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Elena Genrichovna Guro Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Illustrator, b. 1877 - d. 1913

Elena Genrikhovna Guro (January 10, 1877 – May 6, 1913[1]) was a Russian Futurist painter, playwright, poet, and fiction writer.

Guro was born in St. Petersburg on January 10, 1877. Her father was Genrikh Stepanovich Guro, an officer in the Imperial Russian Army of French descent. Her mother Anna Mikhailovna Chistyakova was a talented amateur artist. Guro spent her childhood in the village of Novosely near Pskov and at her father's estate in Luga. She inherited a government pension and property in Finland from her father, using both to support her artistic career. Her sister, Ekaterina Guro, was also a writer.

Career: From 1890 to 1893 she studied art at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St Petersburg. From 1903 to 1905 she studied in the private studio of Jan Ciaglinski where she met her future husband Mikhail Matyushin (they were married in 1906).[1] In 1905 she published her first short story, in an anthology of contemporary Russian writers.[3] One year previously, in 1904, she illustrated the Russian translation of a book of fairy tales by the French writer George Sand.[4] In 1906 she and Matyushin moved to the art school of Elizaveta Zvantseva, where Guro worked under Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Léon Bakst and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.[1] In 1908 she left the school and established her own studio. By 1908 her home was an important meeting place for discussions on art and literature.[2]

Her first book of prose, poetry, and drama The Hurdy-Gurdy came out in 1909.[1][3] In 1910 she contributed to the journal Trap for Judges, one of the first publications of the Russian Futurists. She also contributed to the second volume of Trap for Judges in 1913. Guro and her husband subsidized both issues. In 1911 Guro's manuscript of a book of fairy tales she had been planning to publish was lost by her publisher, along with the illustrations she had done for it. Her second book Autumnal Dream was published in 1912.[1][2]

Guro is well-known for her fascination with the contrast between the urban world and nature, once writing in a short story about the psychology of people based in cities.[5][4] Her fascination appears to have begun with the way a city looks, for example its street lights and gilded windows, but eventually, she became tired of the subject in about 1910, when the very theme was growing popular with her Cubo-Futurist colleagues. According to Matyushin, she would now stay in the countryside from Spring until Autumn.[5]

Last days: In 1913 she continued to write and paint, even though she was suffering from leukemia. She died the same year at her country house in what was formerly Uusikirkko, Finland. At the time of her death she had nearly completed a major work The Poor Knight.[3] Several poems and two works of prose were published posthumously, in the collection The Three and in the journal Union of Youth, in 1913. Her third book The Little Camels of the Sky was published in 1914.[1][2]

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      • ELENA GENRIKHOVNA GURO | Roof
        Jun. 06, 2017

        ELENA GENRIKHOVNA GURO | Roof

        Est: £5,000 - £7,000

        oil on canvas

        Sotheby's
      • ELENA GENRIKHOVNA GURO | House in the Trees
        Nov. 29, 2016

        ELENA GENRIKHOVNA GURO | House in the Trees

        Est: £5,000 - £7,000

        oil and gouache on paper 

        Sotheby's
      • A PAIR OF FUTURISTIC COMPOSITIONS BY ELENA GURO (RUSSIAN 1877-1913)
        Sep. 17, 2016

        A PAIR OF FUTURISTIC COMPOSITIONS BY ELENA GURO (RUSSIAN 1877-1913)

        Est: $600 - $800

        A PAIR OF FUTURISTIC COMPOSITIONS BY ELENA GURO (RUSSIAN 1877-1913) , comprising: a) Futurist Composition, circa 1910, watercolor and gouache on paper (envelope), 11 x 14.5 cm (4 3/8 x 5 5/8 in.) b) Futurist Composition , circa 1910, watercolor and gouache on paper (envelope), 7.5 x 11.5 cm (3 x 4 1/2 in.) LOT NOTES Elena Genrikhovna Guro (1877-1913) was a Russian Futurist painter, playwright, poet, and writer of fiction. From 1890 to 1893 she studied art at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St Petersburg. From 1903 to 1905 she studied in the private studio of Jan Ciaglinski where she met her future husband Mikhail Matyushin. In 1905 she illustrated the Russian translation of a book of fairy tales by George Sand. In 1906 she and Matyushin moved to the school of Elizaveta Zvantseva, where Guro worked under Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Leon Bakst and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. In 1908 she left the school and established her own studio. By 1908 her home was a central meeting place for discussions on art and literature. In 1913 she continued to write and paint, even though she was suffering from leukemia. She died the same year at her country house in Polyany, Leningrad Oblast, formerly Uusikirkko, Finland. In Russia, Guro was one of the first artists who took interest in what was called the fourth dimension. Guro`s pantheistic formulation of man`s identity as a creature including a merging with cosmos, was a combination of German idealism with ideas on the fourth dimension as "hyperspace" (and not as time). Many artists believed in the existence of another reality beyond the one we normally see, and that it was the task of the artist to show the way into this higher reality by making it visible for philosophers and scientists. THIS LOT IS BEING SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE.

