Александра Экстер как живописец и художник сцены [Aleksandra Ekster as a Painter and Stage Designer], by Yakov Tugendhold. Berlin: Saria, 1922. Russian.
The earliest known monograph relating to Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (1882-1949), a Ukrainian-born avant-garde and cubo-futuristic painter, and stage and costume designer. Ekster was among the most notable of Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde artists. She lived and worked in a number of cities, among them Kiev, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, and Paris, and taught and influenced a host of artists, including Boris Aronson, Yisakhar Rybak, and Yitzhak Frenkel.
Four plates featuring her works (glued to the pages, three of them in color) appear in the main part of the book, while an additional 39 black-and-white plates are presented at the end of the book. These offer glimpses of Ekster's output in a number of different fields, namely painting, and costume and stage design.
The author, art critic Yakov Alexandrovich Tugendhold (1882-1928), was also responsible for the earliest Russian-language monograph relating to Marc Chagall, in addition to a wide variety of other art-related books. Among other things, he served as an expert adviser and purchaser for art collector Sergei Shchukin's renowned collection of Impressionist works.
32 pp. + [4] plates; 39 plates, 21.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears to edges of cover and first leaves. Minor creases and tears to cover and spine.
Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.