The Camp (Lager)

Schwartz and Pakhomov's book was not only the first biographies of the writer and artist; it also proved a breakthrough in book design, a model for subsequent experiments at Detgiz. V. Lebedev's influence on Pakhomov is unsurprising, given that Alexei Fyodorovich was his student at the Petrograd VKHUTEMAS (1920–1921). [...] The entire book, 'Camp,' is constructed in two colors, yet its stripes resemble reproductions of paintings. The reason lies in the lithographic printing—the impressions were made from stones; they luxuriously convey the texture of the material, the liveliness of the grain of the lithographic stone. The red and black washes harmonize well with the dry-brush-like detailing. The artist's secret also lies in the method he discovered for conveying space: the planar compositional solution harks back to ancient Russian iconographic borders and to the 'holidays' of folding icons. Pakhomov saw and deeply loved the old icon since childhood.