Raamat kaasneb Kumu kunstimuuseumi näitusega „Kurja lillede lapsed. Eesti dekadentlik kunst” (09.09.2017–25.02.2018). Tegu on intrigeeriva käsitlusega 20. sajandi alguse loojaskonna otsingutest ja reaktsioonidest muutuvale ja moderniseeruvale maailmale. Omavahel on võrdlevasse seosesse toodud kirjandus ja kujutav kunst, Euroopa metropolide kriitiline ja blaseerunud loojaskond ning esimene põlvkond eesti haritlasi. Charles Baudelaire tähelepanuväärsete luuleridade taustal saavad nähtavaks Friedebert Tuglase, August Gailiti, Johannes Semperi, Erik Obermanni, Eduard Wiiralti, Konrad Mägi, Nikolai Triigi ning paljude teiste eesti kirjameeste ja kunstnike suhe ajastu moesõnaga „dekadents” ning nende loomingu melanhoolsem, seksuaalsem, (enese)hävituslikum ja haiglasem külg. Seejuures ei ole käesoleva näituse- ja raamatuprojekti eesmärgiks niivõrd üksikute kunstnike isiku- ja loomelugude jutustamine, kuivõrd 20. sajandi sajandi alguse loojaskonna dekadentliku vaimsuse üldisem analüüs. Nii on pildimaterjali valiku näol tegemist laia visuaalkultuurilise uurimusega, mis hõlmab märkimisväärset ringi eesti kunstnikke ning hulgaliselt töid just kirjanduse ja kunsti piirimaadelt – graafikat, raamatuillustratsiooni, eksliibrisekunsti. Paljud siia raamatusse jõudnud teosed on Eesti kunstikirjutuses avastuslikud ja tuuakse reproduktsioonidena laiema publiku ette esimest korda. Children of the Flowers of Evil. Estonian Decadent Art Edited by Mirjam Hinrikus, Lola Annabel Kass and Liis Pählapuu Texts by Mirjam Hinrikus and Lola Annabel Kass Designed by Angelika Schneider 240 pp. In Estonian, summary in English, illustrated Published by the Art Museum of Estonia – Kumu Art Museum Tallinn 2017 ISBN 978-9949-485-68-0 The book accompanies the exhibition Children of the Flowers of Evil. Estonian Decadent Art at the Kumu Art Museum (09.09.2017–25.02.2018). This project is an intriguing study of the searches of creatively active people at the beginning of the 20th century, and their reactions to the changing and modernising world. Comparative links between literature and fine arts have been established, and the critical and blasé artists and writers of European metropolises and the first generation of Estonian intelligentsia have been juxtaposed. Charles Baudelaire’s authoritative poems serve as the background against which the attitudes and approaches of a number of Estonian writers and artists, including Friedebert Tuglas, August Gailit, Johannes Semper, Erik Obermann, Eduard Wiiralt, Konrad Mägi and Nikolai Triik, to the fashionable word of the time, “decadence”, become evident. Light is also shed on the more melancholy, sexual, (self-)destructive and sickly aspects of their creative work. The aim of this exhibition and book, however, is not to retell the story of the life and work of a few artists, but rather to provide a more general analysis of the decadent spirit of early-20th-century art and literary circles. Thus, the choice of materials for this exhibition is, in fact, a broad visual-cultural study embracing a noteworthy number of Estonian artists and involving a large number of works from the cross-over area between art and literature: prints, book illustrations and book plates. A number of works that ended up being reproduced in this book have never been discussed in Estonian art history before, and this is the first time they are presented to the general public.