Neue Kunst in Estland – Estonian avant-garde art

Uue kunsti raamat. Neue Kunst in Estland. L’art nouveau en Estonie. Eesti Kunstnikkude Ryhma almanak [Almanac of the Estonian Artists’ Group].

Edited by Märt Laarman.

Tallinn: Eesti Kunstnikkude Ryhm, 1928.

80 pp. Tipped-in color frontispiece,  sixty four pages of black-and-white reproductions.

22 x 18 cm. Original pictorial wrappers by Märt Laarman.

sold

First and only edition of Laarman’s important “New Book of Art,” a representative overview of Estonian avant-garde art, sculpture, and architecture meant to propagate these new forms both domestically and abroad. The EKR was one of the main organizations propagating cubo-futurist tendencies in Estonia throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. With an introduction by the editor, Estonian artist Märt Laarman, as well as summaries in French and German. The numerous illustrations, on sixty-four pages, showcase the best cubist and constructivist paintings, woodcuts, decorative arts, stage design and sculpture produced in Estonia at the time, by artists such as Felix Johansen, Eduard Ole, Edmond Arnold Blumenfeldt, Arnold Akberg, and Laarman himself. At the time, in fact, the book led to some international recognition for the new Estonian art: “Laarman ensured that copies were sent to influential artists and art critics across Europe, with the art historian Michel Seuphor and Theo van Doesburg being amongst those to receive copies. The Book of New Art made an impact on the de Stijl movement’s leader, for, as Mai Levin recounts, he praised it in terms of design quality and content, and included a favorable review in his own journal” Quoted after: Penka Rare Books, Berlin 2017.

Untrimmed, partly uncut copy. The unprinted back of the cover with narrow waterstains, inside clean and fresh copy.