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[KIRILL ZDANEVICH’S TRIBUTE TO NIKO PIROSMANI] Niko Pirosmani: [Khudozhnik-samouchka: Monografiya] [i.e. Niko Pirosmani: [A Self-Taught Artist: Monograph]

Zdanevich, K.

Item #2168

Tbilisi: Literatura i iskusstvo, 1963. 139 pp., 20 full-page black-and-white ill. 20,4x13,7 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated cardboards. Worn edges, eight pages detached, but otherwise in a very good condition.

Scarce. First edition. 1 of 5,000 copies. Edited by G. Bebutov. Design by Kirill Zdanevich. 20 black-and-white reproductions of Pirosmani’s works and related documents by the Tbilisi-based photographer Igor Gil’gendorf (1912-2012). Text in Russian.
A monograph on the self-taught Georgian primitivist painter Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) written by avant-garde artist Kirill Zdanevich (1892-1969) shortly after his release from imprisonment and only two years before the resolution of the decades-long conflict with his elder brother, Ilia. The book came out in Tbilisi in 1963, marking a thaw in the artistic life of the USSR and symbolically concluding Kirill’s long-standing exploration of Pirosmani’s work.
Kirill, Ilia, and artist Mikhail Le Dantu famously discovered Pirosmani’s works in a Tbilisi wine cellar in 1912. Ilia later met Pirosmani in person, inspiring the trio to actively collect and promote his art through numerous publications and exhibitions. After the Bolsheviks took power, Ilia emigrated to France, while Kirill remained in Georgia. Over time, Kirill was pressured to donate their vast collection of Pirosmani’s works to the state museum, igniting a decades-long rift between the brothers. From the 1930s, Kirill faced increasing political pressure that stifled his artistic output and shifted his focus primarily to stage design. In 1948, he was arrested for the possession of a whiskey bottle and sentenced to 10 years in the Dubrava camp in Mordovia for his “anti-Soviet activities” and "formalist" views. It was not until 1963 that Kirill finally shared his recollections of the artist, and a year later, reunited with Ilia, ending their 34-year long estrangement.
In the book, the author recounts his trip to Tbilisi and the first encounter with Niko’s paintings at the local taverna Varyag: “We stood before something truly phenomenal; we saw something we never even dreamed of” (p. 55). Kirill vividly describes meeting the "shy but proud" artist and explains how he, Ilia, and other like-minded enthusiasts—Ziga Valishevsky, Irakli Gamrekeli, Kolau Chernyavsky, among others—worked with local tavern owners to collect Niko’s works. The book also explores the 1913/1914 and 1916 exhibitions of Niko’s paintings, his visit to the Society of Georgian Artists, and his pro-revolutionary sentiments. Zdanevich's personal reflections are further enriched by biographical details, analysis of Pirosmani’s art, and excerpts from Ilia Zdanevich’s personal diary documenting their encounters with the artist.
The edition is supplemented with twenty black-and-white reproductions of Niko’s works, including “Peasant with his Son,” “Girl with a Balloon,” “Actress Margarita,” “Giraffe,” “The Yard-Keeper,” and “Deer.”
Overall, a monograph on Pirosmani written by one of his discoverers and symbolically concluding Zdanevich’s long-standing study of Niko’s work.

Worldcat shows copies of the edition at MIT Libraries, Columbia University, Library of Congress, Ohio State University of Libraries, University of Wisconsin, University of Miami, UC Berkeley Libraries, University of Illinois, and University of Kentucky.

Price: $650.00

Status: On Hold