Vilis Ciesnieks, designer.

Mākslinieku biedrība “Zal̦ā Vārna”: 15. mākslas izstāde. Rīgā, pilsētas mākslas muzejā. 10. IX – 24. IX 1933. gadā [The “Green Crow” Artists Association: 15th art exhibition. Riga, at the City Art Museum, September 10 – September 24, 1933].

Riga: Drukatava “Dzintars”, [1933]. Small square octavo (14 × 14.3 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers by Vilis Ciesnieks; [36] pp. Six black-and-white reproductions. Wrappers lightly soiled and toned; small chip to corner of rear wrapper; still about very good. Item #P003964

Rare catalog for the “Green Crow” Art Association’s fifteenth exhibition, held at the Riga City Art Museum in September 1933. With an attractive black and white wrapper design by Vilis Ciesnieks (1908–1989), the Latvian and later American painter and graphic artist, who studied under N. Puzyrevskii in Riga. He was subjected to prosecution by the German Nazi occupiers, who considered his art “degenerate”, and finally moved to Brussels in 1944 and eventually settled in Chicago in 1959, where he worked as an illustrator, poster designer, and commercial artist. The exhibition included works by Ciesnieks, as well as by Olgerts Ābelīte, Kārlis Baltgailis, Leonīds Banga, Karlis Celmins, Aleksandrs Junkers, Eduards Karitons, Vilis Mednis, Nikolajs Linde, Fridrichs Milts, Aleksandrs Petersons, Pavils Puzinas, and numerous others. With six black-and-white reproductions. Ciesnieks is less well-known as an avant-garde book designer, but the present effort relies on a strikingly dynamic combination of innovative modernist lettering with slanted fonts and a tilted image. Not in Fraser 2014, which depicts the 1933 almanach of the “Green Crow” association as well as a striking avant-garde exhibition poster (L385, p. 162).

As of December 2023, not in KVK, OCLC.

Price: €750.00

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