        Shapiro Auctions LLC
      • MALEVICH, Kazimir (illustrator), and GURO, Elena, KHLEBNIKOV, Velimir, and KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei (authors). Troe . [The Three.] St. Petersburg: Zhurval, 1913. 4° (197 x 185mm). Printed on pale green paper. 4 illustrations by Malevich. (Light
        Jun. 19, 2012

        MALEVICH, Kazimir (illustrator), and GURO, Elena, KHLEBNIKOV, Velimir, and KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei (authors). Troe . [The Three.] St. Petersburg: Zhurval, 1913. 4° (197 x 185mm). Printed on pale green paper. 4 illustrations by Malevich. (Light

        Est: - £4,375

        MALEVICH, Kazimir (illustrator), and GURO, Elena, KHLEBNIKOV, Velimir, and KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei (authors). Troe. [The Three.] St. Petersburg: Zhurval, 1913. 4° (197 x 185mm). Printed on pale green paper. 4 illustrations by Malevich. (Light sunning in fore-margins, one page with short marginal tear.) Original lithographed wrappers, by Malevich (chips at spine ends and corners of lower cover, short tears, some soiling, covers probably strengthened at hinges). Provenance: Russian bookseller's price stamps. FIRST EDITION. With covers and illustrations by Malevich; Kruchenikh contributes an essay on the influence of Futurist writings on language. Published as a celebration and in memory of Elena Guro, one of the earliest Russian Futurists. Hellyer 516; MoMA, The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 38.

        Christie's
      • BURLIUK, David and Vladimir, MAIAKOVSKII, Vladimir, KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei, KHLEBNIKOV, Velemir, GONCHAROVA, Natalia and GURO, Elena. Sadok Sudei II . [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913.
        Nov. 29, 2007

        BURLIUK, David and Vladimir, MAIAKOVSKII, Vladimir, KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei, KHLEBNIKOV, Velemir, GONCHAROVA, Natalia and GURO, Elena. Sadok Sudei II . [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913.

        Est: £2,000 - £3,000

        BURLIUK, David and Vladimir, MAIAKOVSKII, Vladimir, KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei, KHLEBNIKOV, Velemir, GONCHAROVA, Natalia and GURO, Elena. Sadok Sudei II. [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913. 4° (200 x 175mm). Printed on blue paper. 15 illustrations, including 5 by Guro and 2 by Goncharova (spotting on the first two leaves, light browning in the margins). Original flowered wallpaper wrappers, printed paper label on upper side (lacking spine, covers worn at extremities, crease on the upper side, light soiling). FIRST EDITION, IN THE ORIGINAL COVERS. This rare collaboration marks an important stage in the avant-garde movement, and includes a long Hylaean manifesto. MoMA, The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 53.

        Christie's
      • Guro, Elena, Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh. , Troe [The Three]. St Petersburg : Zhuravl', 1913
        Jun. 11, 2007

        Guro, Elena, Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh. , Troe [The Three]. St Petersburg : Zhuravl', 1913

        Est: £3,000 - £5,000

        4to (200 x 186mm.), [limited to 500 copies], printed on pale green paper, lithographed cover design and 4 other illustrations by Kasimir Malevich, original wrappers, wrappers repaired at corners and backstrip

        Sotheby's
      • BURLIUK, David, Vladimir BURLIUK, Valdimir MAYAKOVSKY, Aleksei KRUCHENYKH, Velimir KHLEBNIKOV, Natalia GONCHAROVA and Elena GURO. Sadok Sudei II [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913. 4°. Printed on blue paper. 15
        Jun. 05, 2007

        BURLIUK, David, Vladimir BURLIUK, Valdimir MAYAKOVSKY, Aleksei KRUCHENYKH, Velimir KHLEBNIKOV, Natalia GONCHAROVA and Elena GURO. Sadok Sudei II [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913. 4°. Printed on blue paper. 15

        Est: £2,000 - £3,000

        BURLIUK, David, Vladimir BURLIUK, Valdimir MAYAKOVSKY, Aleksei KRUCHENYKH, Velimir KHLEBNIKOV, Natalia GONCHAROVA and Elena GURO. Sadok Sudei II [A Trap for Judges II]. [St. Petersburg:] Zhurval, 1913. 4°. Printed on blue paper. 15 illustrations, including 5 by Guro and 2 by Goncharova (spotting on the first two leaves, light browning in the margins). Original flowered wallpaper covers, printed paper label on upper cover (spine worn, front cover strengthened at hinge, a few repairs). FIRST EDITION, IN THE ORIGINAL COVERS. This rare collaboration marks an important stage in the avant-garde movement, and includes a long Hylaean manifesto. MoMA 53.

        Christie's
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