In Tavel fun Vent [“On the Tablet on the Wall]. By DAVID HOFSTEIN

(ALTMAN, NATHAN)

Funken Verlag

Berlin

1923

Original Covers designed by NATHAN ALTMAN

Israel Museum Catalogue, Tradition and Revolution. The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant-Garde Art 1912-28 (1987), no. 32 (illustrated)

Altman, who trained as a painter, sculptor and stage designer, was a master of many styles. He was influenced by the ideas of Futurism, and spent time studying reliefs from Jewish tombstones and ornaments from synagogue textiles. This cover design is Constructivist in style, with striking decorated white letters on a black board with the author’s name vertical in a bold stripe of red on white - the composition influenced by Lissitzky’s Prouns. The cover design is signed with Altman’s initials in the lower left corner