1936 Zdeněk Rossmann and Rusyn Identity

Antonín Hartl – Pozdravení Rusínů [Greeting to the Rusyns] (Czech) Bratislava: Podkarpatoruské nakladatelství, 1936. Printed wrappers, 25 pp., housed in original embroidered cloth folder. First edition. Designed by Zdeněk Rossmann, whose constructivist typography—here in bold red and blue initials—contrasts strikingly with the accompanying vernacular textile work. Issued by the Club of Friends of Subcarpathian Rus’ in the series Náš Východ (Our East), within the cultural orbit of interwar Czechoslovakia. The slim softcover volume is preserved in its original separate linen presentation folder, embroidered with a traditional Rusyn ornamental band and the initials “PR,” evoking regional folk craftsmanship. The juxtaposition of avant-garde design and folk embroidery reflects contemporary efforts to articulate a distinct cultural identity for Subcarpathian Rus’, the easternmost province of the republic. An uncommon survival, especially complete with the fragile embroidered folder, and a notable example of Rossmann’s synthesis of modernist design and ethnographic motif. Inv. i3