The 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 Leon 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 emigre 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.

About the Author

Dr. Lina Bernstein taught Russian and comparative literature at Franklin & Marshall College. She is the author of Gogol's Last Book and numerous articles on Russian art, literature, and culture. She recently curated an online exhibit on Magda Nachman for Moscow's State Museum of Oriental Cultures and is preparing a Russian-language version of Magda Nachman: An Artist in Exile.

Reviews
"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

"What a story! An epic tale of Bernstein's passionate search for Magda Nachman, an artist whose life was an achievement on the order of her marvelous painting. Biography at its finest, Magda Nachman: An Artist in Exile draws the reader along on a gripping and rewarding saga that takes the teller from Russia to Berlin to London to Bombay, to find an artist who persevered in her art despite almost insurmountable odds. Beautifully written, Bernstein's book has the immediacy of a novel."

- Mary V. Dearborn, author of Hemingway: A Biography and Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim

Book Information
ISBN 9781644692684
Author Lina Bernstein
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint Academic Studies Press
Publisher Academic Studies Press