This volume, a collaborative project undertaken by English, Latvian, and American scholars, constitutes a foundational text in many respects, introducing the intellectual and photographic work of Vladimir Markov to the English-speaking world. Despite the significance of his work, Markov, or Voldemārs Matvejs in his native Latvian, is little known. This is in part due to his untimely death in May 1914 at the age of 37, which meant among other things that his groundbreaking 1913–14 project on African art, Iskusstvo Negrov (Negro Art), was not published until 1919. The turbulent politics of twentieth-century Russian history also kept from view much of the art and writings of its avant-garde until the 1990s.
This publication opens with five essays introducing Markov. All three authors contribute to the introduction, which provides an excellent foundation for the aspects of Markov's life and work presented in this volume. Jeremy Howard follows with an essay...