Abstract. The article explores the relationship between modernist aesthetics and the area of children’s books production in Western Europe. Many leading Avant-garde artists and writers were involved in making books for the young audience. In this field they playfully experimented with radical (artistically and socially) ideas and often revealed such facets of their art that were not well articulated in their main works for adults. The infantile mindset of the Avant-garde as a whole was one of such features, and this aspect of European modernism is discussed in the article.

Key words: Avant-garde, Modernism, Western European art, children’s books, picturebooks, book design, book illustration, German art, French art, Russian émigré artists


Steiner Evgeny Semyonovich,
Doctor in Art History,
Principal Researcher of the Centre for Japanese Studies,
Russian Institute for Cultural Research (Moscow);
Professorial Research Associate,
Japan Research Centre,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London (United Kingdom),
e-mail: evenbach@gmail.com