Ellen Chances

This book looks back on the Russian art magazine, Mir iskusstva(1898-1904), that looks at the art and culture around this movement.

I do not know if this book is a companion to an exhibit of some kind but I found the first few sections, The “World of Art” and the World of Culture, The “World of Art”, the Context of Russian Literature and The “World of Art” and Music made very little sense to me and most of it felt out of context.
There was a lot of name dropping and referencing various pieces of art and culture that meant nothing to me so was a stuggle to get through. If you don't already know who and what they are talking about, there is not much in these sections to make reading enjoyable.

The main reason I bought this book was for the art, and that part did not let me down.
The physical quality of the book and paper is excellent and the color plates of the artwork are gorgeous, the colors and details are amazing and there are tons of them in every imaginable style of art. Each piece has a description with it, where you are given details about the work, technique/materials and the artist who created it. Each description gives you insight into the artist's cultural world at the time and is well worth reading.

The book is worth getting just for the art, there are some interesting tidbits in the front text sections but they can be skipped if you know nothing about the time period going into it.… (meer)