Mayakovsky Bricks

Date:	1987
Medium:	Oil on 3 bricks underpainted with gesso
Size inches:	Variable. See Image Notes
Size cm:	Variable. See Image Notes
Signature:	See Image Notes
Location:	New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Gift of the Estate of George Deem. Accession Number 2013.54.73

Oil on three bricks, variable size. Photography available as group of three bricks and individual bricks. Left brick: Osip Brik. 7.75 x 3.5 x 2.25 in. 19.68 x 8.89 x 5.71 cm. Center brick: Mayakovsky. 9 x 4 1/8 x 2 3/8 in. 22.86 x 10.16 x 5.71 cm. Right brick: Lili Brik. 8 x 3.5 x 2.25 in. 20.32 x 8.89 x 5.71 cm.

Left brick (Osip Brik) unsigned.
Center brick (Mayakovsky) and right brick (Lili Brik) signed, titled and dated on the reverse.

Reference
Osip Brik. Osip Brik with Lef eye-glass, 1924. Photo Montage by Aleksandr Rodchenko. LEF was the title of a magazine with the program of uniting all the left artists -- Futurists, Formalists, Constructivists, etc. --into one cultural front, the Left front of Art. The first issue appeared in March, 1923. Mayakovsky was the editor, Osip Brik, associate editor. In his Mayakovsky Bricks George Deem removed Rodchenko's montaged lettering "Lef" from Osip Brik's right lens.
Right brick: Photograph of Lili Brik by Abram Petrovich (David Shterenberg's brother). From cover of Mayakovsky's book of poems About This, 1923. Photomontage cover design, Aleksandr Rodchenko.