The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man”
Edited by Jean Clair
National Gallery of Canada (June 2008)
396 pp 210 col. ill. 11.5 x 9 in softcover
978-0-88884-853-6
$70.00 Can.
$75.00 U.S. (56 euros)
The role of art in the rise of totalitarian ideologies is the focus of an international group of scholars and curators whose goal - unlike other publications on the period - is not to expose the ties between art and power, but to go to the heart of that power : biology. By focusing on the period’s fascination with biology, they compare two impacted areas: the arts, where the idea of metamorphosis produced an aesthetic revival; and politics, where the struggle to bring about a eugenic and racist renewal had unprecedented consequences for society.
Highlighting the enormous stylistic diversity and sociopolitical complexity of the decade, this thematically-driven publication takes the form of a story in nine episodes. The complexity is reflected in the works of the artists who dealt with the dramatic upheavals of the times according to their personal convictions, fears, hopes or disappointments. Richly illustrated with works by, notably, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Ernst, August Sander, Alexander Rodchenko, Lisette Model, Jean Arp, Jackson Pollock, Walker Evans, Diego Rivera and many more.
Visually charged with representations of the most provocative art of the times and rich with documentation on the decade's nightmarish events, this magnificant tome bursts with insights into an era marked by social re-education, racial purification and scientific experimentation. Artists were revolutionaries, collaborators, exiles or victims.
Contributors include: Éric Michaud, author of The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany (Stanford University Press) ; Sander L. Gilman, author of Freud, Race and Gender (Princeton University Press) ; Didier Ottinger of the Centre Pompidou, Paris ; and Jean Clair, former director of the Musée Picasso, Paris.
Go Back / Order Form
