Midler, V[iktor Markovich], introduction.

[AVANT-GARDE – SOVIET ART – EXHIBITION CATALOG] Vystavka proizvedenii khudozhnikov gruppy “Bubnovyi valet”. Mart 1927 [Exhibition of works of artists of the “Jack of Diamonds” group. March 1927].

Moscow: Izdanie Gosudarstvennoi Tretiakovskoii Galerei, 1927. Octavo (21.3 × 14.8 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; 15, [1] pp. Small chips to wrapper edges, else very good. Item #54406

A catalog of the Soviet exhibition of the avant-garde “Jack of Diamonds” group at the State Tretiakov Gallery, including the work of artists such as Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, and Aristarkh Lentulov, with the introduction by the artist and curator Viktor Midler (1888–1979). A retrospective exhibition showing nearly 70 works of 8 artists from 1910–1925, the exhibition was the last of its kind in the early Soviet period, shortly before the works of this avant-garde circle of artists were labeled “formalist”, and removed from gallery walls into storage for decades to come. Founded in 1911, the “Jack of Diamonds” group shocked Russian polite society with its distorted images, inspired by a mixture of French cubism, German expressionism, and Russian folk motifs found in "lubok" illustrations. The introduction to the catalog by the curator Viktor Midler notes the leftist leanings of the artists of this group, and argues for the importance of their aesthetics to contemporary Soviet painting. Midler was a graduate of the Odessa Technical Art School (1913), who went on to work in the workshops of avant-garde artists such as Aleksandr Kuprin, Vladimir Tatlin, and Robert Falk, before shifting to museum and preservation work. In 1923–1929 he headed the Modern Art Department of the Tretiakov Gallery. In this position he oversaw the acquisition of the works of Russian avant-garde artists, and managed to organize exhibitions of the symbolist artist Pavel Kuznetsov, the avant-garde painter Robert Falk, as well as retrospectives of “The Blue Rose” group, and the “Jack of Diamonds” group. Exhibited artists include Natalia Goncharova, Petr Konchalovskii, Aleksandr Kuprin, Mikhail Larionov, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ilia Mashkhov, Vasilii Rozhdestvenskii, Robert Fal’k. One of 500 copies.

As of April 2024 KVK, OCLC show four copies in North America.

Price: €750.00

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