15. BELSKII, Leonid Petrovich (translator). Kalevala. Finskii narodnyi epos [The Kalevala. The Finnish Folk Epic]. Moscow and Leningrad: Academia, 1933. 331 pp. 8vo (250 x 185 mm). Edited by D. V. Bubrikh. Foreword by I. M. Maiskii. Illustrated by Tatyana Glebova, Alisa Poret, Mikhail Tsibasov, and other students of Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. Original violet cloth, blocked with a decorative design in red and purple, dust jacket. Condition: slight cockling to first and last few leaves; dust-jacket slightly discolored and with small tears and chips to extremities.
important illustrated book by the filonov school in the rare dust jacket. Russian translation of the Finnish national folk epic first published in 1835. John Bowlt has called Filonov (1883-1941) "one of the most original and enigmatic artists of the Russian avant-garde." In his search for his own distinctive style he called Ideology of Analytical Art and the Theory of Madeness, Filonov never quite fit into any prevalent school of modern painting and as a consequence drew idelogical hostility from his colleagues. He broke all the rules. He was eventually expelled from the Academy of Arts in 1927 for "corrupting his colleagues with his paintings." His one-man exhibition at the State Russian Museum in 1929 was not allowed to open. Nevertheless he inspired a new generation of Soviet artists who continued to work in his style until Social Realism finally suppressed all other schools of art.
est. $3000 – $5000
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