Artist Talk: The Nightingale & Commissars: From the Neva to the Hudson
Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 3:00pm
Rosenwald Room (LJ 205)
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Jefferson Building, 2nd floor
Join the Rare Book & Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress for a rare opportunity to hear Soviet-born New York book artist Mikhail Magaril talk about the need for “an artistic paper book” in our electronic times. Magaril will present his most recent projects, which focus on themes of the artist’s freedom and lack of freedom. He will also discuss his inspirations, from Hans Christian Andersen to Joseph Brodsky, as well as his own life experiences. Magaril will be joined in conversation by longtime collaborators Michael Weintraub and master printer Peter Kruty, who will add to the discussion of how concepts can be expressed graphically. The group will show tools and the original forms from which the books were printed.
The talk will be accompanied by a display of Magaril’s works from Library of Congress collections. Magaril’s books are produced in editions of only a few copies. They weave elements of history with humor and evocative representations of Leo Tolstoy’s alphabet books, fairytales and Jewish folklore, and Soviet Army songs. Magaril has illustrated works by Nikolai Gogol and Daniil Kharms, offered a purely visual interpretation of the Russian fable Masha and the Bear, and produced a set of color portraits of riders on the New York Subway. His collaborators have included other prominent printers, photographers, and cartoonists.
This event will be filmed for later viewing on the LC website.
For more information about this event, contact Barbara Dash: bdas@loc.gov
