Short-lived print-publishing venture, established in 1921, when Rikola, a large, newly founded commercial publishing group headed by Austrian financier Richard Kola, acquired Verlag Neuer Graphik, a small print publisher founded by young art historian and fledgling art dealer Otto Nirenstein. Nirenstein served as director of both Rikola's art division and its special imprint Verlag Neuer Graphik, which focused on bibliophile print editions, including the posthumously published portfolio The Graphic Work of Egon Schiele (1922). In November 1923 Nirenstein canceled his contract with Rikola and opened his own gallery, Neue Galerie, also in Vienna; continued publishing as Johannes-Verlag (named after his son), issuing prints and illustrated books by contemporary artists, including Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, and Hugo Steiner-Prag, among others. Nirenstein, who changed his name to Kallir-Nirenstein in 1933, was forced to sell his business in 1938, and fled from the Nazis via Switzerland to France. He opened Galerie St. Etienne in Paris in early 1939, and in fall of the same year relocated it to New York, where it remains a leading source for Austrian and German Expressionism. The Rikola group collapsed after the Austrian economy stabilized in 1925, and ultimately dissolved in 1929.

Selected Bibliography

Hall, Murray G. Österreichische Verlagsgeschichte 1918–1938. vol. 2. Vienna: Böhlau, 1985.

Kallir, Jane. Austria's Expressionism. New York: Galerie St. Etienne and Rizzoli, 1981.