“Degenerate Art”: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937. This New York exhibition revisits not only Germany’s ‘Degenerate Art’ show that destroyed so many artistic careers, but the Nazi rhetoric that made the exhibition possible. >review
(c) THE GUARDIAN, 2014
“Well, that was fast. At the beginning of the year, it seemed apt to meditate on the catastrophes of a century past, and on the chance that we might, once again, be passengers on some Titanic of history, with a small flaw in the hull opened by some unforeseen iceberg. And it seemed worth stressing that what had brought the ship down—in short, what made 1914 happen—was, above all, the vulnerability of open societies to the panicked appeal to honor and the fear of humiliation.” >full essay
(c) THE NEW YORKER, 2014
“From Moscow to London to New York, the Ukrainian revolution has been seen through a haze of propaganda.” >analysis by Yale historian Timothy Snyder
(c) NYROB, 2014
“After Slovenia decided in 1991 to leave the federation of Yugoslavia, the loss of the Yugoslav market and the transition to the new market economy led to the demise of many businesses. A few products remained in the people’s memory, however, and gave them security and a feeling of comfort. In the middle of the economic crisis, people look back wistfully on these retro products and the ‘good old days’ of Socialist Yugoslavia.” >analysis & photo (c) wieninternational.at 2014
“Whereas the affinities in literature and music between Vienna and Berlin have been the subject of in-depth study in recent years, there is still a lot of ground to be covered in the visual arts. This is a desideratum that the Berlinische Galerie and the Vienna Belvedere have sought to overcome in a large-scale exhibition organized by both museums.” >review & photos (c) wieninternational.at 2014
‘His book includes at least one Irish joke, which Freud (above) considered very interesting. It’s an old joke, from the 19th century. And it must be said that, while few witticisms remain funny after Freud has analysed them, this one was struggling even before it reached the couch.’ >full text (c) THE IRISH TIMES
“In recent years, the comic book genre has been applied to a wealth of graphic nonfiction for grownups, ranging from famous biographies to philosophy, but nowhere does the genre shine more exquisitely than in Freud — a magnificent biography-as-graphic-novel of the founding father of psychoanalysis by Swiss-born writer, economist, historian, and psychoanalyst Corinne Maier, illustrated by celebrated French cartoonist Anne Simon.”>full review (c) brainpickings.org 2014
“The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, were an infamously intrusive secret police force. They amassed dossiers on about one quarter of the population of the country during the Communist regime.” >text (c) truthdig 2014
>Other text on the Stasi (c) IRISH TIMES, 2014
“The following is a guest post from political scientists Keith Darden (American University) & Lucan Way (University of Toronto) addressing the question of who is protesting in Ukraine, and how much support do the protesters actually have. Their conclusion: Ukraine’s protests may not be driven by the far right, but they are not supported by a clear majority of Ukrainians … and neither is a turn toward Europe.” >full text (c) WASHINGTON POST, 2014
delirium clemens 