Synopses & Reviews
"Roger Benjamin is an art historian and field researcher in the very best sense. Thanks to his intense study of sources in archives, libraries, and museums, he counts among the most profound experts on the material in his field. Benjaminand#8217;s work not only provides us with a wealth of new knowledge but also helps us better understand the significance that Islamic culture and art held in the paintings of Kandinsky and Klee."and#151;Michael Baumgartner, Head of Collection/Exhibitions/Research, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
"Roger Benjaminand#8217;s study makes us examine againand#151;indeed, in many cases, for the first timeand#151;not just those works specific to Kandinskyand#8217;s and Kleeand#8217;s respective journeys to Tunisia but the lessons of those experiences and cultural encounters for modernist aesthetics as a whole."and#151;Luke Gartlan, Lecturer in Art History, University of St Andrews, Scotland
"Benjaminand#8217;s work is fascinating for an anthropologist of the Maghreb because his modest task (one carried out with prodigious erudition) is to gather the sum total of evidence on the conditions under which these excursions to Tunisia took place. His novel kind of postcolonial fieldwork, enriched with photographic documents, presents a persuasive new vision of art history."and#151;Franand#231;ois Pouillon, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Review
“This is a wonderful book.” Modern Language Review
Review
and#8220;This is a wonderful book.and#8221;
Synopsis
In the 1930s and 40s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectualsand#151;including Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenbergand#151;who had fled Nazi Germany. During their years in exile, they would produce a substantial body of major works to address the crisis of modernism that resulted from the rise of National Socialism. Weimar Germany and its culture, with its meld of eighteenth-century German classicism and twentieth-century modernism, served as a touchstone for this group of diverse talents and opinions.
Weimar on the Pacific is the first book to examine these artists and intellectuals as a group. Ehrhard Bahr studies selected works of Adorno, Horkheimer, Brecht, Lang, Neutra, Schindler, Dand#246;blin, Mann, and Schoenberg, weighing Los Angelesand#8217;s influence on them and their impact on German modernism. Touching on such examples as film noir and Thomas Mannand#8217;s Doctor Faustus, Bahr shows how this community of exiles reconstituted modernism in the face of the traumatic political and historical changes they were living through.
Synopsis
In the 1930s and '40s, Los Angeles became a cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals-- including Thomas Mann, Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenberg--who were fleeing Nazi Germany. During their exile they would produce major works to address the crisis of modernism that resulted from the rise of National Socialism. Weimar Germany and its culture provided common ground to this diverse group and served as a touchstone. "Weimar on the Pacific "is the first book to examine as a group the work and lives of these artists and intellectuals. Ehrhard Bahr studies selected works of Adorno, Horkheimer, Brecht, Lang, Neutra, Schindler, Doblin, Mann, and Schoenberg, weighing Los Angeles's influence on them and their impact on German modernism.
Synopsis
"Ehrhard Bahr's sophisticated introduction to the Los Angeles of the and#233;migrand#233;s from Nazi Germany is a quintessential 'Hollywood' book: brilliant in casting, sunny in disposition, with hidden film noir touches. Bahr's reading of the central books of this world, by Bert Brecht, Thomas Mann, Alfred Dand#246;blin, his insights into Fritz Lang's films and Arnold Schoenberg's operas, make this a major contribution to American, German and world culture."and#151;Sander L. Gilman, author of
Bertolt Brecht's Berlinand#147;At long last, and#233;migrand#233; Los Angeles has been interpreted from the inside by an accomplished scholar of modern German culture. Weimar on the Pacific is a study of relevance to California, the nation, and contemporary Europe.and#8221;and#151;Kevin Starr, Professor of History, University of Southern California
Synopsis
Paul Klee experienced his 1914 trip to Tunisia as a major breakthrough for his art: and#147;Color and I are one,and#8221; he famously wrote. and#147;I am a painter.and#8221; Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia sets the scene for Kleeand#8217;s breakthrough with a close study of the parallel voyage undertaken in 1904and#150;5 by Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Mand#252;nter, who would later become Klee's friends. This artist couple, then at an early stage in their celebrated careers, produced a rich body of painting and photography known only to specialists. Paul Kleeand#8217;s 1914 trip with August Macke and Louis Moilliet, in contrast, is a vaunted convergence of cubism and the exotic. Roger Benjamin refigures these two seminal voyages in terms of colonial culture and politics, the fabric of ancient Tunisian cities, visual ethnography, and the tourist photograph. The book looks closely at the cities of Tunis, Sousse, Hammamet, and Kairouan to flesh out a profound confrontation between European high modernism and the wealth of Islamic lifeways and architecture. Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia offers a new understanding of how the European avant-garde was formed in dialogue with cultural difference.
About the Author
Roger Benjamin is Professor of Art History at the University of Sydney. His notable publications include the prize-winning
Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880and#150;1930. In 1995 he co-curated
Matisse for the Queensland Art Gallery, and in 1997 his exhibition
Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He is former Director of the Power Institute at the University of Sydney.
Cristina Ashjian is an independent scholar based in New England, where she is chair of the Moultonborough Heritage Commission. She earned her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, London, and as German Chancellor Fellow at the University of Munich in 1995and#150;96 she researched her doctoral dissertation, and#147;Representing and#145;scand#232;nes et typesand#8217;: Wassily Kandinsky in Tunisia, 1904and#150;1905.and#8221; She has collaborated on the research for Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Revisiting Kairouan
Part 1: Kandinsky and Munter in Tunisia
1. and#147;Ellaand#8221; and and#147;Wassiand#8221;: The Lovers as Tourists
2. Kandinsky and the Ethno-Decorative: Working Negroes
3. Hotel Saint Georges and the Terrain Vague
4. Tunisian Decorative Art and the Belvedere Park
5. Modern Carthage
6. Carnivals and Fantasias
7. Open Space: Mosques and Marabouts
8. Compressed Space: Alleys and Arches
9. Arab City: Views of Sousse and Kairouan
10. Memories of the Maghreb and Arab Cemetery, 1909
Part 2: Klee, Macke, and Moilliet in Tunisia
11. Munichand#150;Tunis: A Bildungsreise
12. Pictures of Tunis, April 1914
13. The and#147;European Colonyand#8221; of St. Germain
14. A Crystalline Hammamet
15. The Holy City of Kairouan
16. S idi Sahabi and Land#8217;art populaire
17. The Walls of Kairouan
18. Mosque of the Sabers
19. North African Resonances, 1914and#150;1924
20. Conclusion: Navigating Colonial Cultures
Notes
Select Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index