Anarchy and Art

Allan Antliff
Anarchy and Art. From the Paris Commune to the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Arsenal Pulp Press : Vancouver, 2007)
224 pp.
ISBN: 1551522187 / ISBN13: 9781551522180
Publishers Page.

In numerous essays, Allan Antliff interrogates moments of engagement when artists, poets, philosophers, and critics have confronted pivotal events over the past 140 years. The survey begins with artist Gustave Courbet and writer Emile Zola's activism during the 1871 Paris Commune (which established the modern-day French republic), and ends with an examination of anarchist art during the fall of the Soviet empire. Other subjects include the Neo-Impressionists and their depictions of the homeless in the 1890s; the Dada movement in New York City during World War I; the decline of the Russian Avant-Garde during the 1920s and 30s; the West Coast Beats of the 1940s and 50s; the Modernists of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s; and anarchistic responses to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by visual artists.

Reviewed by Irene Gammel for bookforum.

Also by Allan Antliff:
* Avant-garde Fascism. The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909-1939 (Durham DC 2007)
* Anarchist Modernism. Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde (Vancouver 2004)
* The Culture of Revolt. Art and Anarchism in America, 1908-1920, dissertation, accepted by the University of Delaware (1998)
* Making Mischief. Dada Invades New York / by Francis M. Naumann, Beth Venn, Allan Antliff (New York 1996)

Avant-Garde and Criticism

Avant-Garde and Criticism
Klaus Beekman and Jan de Vries (Eds.)
Amsterdam/New York NY, 2007
361 pp.
ISBN 978-90-420-2152-5
Series: Avant-Garde Critical Studies 21

Table of Contents:

• Klaus BEEKMAN and Jan de VRIES: Introduction. Criticism and Avant-Garde
• Jean-Roch BOUILLER: Art Criticism and Avant-Garde: André Lhote’s Written Works
• Ben REBEL: Architectural Criticism in de 8 en OPBOUW
• Ansje van BEUSEKOM: Theo van Doesburg and Writings on Film in De Stijl
• Peter G.F. EVERSMANN: The International Theatre Exhibition of 1922 and the Critics
• Nico LAAN: The Making of a Reputation: the Case of Cobra
• Hugo VERDAASDONK: Avant-Garde Reviewing of New Book Releases. A Case Study from The Netherlands
• Willem G. WESTSTEIJN: Mayakovsky as Literary Critic
• Gregor LANGFELD: German Art in The Netherlands before and after World War II
• Arie HARTOG: Banality in Art Criticism. Comments on the Reception of Art in the German Daily Press of the 1920s
• Hubert F. van den BERG: A Victorious Campaign for Dadaism? On the Press Coverage of the Dutch Dada Tour of 1923
• Klaus BEEKMAN: The Inevitability of Argumentative Criticism. Theo van Doesburg and the Constructive Review
• Ralf GRÜTTEMEIER: On Intentionality and Avant-Garde Criticism
• Wiljan van den AKKER and Gillis DORLEIJN: Resistance to the Avant-Garde. Criticism of the Avant-Garde in Dutch Literary Periodicals
• Sabine van WESEMAEL: Dutch Contemporaries on Proust and the Historic Avant-Garde
• Hestia BAVELAAR: The Writing Artists of the Magazine Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur (Chronicle of Art and Culture) in the Period 1935-1941

Read more on the page of the publisher and Amazon.com [search inside].

Picabia - Poetry, Prose, and Provocation

Francis Picabia
I Am a Beautiful Monster. Poetry, Prose, and Provocation
Translated by Marc Lowenthal
The MIT Press : Cambridger MA, September 30, 2007
560 pp. ISBN-10: 0262162431 / ISBN-13: 978-0262162432

Very little of Picabia's poetry and prose has been translated into English, and his literary experiments have never been the subject of close critical study. I Am a Beautiful Monster is the first definitive edition in English of Picabia's writings, gathering a sizable array of Picabia's poetry and prose and, most importantly, providing a critical context for it with an extensive introduction and detailed notes by the translator.
I Am a Beautiful Monster provides the texts of all of Picabia's significant publications, his books Fifty-two Mirrors, Poems and Drawings of the Daughter Born without a Mother, Purring Poetry, Unique Eunuch, Yes No, Chi-lo-sa, Thoughts without Language, and others, all presented complete, many of them accompanied by their original illustrations.

Hannah Höch - Aller Anfang ist Dada

This exhibition is devoted to the probably most significant female German artist of the classical modern period: Hannah Höch. Her œuvre has recently found new international recognition and Höch, who was particularly famous for her collages, will now be honoured with a major show again. This will be the first exhibition in her home city of Berlin for more than 15 years. Around 160 works drawn from all her creative periods will showcase the extraordinary variety of her artistic production, which always kept pace with the latest techniques of her time.

Hannah Höch - Aller Anfang ist Dada, Berlinische Galerie Berlin (April 6 to July 2, 2007). Press Release (English). Catalogue available (see image). Video Interview with curator Ralf Burmeister.