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Overview
How might artistic practice offer unique insight into the cataclysmic debacle of war? Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War plumbs this provocative question through an ambitious account of a pivotal period in European cultural history. The book focuses on the relation between artistic endeavor and politics during a period of social crisis. By scrutinizing the widely varying responses to the Spanish Civil War in the work of Miró, Dalí, Caballero, Masson, and Picasso, the author investigates Surrealism’s efforts to bridge the divide between political thought and political act.Robin Adèle Greeley examines such central works as Miró’s Still Life with Old Shoe and Dalí’s Autumn Cannibalism in the context of contemporary works and historical events. She also examines such topics as Surrealism’s flirtations with fascism, the movement’s relations with the Communist Party and the Popular Front, and the distinct development of Spanish versus French Surrealism. She concludes with an in-depth discussion of Picasso’s Guernica.
Synopsis
How might artistic practice offer unique insight into the cataclysmic debacle of war? Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War plumbs this provocative question through an ambitious account of a pivotal period in European cultural history. The book focuses on the relation between artistic endeavor and politics during a period of social crisis. By scrutinizing the widely varying responses to the Spanish Civil War in the work of Miró, Dalí, Caballero, Masson, and Picasso, the author investigates Surrealism’s efforts to bridge the divide between political thought and political act.
Robin Adèle Greeley examines such central works as Miró’s Still Life with Old Shoe and Dalí’s Autumn Cannibalism in the context of contemporary works and historical events. She also examines such topics as Surrealism’s flirtations with fascism, the movement’s relations with the Communist Party and the Popular Front, and the distinct development of Spanish versus French Surrealism. She concludes with an in-depth discussion of Picasso’s Guernica.
Library Journal
Greeley (art history & Latin American studies, Univ. of Connecticut; reviews editor, Art Journal) gives thoughtful consideration to war and its impact on the artistic process. Through well-researched insights and careful speculation into the work of Spanish artists some but not all of them surrealists during the country's civil war, she fleshes out the notion of what it is to "imagine a politics through visual imagery." In-depth analyses of works by Joan Mir , Andr Masson, Salvador Dal , Jos Caballero, and Pablo Picasso illustrate each artist's struggle with good and evil, exploration of various annihilations of self, and attempts to re-create a reality for themselves and others. The "success" or "failure" of the works is explained and a method of coping with the tragedies of human existence becomes more evident. Ultimately, the artists and the author echo a call to humanity in such times of great distress, and this is certainly a timely message. Recommended strongly for library collections specializing in art history, government, and/or psychology as well as for larger public libraries. Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.