The Unknown Paintings of Kay Nielsen [antikvár]

Publisher's Note Kay Rasmus Nielsen was bom in Copenhagen in 1886, of distinguished parents. His mother, Oda Larssen, was a notable actress and his father. Professor Martinius Nielsen, also a classical actor, eventually became Director of the Royal Danish Theater. This theatrical and intellectual background exposed young Nielsen to a cultured, well-mannered and privileged world. Privately tutored from the age of twelve, he finally went to Paris to continue his study of art. Although strongly influenced by the morbid clarity of Beardsley and the spare, exquisitely terse Japanese woodcut landscapes, Kay Nielsen's powerful style resulted in work which was uniquely his own. As a mature artist, exhibitions of his paintings for several books were arranged in London, which had become a Mecca for the finest illustrators, and in New York. Back in Denmark he collaborated with Johannes Poulsen in spectacular productions for which Nielsen did the elaborately beautiful costumes and set designs. This partnership eventually took Nielsen to Hollywood, where, among other things, he did the Bald Mountain sequence for Disney's "Fantasia". But by this time illustration had gone out of fashion, and Nielsen's style, in particular, was too special and sophisticated for an increasingly plastic world. The commissions became fewer and fewer. Even in his native Denmark, to which he and his wife briefly returned in desperation, Nielsen's art was no longer wanted. The Golden Age of Illustrators had passed, and in 1957, in Los Angeles, Kay Nielsen died in artistic obscurity. But not without friends. He and his wife Ulla had formed close and lasting David Larkin London relationships in their adopted country. Those who loved the indomitable Danish couple also loved and respected the work of Kay Nielsen. After his death, Ulla gave to Hildegarde and Frederick Monhoff^ the illustrations Nielsen had done years before for a never published edition of "A Thousand and One Nights". The Monhoffs made many efforts to get these exquisite paintings placed, or to find some arrangement which would create the memorial to Nielsen that they now sought. They were frustrated. No museum, even in Denmark, would accept the paintings. But the Monhoffs carefully preserved and treasured their precious charge, until eventually, the quality of Nielsen's work was once again recognized. The public, no less than the publishers of this book, owes a debt to Frederick Monhoff and to Hildegarde Flanner Monhoff for their faith in the artist and their devoted care in preserving his work. It is a very great pleasure to acknowledge that debt and to discharge a small part of it by publishing these reproductions of the unknown work of Kay Nielsen. Mrs. Monhoff has selected the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to administer a fund set up from the proceeds earned by this volume, for the benefit of promising artists. The "Elegy" by Hildegarde Flanner Monhoff which follows speaks eloquently of the quality of the relationship between the Monhoffs and the Nielsens — a relationship which has been instrumental in at last bringing recognition to the memory of Kay Nielsen, and no less to gallant Ulla, who loved and supported and upheld him. Ian and Betty Ballantine Bearsville, New York