, but it was certainly not without her, as the prototype drawings were in her possession. In the first volume of Puni's catalogue raisonné (Berninger, 1972), these linocuts are mentioned as reproductions of 1964 in the description of each of the prototype drawings.



1964. Ten reproduction linocuts after the drawings by Ivan Puni, 1914-1919. 1. Revolution. 2. Air Bridge. 3. Cellist. 4. Vitebsk. 5. Interior. 6. Door. 7. Vitebsk. 8. Staircase. 9. Footbridges. 10. Entrance to the Building.