Dubin (Sociology/SUNY at Purchase) offers an involving and evenhanded analysis of the ongoing confrontation between taboo- breaking artists and traditionalists bent on maintaining the status quo. The author skillfully organizes his wide-ranging material into such categories as sexual content in art, and race, religion, and patriotism as themes of the postmodernist cultural milieu. In the process, he recaps the furor raised by such well-publicized works as David K. Nelson's inflammatory portrait of late Chicago mayor Harold Washington in women's underwear, Robert Mapplethorpe's homoerotic photographs, and Andres Serrano's ``blasphemous'' Piss Christ. Dubin provides background details that place these controversies in historical context, tracing the careers of such homosexual artists as Marsden Hartley and Charles Demuth, for example. The author also delves into just why Marcel Duchamp's dictum—that whatever an artist produces is art—fails to convince conservative critics, especially when one such ``artist,'' Karen Finley, makes her artistic/political statements by slathering her body with chocolate, cinnamon candies, and alfalfa sprouts. And to his credit, Dubin conveys both the pros and the cons concerning the use of taxpayers' money to fund the National Endowment for the Arts. Accessible and paced with page-turning immediacy—an excellent overview of what happens when the avant-garde art world meets the conservative right. (Illustrations—25 b&w, two color—some seen.)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-415-90435-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Routledge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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