Description
Book SynopsisThe political and social turmoil of the twentieth century took Magda Nachman from a privileged childhood in St. Petersburg at the close of the nineteenth century, artistic studies with Léon Bakst and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin at the Zvantseva Art Academy, and participation in the dynamic symbolist/modernist artistic ferment in pre-Revolutionary Russia to a refugee existence in the Russian countryside during the Russian Civil War followed by marriage to a prominent Indian nationalist, then with her husband to the hardships of émigré Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s, and finally to Bombay, where she established herself as an important artist and a mentor to a new generation of modern Indian artists.
Trade Review“The story of Magda Nachman is engaging, in parts sad too, but Lina Bernstein keeps the energy up and writing style lively like a fun, adventure story. That is what is so unique about this biography published by Academic Studies Press. … Holding a 276 paged (hence, hefty too) biography written by a real teacher and researcher, shows serious and sincere work. An inspiring read.”
—Ashish Mohan Khokar,
Narthaki“A lost artist worthy of rediscovery, [Magda Nachman] is of vital interest to Bombay. … [This] riveting narrative covers continents engulfed by cataclysmic events in defining epochs. Bernstein tells a tremendous story with compassion and confidence, its research crisscrossing America, Russia, Germany, and Bombay, Pune and Baroda in India.”
—Meher Marfatia, Mid-day
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface<
- 1. The Great Little Lady of the Bombay Art World
- 2. In Magda's Footsteps
- 3. Once There Was and Once There Was Not
- 4. The School and the Teacher
- 5. The Constellation Leo
6. Koktebel
- 7. The Revolutions of 1917 and Their Aftermath
- 8. The People's Theater at Ust′-Dolyssy
- 9. The Noskov Affair
- 10. M. P. T. Acharya
- 11. Exeunt Stage Left
- 12. The Emigrants
- 13. Bombay
- 14. A Case of Identity
- 15. In Quest of Magda's Paintings
- 16. A Kindred Spirit
- 17. In Memoriam
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
