Permyak, Ye. [How man conquered the sea]. Kak chelovek pokoril more. Illustrated by I. Kabakov. Signed and inscribed by the artist 'Tolya Kabakov'.

Permyak, Ye. [How man conquered the sea]. Kak chelovek pokoril more. Illustrated by I. Kabakov.

Moscow: Detskiy Mir, 1960. [12] pp, illustrated. 8vo [280x222mm].

In original illustrated wrappers; corners lightly creased. Inscribed on title page by the illustrator. Overall in very good condition.

Inscribed by the artist: Dorogoi Dine ot Toli / Kabakova / 31 marta 1960. [To dear Dina from Tolya / Kabakov  / 31st March 1960].

Ilya Kabakov (1933–2023) was one of the most influential figures in late 20th-century contemporary art and is widely regarded as the most significant Russian artist of his era.

He began his career in Moscow as a children’s book illustrator – an occupation that provided a stable income and a creative outlet within the constraints of Soviet censorship. At the same time, he developed a parallel artistic life rooted in conceptual and satirical experimentation, far from the official art world. This dual existence eventually positioned him as the founder and leading voice of Moscow Conceptualism, an unofficial art movement that emerged in the 1960s–1980s. In the late 1980s, Kabakov emigrated to the West, first to Austria and then to the United States.

Kabakov began working with Detskiy Mir and Detgiz in the late 1950s, creating beautiful illustrations for children’s books. How man conquered the sea shows several examples of Kabakov boldly experimenting with colors: yellow skies and seas, pastel pink ships and castles, bright red wheels and turbines. His use of unfamiliar colors on familiar imagery in educational literature creates an experience more memorable than an ordinary picture would; that can also be seen in his pictures for Permyak’s other book Skaz pro gaz [The story of gas] (1960).

Don't be alarmed by the name 'Tolya', a shortened version of Anatoly, in the artist's signature. He really liked this name and even asked his friends to call him by it. This is what Lidia Sooster, wife of another prominent nonconformist artist, Yul Sooster, wrote about in her memoirs.  

We couldn’t trace any copy of this edition in USA or European libraries via OCLC.