Book 490
Russian Legends: Folk Tales and Fairy Tales
Patty Wageman, ed.
Groninger Museum/NAi Publishers 2007
Published to accompany an exhibition by the same title at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands in 2007-08, this is a very cool book. With six essays by various curators and scholars and more than 90 illustrations, almost all in full color, by six famed artists working during the late-nineteenth to the early-twentieth centuries, this is an excellent look at interpretations of Russian folk and fairy tales. Featuring summaries of key tales and art by the great Ivan Bilibin (including one of my favorite pieces from “Vasilisa the Fair”), the marvelously expressionistic Elena Polenova, the wide-ranging boldness of Vasily Kandinsky, Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and Nikolai Roerikh, this is an excellent look at a seldomly examined subject.