Book Description

This book documents the life and work of Emma Bormann (1887-1974), a remarkable Austrian painter and printmaker. Early in her career she developed a distinctive, individual style that combined respect for the craft of woodcut with a modern sensibility and a strong artistic vision, dynamism, and energy. Bormann traveled widely in Europe and Asia from the 1920s to the end of her life. She spent the years 1939 to 1950 in China, mostly in Shanghai. Following a brief return to Europe, she lived in Tokyo, Japan and Riverside, California. Among her favorite subjects were panoramic city views, crowded streets and squares, and the interiors of theaters, opera houses, concert halls, and circuses. She exhibited frequently during her lifetime, and today her prints are in many collections, including the Albertina in Vienna, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This book is the most comprehensive publication to date about this outstanding artist of the twentieth century.