Thus, a subtly rendered, thoroughly informed, and important examination of one of the least-understood aspects of the Third...
A consistently startling and intellectually rich account that throws light upon the largely obscured players in the art world of Nazi Germany—exploring their moral equivocations, their roles in aiding the Reich, and their generally lenient fates.
Petropoulos (Art as Politics in the Third Reich, not reviewed) notes that the actions of many German artists and intellectuals during the Reich confound expectations (shared then by the Allies) that such figures were likelier to “behave in a more scrupulous and humane fashion,” and he presents a number of scrupulous studies of individuals who struck the “deal with the devil . . . for greatness and in pursuit of a lofty ideal.” He endeavors first to piece together, through personalized narrative, some understanding of why these individuals accommodated the Nazis, and then to show how the German art world’s close-knit, complex web of competition and profit ultimately provided cultural legitimacy (as well as aesthetic and financial support) for the regime’s genocidal politics. To this end, Petropoulos examines representative figures from among museum directors, art dealers, journalists, historians, and artists, according in-depth coverage to such key Nazi associates as Walter Hofer (Göring’s personal dealer) and Arno Breker (Hitler’s favorite sculptor). Though one might assign avaricious or self-preserving motives to these art-world professionals, the range of their Nazi-related deeds is a sobering indictment of true fervor; Petropoulos documents activities ranging from the blackballing of Jews and leftists to the confiscation (for destruction or covert sale) of “degenerate” art to the organized plundering of art from all Nazi-occupied countries. Yet most of these well-connected art professionals were treated lightly in de-nazification proceedings, and most resumed their careers with varying degrees of informal approbation. An especially dark theme here concerns the fervor of top Nazis for art collecting and patronage; it offers a more disturbingly nuanced configuration of the supposed “banality of evil” schematic that makes Nazism easier to comprehend.
Thus, a subtly rendered, thoroughly informed, and important examination of one of the least-understood aspects of the Third Reich.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-19-512964-4
Page Count: 395
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.
A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.
Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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