Fontanka news

August 2023
Fontanka co-founder Mark Sutcliffe is now a Qualified Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, specialising in Russian to English translation.
17 February 2022: Congratulations to illustrator Dovile Ciapaite for Kolobok's inclusion on the longlist for the Klaus Flugge prize for illustration - and to author Sian Valvis for teaming up with Dovile! More information here.
'As I read Kolobok: A Russian bun on the run, Siân Valvis’s adaptation of a classic Slavic folktale, with my five-year-old daughter, we marvelled at the striking, block-printed illustrations and giggled at the jaunty, rhyming verse. This book is a true delight! Most of all, I was struck by Valvis’s choice to use rhyme. Apart from the kolobok’s little song, the Russian versions I know are not written in verse. Even if this is not immediately evident to today’s readers, the choice to make the entire story rhyme positions it within the Slavic
tradition of classic folktales. It also brings the child (or any reader) into the rhythm and flavour of the kolobok’s world, making his signature song all the more fitting once it appears a few pages into the story.'

Jane Bugaeva's review of Kolobok in the New Year edition of East-West Review can be found in full here.
The launch of Kolobok took place at Pushkin House on 3 December 2021. Despite rumoured restrictions, a good crowd turned out to celebrate the book's publication and to hear Sian Valvis and Dovile Ciapaite talk about how it came together. Attempts to find Russian buns that could pass for a kolobok were not entirely successful, prianiki being a rather pale imitation, but a video of how to make a kolobok added a bit of culinary flavour to the evening.
Advance review of Kolobok in WorldKidLit:
"Kolobok is Siân Valvis’s inventive and playful adaptation in English of a famous Russian folktale about a resourceful bun (a kolobok) on the run, who skilfully avoids being caught and eaten by various animals. Told in Siân’s brilliant rhyming couplets, with beautifully textured illustrations by UK-based artist and illustrator Dovile Ciapaite, this new version of Kolobok is a fabulous addition to the body of English translations of Russian skazki – fairytales or folktales."
Full review here
We're delighted that Kolobok, translated and adapted from the original Russian tale by Sian Valvis, has won a prestigious PEN Translates award for 2021. Competing with translated books of all languages and categories, Kolobok was one of 12 books to be awarded, representing 'some of the most exciting literature in translation arriving into the UK market'. Kolobok will be published in September. Announcements by English Pen and The Bookseller.

We're approaching the end of April 2021 and for several months Fontanka has been immersed in the Russian avant-garde for our 2-volume project Encyclopaedia of the Russian Avant-Garde (see three entries below). Every month we receive another fifty or so essays on anything and everything connected with this remarkable early-twentieth-century explosion of artistic innovation which was brought to a shuddering halt by the Stalinist decree on art and literature in 1932. Our team of six translators are doing a superb job of keeping (almost) up with the work load, while Fontanka's editors spend too much of their day discussing obscure paintings in Nizhny Tagil or Serpukhov. 


Summer 2021 will see the publication of a wonderful new book for children written by Sian Valvis and illustrated by Dovile Ciapaite. Adapted from the well-known Slavic folktale 'Kolobok', the text is a rhyme that seems sure to entrance its young readers, along with the charming illustrations of the animals Kolobok encounters on his way. Beautifully designed by Bureau Bureau, the book is to be printed by Balto print in Vilnius. More publication details to follow.


The Beaton exhibition closed in March 2021 after a successful run. The catalogue made it for the opening but copies for the UK are still in transit. This is the other side of printing in Petersburg – getting books shipped over is slow and costly. Many of the same photographs will be on show at Blenheim Palace from May 2021, though the catalogue is not transferring.
Fontanka is publishing the catalogue for an upcoming exhibition at the Hermitage of the work of photographer Cecil Beaton. Сесил Битон и культ звезд (Cecil Beaton: Celebrating Celebrity) opens on 8 December 2020 with a wide cross-section of Beaton's work, from early portraits of friends and family, through the celebrity worlds of fashion and dance, and including his wartime photography and work as royal photographer. Beaton's friendship with a number of Russian emigres and a trip he made to the USSR in 1935 with designer Elsa Schiaparelli are described in contributions by Daria Panaiotti, Hugo Vickers and Olga Khoroshilova. Currently only published in Russian, an English edition may follow.

A major project to translate and publish the Encyclopaedia of the Russian Avant-Garde, in partnership with Global Expert and Ginzburg Design, is now confirmed after several months of planning. The first two volumes on the History and Theory of the Avant-Garde will be published in 2022. Some background to the project can be found in this recent article in the Art Newspaper: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/russian-avant-garde-trove-surfaces-at-regional-museum as well as here:

Fontanka remains focused on several forthcoming projects during the lockdown, in particular the next in the series of Ginzburg co-publications, a fascinating exploration of theatre architecture in the Soviet period (and more generally) by Grigory Barkhin, to be published in 2022. Current translations include the text for a Hermitage catalogue on contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Huan. 

