Chapter 2. Einar Nerman – From the picturebook page to the avant-garde stage
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Elina Druker
Abstract
This chapter analyzes recurring motifs and techniques in the Swedish artist Einar Nerman’s picturebooks Crow’s Dream (1911) and Knight Finn Komfusenfej (1923). By comparing Nerman’s books for children with his caricatures, dance and theatre productions during the 1910s and 1920s, an interaction between different media, but also between mass culture and the avant-garde, is demonstrated. The article shows that Nerman’s innovative picturebooks are influenced by international commercial graphic design and that his books for children also function as a starting point for new ideas that are transmitted to other areas of art like modern dance performances or stage design.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes recurring motifs and techniques in the Swedish artist Einar Nerman’s picturebooks Crow’s Dream (1911) and Knight Finn Komfusenfej (1923). By comparing Nerman’s books for children with his caricatures, dance and theatre productions during the 1910s and 1920s, an interaction between different media, but also between mass culture and the avant-garde, is demonstrated. The article shows that Nerman’s innovative picturebooks are influenced by international commercial graphic design and that his books for children also function as a starting point for new ideas that are transmitted to other areas of art like modern dance performances or stage design.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Table of figures vii
- Introduction 1
-
Vanguard tendencies since the beginning of the twentieth century
- Chapter 1. John Ruskin and the mutual influences of children’s literature and the avant-garde 19
- Chapter 2. Einar Nerman – From the picturebook page to the avant-garde stage 45
- Chapter 3. Sándor Bortnyik and an interwar Hungarian children’s book 65
- Chapter 4. The forgotten history of avant-garde publishing for children in early twentieth-century Britain 89
-
The Impact of the Russian avant-garde
- Chapter 5. The square as regal infant 113
- Chapter 6. The 1929 Amsterdam exhibition of early Soviet children’s picturebooks 137
- Chapter 7. Rupture. Ideological, aesthetic, and educational transformations in Danish picturebooks around 1933 171
- Chapter 8. Mirror images 189
-
Postbellum avant-garde children’s books
- Chapter 9. Manifestations of the avant-garde and its legacy in French children’s literature 217
- Chapter 10. Just what is it that makes Pop Art picturebooks so different, so appealing? 241
- Chapter 11. Surrealism for children 267
- About the editors and contributors 285
- Subject Index 289
- Name Index 293
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Table of figures vii
- Introduction 1
-
Vanguard tendencies since the beginning of the twentieth century
- Chapter 1. John Ruskin and the mutual influences of children’s literature and the avant-garde 19
- Chapter 2. Einar Nerman – From the picturebook page to the avant-garde stage 45
- Chapter 3. Sándor Bortnyik and an interwar Hungarian children’s book 65
- Chapter 4. The forgotten history of avant-garde publishing for children in early twentieth-century Britain 89
-
The Impact of the Russian avant-garde
- Chapter 5. The square as regal infant 113
- Chapter 6. The 1929 Amsterdam exhibition of early Soviet children’s picturebooks 137
- Chapter 7. Rupture. Ideological, aesthetic, and educational transformations in Danish picturebooks around 1933 171
- Chapter 8. Mirror images 189
-
Postbellum avant-garde children’s books
- Chapter 9. Manifestations of the avant-garde and its legacy in French children’s literature 217
- Chapter 10. Just what is it that makes Pop Art picturebooks so different, so appealing? 241
- Chapter 11. Surrealism for children 267
- About the editors and contributors 285
- Subject Index 289
- Name Index 293
