Arka: A Monthly Review of Literature, Art, and Criticism. Part 6.Munich, December 1947

“Grotesque is a distorted reflection of life in the warped mirror of satirical weather.” — Yakiv Hnyzdovskyi, in this issue.

Arka: a literary, art and criticism journal: monthly. Year I, issue 6, December 1947 / edited by a board consisting of: V. Domontovych, Yurii Kosach, Bohdan Nyzhankovskyi, Zenon Tarnavskyi, Yurii Sherekh; artistic design — Yakiv Hnyzdovskyi.

Munich: Ukrainian Tribune Publishing House, 1947. — Supplement to the weekly Ukrainian Tribune. — Printed by: R. Oldenbourg, Graphische Betriebe G. m. b. H., Munich. Responsible editor and printer — Vasyl Pasichnyak. Publication authorized by the Civil Affairs Division EUCOM APO 757. Editorial address — Munich, Dachauerstrasse 9/II; administration — Fürichstrasse 53/II. Circulation not stated.

Original publisher’s cover: on cream-colored heavy paper, a black double line, the title “Arka” in red handwritten lettering, a stylized red arch vignette, subheadings and issue number in black and red; on the back cover — a small graphic vignette and printed price. Staple-bound, staples show slight traces of rust. Cover shows natural yellowing and scattered small foxing spots, minor rubbing at the folds; in the upper right corner of the front cover — an old pencil mark circled (illegible). The text block is firm, the paper inside shows natural yellowing. Condition: good.

The journal has historical and cultural value and is of collector’s interest; Yakiv Hnyzdovskyi’s cover design is of independent artistic interest.

INFORMATION

The issue is primarily dedicated to the memory of Yurii Klen (Oswald Burgardt, 1891–1947), who died one month before this issue was published: the journal opens with Yurii Sherekh’s obituary “In Memory of the Poet,” featuring a portrait of the deceased and a selection of his poems “Medallion.” The second major feature is Yakiv Hnyzdovskyi’s essay “Ukrainian Grotesque. About Don Sancho Panza and His Lord, a Knight from Mancia,” which compares grotesqueness with the “impersonality” of the Ukrainian spirit through the examples of Gogol, Skovoroda, and Lesya Ukrainka. The third is Gr. Shevchuk’s extensive article “The Story of Edvard Strokha” about the literary hoax of the 1920s: a fictitious author in whose name Soviet proletarian poetry was parodied, with reprinted excerpts from “Sozhendropia” and a portrait of the “author.” Further — poems by Yevhen Malaniuk and Oleh Zuyevskyi, a short story by Leonid Poltava, a translation of Sherwood Anderson’s “The Industrial America Song,” and an article about Edvard Kozak with illustrations for “Lys Mykyta” and a friendly caricature of Mykola Morozov; a separate illustrative insert reproduces Kozak’s tempera painting “The Fair.”

Yurii Klen (Oswald Burgardt; 1891–1947) — a neo-classicist poet and translator, one of the “five-man circle” of Kyiv neo-classicists, who had been living in exile in Germany since 1931; author of the collection “Caravels” and the epic “The Ashes of Empires,” an excerpt from which is also reprinted in this issue. Yakiv Hnyzdovskyi (1915–1985) — artist and art historian, who designed Arka from its first issue, here also appearing as an essayist.

Arka was published in Munich from July 1947 to May 1948 — eleven issues in nine volumes. Issue 6 for December 1947 — the last issue of the first year of publication: the journal still formally appeared as a supplement to the weekly Ukrainian Tribune under collective editorship, and only from the next issue, 1 (7) for January 1948, Yurii Sherekh took over sole editorship, and the journal de facto became a publication of the Ukrainian Artistic Movement. Complete annual volumes of Arka are absent from Ukrainian public libraries, and individual issues are rarely found on the market.