26 February 2020: a fascinating evening dedicated to the building of the NKTP Sanatorium in Kislovodsk was held at Pushkin House in London. Architect Alexei Ginzburg spoke about how his grandfather Moisei Ginzburg, lead architect of this superb Constructivist building, managed to stay true to his modernist credentials in the face of increasing official pressure to conform to Socialist Realism. Photographer Richard Pare discussed the building in the context of his remarkable photographs taken in the 1990s. A highly informed and engaged audience appreciated this very stimulating double act of historical and contemporary insight.
PUSHKIN HOUSE EVENT AND BOOK LAUNCH: Publication of Architecture of the NKTP Sanatorium in Kislovodsk  will be marked at an event on Wednesday 26 February 2020 at Pushkin House, 5A Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2TA, 7.00pm. Architect Moisei Ginzburg in conversation with photographer Richard Pare.
BOOK LAUNCH: The Story of Synko-Filipko and other Russian Folk Tales will be officially published and launched on Monday 2 December at Pushkin House, 5A Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2TA, 6.30pm.
The Story of Synko-Filipko and other Russian Folk Tales is finally with the printers in Vilnius - here's a sneak preview of the cover front and back. Five years since its companion volume Why the Bear has no Tail was first published, it's been a long journey but we're delighted with the way it has come together. It should be in the shops by the end of November, all being well.
New book for Hermitage Max Ernst exhibition: June 2019
Max Ernst. The Paris Years opens at the Hermitage in June and focuses on the Surrealist's early work in Paris in the 1920s, and specifically paintings and drawings from the collection of his first Parisian dealer, Aram Mouradian, and lithographs from the collection Histoire Naturelle. Fontanka is publishing the book in two editions - Russian and English.
As well as books and exhibition catalogues, Fontanka is sometimes asked to produce other printed booklets at short notice. A recent and fascinating project is Flora Restored by Tatiana Kustodieva, the story of a painting in the Hermitage by Francesco Melzi, which will be on loan to the National Gallery for a month from 22 May 2019. Was Melzi solely responsible or did Leonardo, in whose studio he worked, have a hand in the painting? Kustodieva gives her opinion. The project is initiated by the Hermitage Foundation UK.
Eyewitness 1917: the Russian Revolution as it Happened - mentioned by Matthew Parris in his column for 27 April issue of The Spectator magazine, comparing the immediacy of events as told in the book with what is happening today.  Full text here.

Eyewitness 1917: the Russian Revolution as it Happened - launched at Pushkin House on 4 April 2019
Around 150 people gathered at Pushkin House on 4 April to celebrate the publication of Eyewitness 1917. The evening included a reading of extracts from the book (script here) by Jed Aukin and Sarah Breen, focusing on the fall of the tsar, the Kerensky government, and the events of the October revolution. 
Eyewitness 1917: the Russian Revolution as it Happened to be published in spring 2019
A year after the ground-breaking digital Project 1917, which traced the course of 1917's revolutionary events day by day, Fontanka has drawn on the Moscow team's research and other material to produce a book that tells the story of this dramatic and highly significant year through eyewitness accounts and memoir. More information to follow.

Presentation of Style and Epoch at Pushkin House on Monday 10 December 2018
Alexei Ginzburg will talk about the new translation (by John Nicolson) of his grandfather Moisei Ginzburg's seminal work  Style and Epoch (1924), and give an update on the restoration of the Narkomfin building in Moscow. More informationhere.  

Frank Althaus in conversation with Helen Rappaport, author of The Race to Save the Romanovs
On Tuesday 18 September at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Square, Helen Rappaport will be talking to Frank Althaus, Fontanka partner, about her new book which tells the story of various secret plans to rescue Russia's imperial family after their imprisonment in 1917 and 1918. More informationhere.  

Ginzburg Design and Fontanka to co-publishStyle and Epochby Moisei Ginzburg
Following the successful publication of the facsimile of Moisei Ginzburg's Dwelling in 2017, Ginzburg Design has reunited with Fontanka to publish the book that became the key work of the Constructivist group of architects. Style and Epoch was originally published in 1924. This facsimile edition will be available from October 2018.  

