To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Best of 2018: Books
BY MICHAL BONCZA
“The font's too small. I can't hear you!”: illustrations from SelfMadeHero's Magritte
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
THOUGH written almost a century ago, Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win by Clara Zetkin (Haymarket Books), her seminal 1923 report and resolution to the Communist International, couldn’t be more timely.
The political discipline of Zetkin’s Marxist analysis strips fascism of its pretences, exposing its manipulative deceptions and political dishonesty. She identifies fascism as “an asylum for all the politically homeless, the socially uprooted, the destitute and disillusioned” and as an international phenomenon requiring a corresponding resistance if it is to be defeated. A must-read.
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