Customer Reviews

Artists of World War II (Artists of an Era)

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Barbara McCloskey's book is a very good summary of international artistic reaction to WWII. It is a series of short but detailed and insightful summaries of artistic production and its relationship to the WWII in the countries that most prominently fought the war -- England, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, China and Japan -- followed by more in-depth essays on particular artists from each country. There is also material on Spanish art, incuding Picasso and the Spanish Civil War, a precursor of WWII. The chapters about China and Japan shed light on previously obscure material from those countries and the material on Western artists may challenge what you think you know about their politics and behavior during the war--who spoke out against the Nazis, who sat mute, who suffered and who profited.

This is such a good discussion of WWII artists that I'm sort of puzzled by the previous reviewer's comments; it's as if s/he is criticizing the author for not writing a different book rather than evaluating the one the author wrote. Really the single fault of the book is the relative lack of images. There are a number of color plates, but the author was apparently unable to secure the rights to some of the images she discusses. She gives citations to where they can be found, but, of course, it would have been nice to have them there to refer to.

All in all, highly recommended.

This is a weak overview for people who know nothing about art. One could write 3-4 books on the info left out of this book. A big letdown. Didn't cover U.S. art during the war in any meaningful way.