Alexander Voitsekhovsky exhibition in New York
An exhibition of works by Fontanka author Alexander Voitsekhovsky opens on 29 March at Evans Gallery in New York. More information here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alexander-voitsekhovsky-art-exhibition-in-new-york-tickets-44135515515
Calvert 22 presentation by Alexei Ginzburg
A drizzly Friday night did not deter a sell-out audience at Calvert 22 on 9 March, where Alexei Ginzburg gave a fascinating insight into the work being done to the Narkomfin building, as well as his previous restoration of the Izvestia building. Fontanka's thanks to Calvert for putting on the evening. Picture shows Alexei (on the right) being interviewed by Calvert's Will Strong.  
Q&A with architect Alexei Ginzburg at Calvert 22 on 9 March 2018, 7-9pm
Architect Alexei Ginzburg will talk about his ongoing restoration work to the Narkomfin building in Moscow as well as the completed restoration of the Izvestia building. Ginzburg Design will also present the recent facsimile publication of his grandfather Moisei's book Dwelling, co-published with Fontanka. Further details here: http://calvert22.org/alexei-ginzburg-narkomfin-building/
Erté: Genius of Art Deco reviewed in The Economist's 1843 Magazine: 
'Erté was fortunate, perhaps, that his self-taught style so suited the era. Indeed, for many, his images were among those that defined it. His drawings, some of which can be seen in an elegant new book, “Erté: Genius of Art Deco”, deployed a stylised economy of line and oozed with insouciance and glamour ... Elegance, Erté knew, wasn’t about clothes so much as confidence, and his women exuded a playful sensuality as potent as musk.' 
Kassia St Clair, The Economist
Pushkin House lecture and launch ofDwelling
Tickets sold out for the talk by Alexei Ginzburg on Tuesday 16 January at Pushkin House. Alexei showed slides and updated the informed audience about the latest progress with the restoration of the Narkomfin building. Natalia Shilova introduced the two facsimile editions of Moisei Ginzburg's Rhythm in Architecture and Dwelling, the latter a co-publication between Ginzburg Design and Fontanka.
Dwelling by Moisei Ginzburg to be launched at Pushkin House on Tuesday 16 January 2018
Architect Alexei Ginzburg will give a short talk about the architectural theory expressed in Dwelling (published by Fontanka with Ginzburg Design) and Rhythm in Architecture, as well as an update on the ongoing restoration of the Narkomfin building (right), of which Alexei is chief architect. For more information and to purchase tickets, see the Pushkin House website at this link.
Ertéexhibition  
Further information here about the anniversary exhibition celebrating the work of Romain de Tirtoff, known as Erté, which is at the Grosvenor Gallery in central London until 15 December. Fully illustrated catalogue published by Fontanka, also on general sale.
The Erté exhibition has been featured widely, both in print and on BBC Radio 4's main arts programme, Saturday Review, 25 November 2017.
Dwelling, published by Ginzburg Design with Fontanka, featured in Architectural Review for October
The October 2017 edition of Architectural Review, 'After the revolution', features a full review of Dwelling as its Book of the Month, as well as an article on Alexey Ginzburg's restoration of the Izvestia building in Moscow, designed by Grigory Barkhin.Dwellingwill be published in early November.
Forthcoming publication and exhibition: Erté, Romain de Tirtoff 
An anniversary exhibition of the work of Erté opens in November 2017 accompanied by this new publication. Born Romain de Tirtoff in St Petersburg, Erté became one of the best known illustrators of his day. The exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in central London follows on from a 2016 show at the Hermitage (see below), which marked the return to Russia of one of its most talented prodigal sons.
Forthcoming publication: Dwelling by Moisei Ginzburg
1 November 2017 sees the facsimile-publication of the first English translation of Soviet architect Moisei Ginzburg's seminal book Жилище (Dwelling) which originally appeared in 1934. Published in collaboration with Ginzburg Design Ltd,Dwellingis a remarkable document, showcasing the ideas and achievements of one of modernist architecture's greatest exponents.
Forthcoming publication: The Story of Synko-Filipko and other Russian Folk Tales. Translated by Dr Louise Hardiman
The next in the series, following on from Why the Bear Has No Tail, this charming collection of Russian folk tales is also illustrated by the artist Elena Polenova. Beautifully designed and produced, Synko-Filipko is a collaboration with the Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the Vasily Polenov Estate in Tula region.
Why the Bear Has No Tail chosen for British Library exhibition
Fontanka's collection of Russian folk tales illustrated by nineteenth-century artist Elena Polenova, Why the Bear Has No Tail and other Russian Folk Tales, has been specially selected by the British Library bookshop for its forthcoming exhibition Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths which opens on 28 April.
Revolution blog now up and running
Fontanka's blog following the progress of the revolution week by week is an attempt to bring together various contemporary voices on this most momentous of years in Russia's history. Since starting the blog, we've discovered a major project that uses the form and techniques of social media to present history in a similar, though far more comprehensive, way. Project1917.ru is also collaborating with Pushkin House to produce an English-language version of the site - Project1917.com. Definitely worth checking out.
Evening with the artist Alexander Voitsekhovsky at Pushkin House
Artist Alexander Voitsekhovsky, whose book A Whale off the coast of Norway and other encounters is out now, spoke with publisher Mark Sutcliffe about his new illustrations for Pushkin's story 'The Lady and the Maid' at Pushkin House, London on 24 October 2016. To listen to a recording of the evening follow the link at this address:
evening-with-alexander-voitsekhovsky. 
Book for Erté exhibition in St Petersburg
An exhibition at the Hermitage in the summer and autumn of 2016 saw the return, after more than a century, of one of St Petersburg's most famous prodigal sons. The artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff, known as Erté, left the city in 1912 for Paris, where he established a dazzling reputation through his illustrations forHarper’s BazaarandVogue, and subsequently his work as stage, costume and fashion designer in both Europe and America. This book charts Erté’s extraordinary career, confirming him as a true genius of Art Deco. 
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