Buy used:

$18.00

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Monday, July 26 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by usedbooks2ya

Fulfilled by Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Totalitarian Art in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Fascist Italy, and the People's Republic of China Hardcover – October 1, 1990

by Igor Golomstock (Author)

9 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$29.00

$28.00

$16.00

Hardcover, October 1, 1990

$18.00

$34.78

$9.60

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$21.61

$17.61

$11.99

Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

Language

English
Publisher

Icon
Publication date

October 1, 1990
ISBN-10

0064332667
ISBN-13

978-0064332668
See all details

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Icon; 1st Edition (October 1, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0064332667
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0064332668
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.02 pounds

Best Sellers Rank: #7,255,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65,785 in Architecture (Books)

Customer Reviews:
9 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		41%
4 star		21%
3 star		16%
2 star		21%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Constant Reader

A political diatribe

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2013

Verified Purchase

Golomstock distorts his knowledge of art in the service of his rage against totalitarianism in this peculiar book.

To give one example, the cover illustration, a 1940s or '50s painting by one Boris Iakovlev, a minor Soviet artist, attempts to depict the larger-than-life heroism of the Soviet military leader Marshal Georgii Zhukov by placing him on a huge white horse as he triumphs over the remains of the Nazi empire. Yes, there is a tradition in bad art of placing famous generals on huge, magnificent horses. but the Iakovlev painting is so silly, so excessively overdone, that the only response to it today, and probably the only response in its time, although expressed more quietly, would be laughter. My point is that this over-the-top cartoon of a painting illuminates nothing except that it's a ridiculous piece of hack work that has received sudden prominence by Golomstock.

I was fascinated by Golomstock's same-page comparisons of Nazi and Soviet tropes in art-- I'll grant him that-- but he fails to recognize the human optimism in the "ordinary people" pictures of wholesome workers and idealistic boys and girls that I found endearing despite their obvious propaganda mission.

Okay, Golomstock does a thorough job of presenting many examples of Soviet-era artists dutifully applying brush to canvas to make Comrade Stalin look tall and benevolent, but this is something that we already knew, and were prepared for, when we began to see similar deifications of Chairman Mao.

I'm not sorry I bought this book, and I'll keep it in the house, but it is not anywhere near as revealing as the recent illustrated book on the architecture of Pyongyang that I'm very glad I bought on Amazon.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

PauloSergio from Brazil

Just got it in my mail, but...

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

When I ordered this fine-looking book, I was under the firm impression that it contained more pictures than text. Of course we need the explanations for the posters, but - to tell you the truth - what really caught my eye were the totalitarian posters. I was very disappointed to see that the book contains less than 5% of its volume in pictures - and in black and white!!! Too bad!

25 people found this helpful

Helpful

Shellie

The Art of Oppression

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2007

Igor Golomstock bravely explores the frightening aesthetic similarities of four of the 20th Centuries most notorious dictatorships, and totalitarian cultures. While his focus is primarily on Nazi Germany under Hitler and The Soviet Union under Stalin, he also briefly covers the art of Fascist Italy and The Peoples Republic of China. This intelligently written book reveals how they used and abused the Western Realist Tradition in the so called fine arts, while also exploiting homegrown artistic achievements that appealed to nationalist pride and xenophobic fears. Each of these regimes employed surprisingly similar thematic content, in epic painting and colossal sculpture. Depictions of happy families and dutiful mothers, contented workers merrily laboring away in fields or factories, and of heroic soldiers on the crucible of the battlefield were particularly favoured. Depictions of the bountiful Fatherland and the industrial might of all four states figured heavily too, especially in The Third Reich and The Soviet Union. And of course looming in importance above all other subject matter was the iconic and idealized portrait of the loving and benevolent, visionary and wise leader himself. The architecture of classical antiquity served as the model for most state buildings (irrespective of political ideology) in the form of monumental stripped or neoclassical architecture that was used to oppressive and soul destroying ends. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin for example had audaciously bold plans to completely rebuild their respective capital cities - Rome, Berlin and Moscow - on a stupendously massive scale to suit their pompous tastes, though fortunately for later generations of people to live in these three beautiful cities these grand and delusional visions were never fully realized.

Mr Golomstock's revealing book deftly shows how politics can so very easily twist and subvert the arts to chilling ends; thus reducing them to the level of sterile, blatant and at the same time kitsch propaganda. He details how with the aesthetic philosophy of "socialist realism" art was cynically utilized by political leaders and parties as an important tool of state sponsored terrorism to indoctrinate and control the teeming masses, and subject peoples. All four totalitarian states led the populace to believe that they were variously being "liberated" from aristocratic, bourgeoisie, foreign or alternatively jewish cultural dominance; and that the only solution to societies ills was of course provided by them. This insightful and perceptive book illustrates that the far right and the far left have alot more in common than many people at either extreme of this broad political spectrum would ever like to admit! I also think it's a great shame there aren't more colour photographs in Totalitarian Art, for I believe art books really do need them, however with a book such as this it is the message that's unquestionably the most important factor, and not the pretty pictures. So if you're interested in the murky relationship between art, architecture and politics in totalitarian cultures or regimes, then do yourself a big favour and read this perceptive and timely book. And be warned that civil liberties, democratic freedoms and human rights could easily be taken away in your beloved homeland, so don't be an unthinking patriot, and always question your government... always.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alyssa Chong

A rather impressive book on dictators and their vanity

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2013

I figure dictators are among the most egotist people around, and when vain men have large budgets to play around with, the results can be amusing indeed. TA is well worth a read - the book teems with examples and absorbing takes on how art and culture in countries shifted as dictators took over. I grew up in Dubai, which has a benign ruler but still had the city plastered with youthful posters of the elderly king,and so it was an interesting analysis of something I experienced first-hand.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

jct

ben ok si il n'y avait pas une version française

Reviewed in France on October 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

Si j'avais su qu'il y avait une édition française ou si cela m'avait été indiqué par le moteur de rechercher amazon ou même la page du livre en anglais, j'aurais acheté le livre directement en français car à part les illustrations, le propos est assez ardu, il faut donc un bon niveau d'anglais pour comprendre dès la première lecture.
Sinon je dirais la même chose que pour la version française, intéressant, effrayant aussi car montre bien la puissance de l'image pour la propagande quand elle est bien faite! qui n'est pas sensible à une belle femme ou un bel homme rayonnant et apparemment en pleine santé devant un beau champ de blé sous un ciel radieux ?
pendant ce temps, les pires horreurs étaient commises que ce soit par les Nazis, les Russes en Union Soviétique ou le régime de MAO. Avec le temps on constate également que ces images acquièrent une certaine beauté esthétique parce que nous ne les rattachons plus directement aux sociétés totalitaires qui les ont produites à part bien sûr la société nazie qui a été beaucoup plus cash en la matière à part les images campagnardes qu'ils ont aussi utilisés comme les russes pour prôner le "naturel" contre le sophistiqué.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

João Ricardo MODERNO

Unique!

Reviewed in France on September 23, 2011

Verified Purchase

Un livre très important! Unique dans la bibliographie internationale sur le totalitarisme. Un instrument fondamental pour les professeurs d'art, philosophie de l'art et de la culture, esthétique, politique, etc.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

See all reviews

Totalitarian Art in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Fascist Italy, and the People's Republic of China Hardcover – October 1, 1990

Customers also viewed these products

Special offers and product promotions

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries