Download or read book Drawing Under Fire written by Pham Thanh Tâm and published by . This book was released on 2024-12-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poignant and rare--perhaps the only--contemporaneous Viet Minh diary of the siege of Dien Bien Phu that marked the end of French colonial rule in Indochina and the start of direct US military intervention in Vietnam that led to the Vietnam War (1946-1954). Written from an anti-colonial perspective, the diary of Phạm Thanh Tâm is a humane and moving account by a young war reporter and artist coming of age during "a sanguinary battle that has since turned out to have immense historic importance." On May 7, 1954, the Vietnamese forces fighting for independence, the communist Viet Minh, won an unexpected victory at the battle of Dien Bien Phu against the French colonial forces who were receiving massive US military financial aid and air support to fight the expansion of communism in the region. Drawing Under Fire, discovered by journalist Sherry Buchanan and first published in hardback in 2005 in the United Kingdom and in 2011 in France, fills a gap in history as the first English translation and critical edition of one Viet Minh's diary of life and death at Dien Bien Phu. Both sides suffered such huge casualties that US journalist Bernard G. Fall described the siege as "hell in a very small place." During the First Indochina War or French War (1946-1954), the twenty-two-year-old Phạm Thanh Tâm, armed only with his Waterman pen, pencils, and a Chinese ink bottle, joined the Viet Minh heavy artillery division besieging the French military camp in the remote mountain valley of Dien Bien Phu. He wrote his diary at night, under relentless French aerial bombings, napalm strikes, and tank shelling. He describes in vivid detail how his fellow soldiers lacked food, clothes, and ammunition; how they managed to move one-ton guns to hilltops to surround the French; how they built fortified gun emplacements twenty feet deep into the hills and slept underground next to their cannons; how they camouflaged the guns that remained undetected by French surveillance planes; and how sappers scooped the earth out with their bare hands to dig miles of tunnels to protect the infantry's advance. Through his words and sketches, Phạm Thanh Tâm gives a voice and a face to his fellow soldiers, their youthful bravado, and their determination to win, but also to their tears and their suffering. He confides in his diary his patriotic enthusiasm to free his country from the French who bombed his home; his admiration for the bravery of the fighters; his trauma witnessing his fighter-friends blown to pieces; his love of beauty and nature when he discovers a tranquil stream untouched by bombs; his unrequited love for an actress in a frontline theatre group; and his hopes for an end to the war. On May 7, 1954, the night of the French surrender, an emotional Tâm penned a poetic note in his diary, "grateful to be alive" when so many had perished: "Tonight, as I lie under the stars, I feel both calm and excited. I try to forget all the nights when the bombings shook my entire body. I'm sure I'll fall asleep right away. I'm worn out and grateful to be alive." As the prominent French journalist Jean Guisnel commented, "This is a must read for the strength of the account told without hatred."
Download or read book Artists in Times of War written by Howard Zinn and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Political power," says Howard Zinn, "is controlled by the corporate elite, and the arts are the locale for a kind of guerilla warfare in the sense that guerillas look for apertures and opportunities where they can have an effect." In Artists in Times of War, Zinn looks at the possibilities to create such apertures through art, film, activism, publishing and through our everyday lives. In this collection of four essays, the author of A People's History of the United States writes about why "To criticize the government is the highest act of patriotism." Filled with quotes and examples from the likes of Bob Dylan, Mark Twain, e. e. cummings, Thomas Paine, Joseph Heller, and Emma Goldman, Zinn's essays discuss America's rich cultural counternarratives to war, so needed in these days of unchallenged U.S. militarism.
Download or read book Michael Borremans Fire from the Sun written by Michael Borremans and published by David Zwirner Books. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in a series of small-format publications devoted to single bodies of work, Fire from the Sun highlights Michaël Borremans’s new work, which features toddlers engaged in playful but mysterious acts with sinister overtones and insinuations of violence. Known for his ability to recall classical painting, both through technical mastery and subject matter, Borremans’s depiction of the uncanny, the perhaps secret, the bizarre, often surprises, sometimes disturbs the viewer. In this series of work, children are presented alone or in groups against a studio-like backdrop that negates time and space, while underlining the theatrical atmosphere and artifice that exists throughout Borremans’s recent work. Reminiscent of cherubs in Renaissance paintings, the toddlers appear as allegories of the human condition, their archetypal innocence contrasted with their suggested deviousness. In his accompanying essay, critic and curator Michael Bracewell takes an in-depth look into specific paintings, tackling both the highly charged subject matter and the masterly command of the medium. He writes, “The art of Michaël Borremans seems always to have been predicated on a confluence of enigma, ambiguity, and painterly poetics—accosting beauty with strangeness; making historic Romanticism subjugate to mysterious controlling forces that are neither crudely malevolent nor necessarily benign.” Published on the occasion of Borremans’s eponymous exhibition at David Zwirner in Hong Kong, this publication is available in both English-only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.
Download or read book Artists Under Hitler written by Jonathan Petropoulos and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What are we to make of those cultural figures, many with significant international reputations, who tried to find accommodation with the Nazi regime?” Jonathan Petropoulos asks in this exploration of some of the most acute moral questions of the Third Reich. In his nuanced analysis of prominent German artists, architects, composers, film directors, painters, and writers who rejected exile, choosing instead to stay during Germany’s darkest period, Petropoulos shows how individuals variously dealt with the regime’s public opposition to modern art. His findings explode the myth that all modern artists were anti-Nazi and all Nazis anti-modernist. Artists Under Hitler closely examines cases of artists who failed in their attempts to find accommodation with the Nazi regime (Walter Gropius, Paul Hindemith, Gottfried Benn, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde) as well as others whose desire for official acceptance was realized (Richard Strauss, Gustaf Gründgens, Leni Riefenstahl, Arno Breker, Albert Speer). Collectively these ten figures illuminate the complex cultural history of Nazi Germany, while individually they provide haunting portraits of people facing excruciating choices and grave moral questions.
Download or read book Love Goes to Buildings on Fire written by Will Hermes and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title provides a group portrait of some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, including Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash and Bob Dylan.
Download or read book Art in the After Culture written by Ben Davis and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a peculiar moment for art, as it becomes both increasingly rarefied and associated with elite lifestyle culture, while simultaneously ubiquitous, with the boom of "creative" industries and the proliferation of new technologies for making art. In these important essays, Ben Davis covers everything from Instagram to artificial intelligence, eco-art to cultural appropriation. Critical, insightful, and hopeful even in the face of the apocalyptic, this is a must read for those looking to understand the current art world, as well as the role of the artist in the world today.
Download or read book Activism Under Fire written by Anjuli Fahlberg and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rio de Janeiro's favelas have become well-known sites of gang and police violence. Since the 1970s, dangerous networks between drug traffickers and corrupt state actors have transformed these poor neighborhoods into sites of armed conflict and political repression, limiting residents' ability to speak out against violence or demand their democratic rights. Despite these challenges, nonviolent politics remains an integral element in Cidade de Deus--City of God--one of Rio's most dangerous and famous favelas. In Activism under Fire, Anjuli Fahlberg provides an original account of how conflict activism operates in Cidade de Deus. Drawing on fieldwork, virtual ethnography, and participatory action research, Fahlberg documents how activists strategically navigate local constraints and opportunities--including gendered governing dynamics and racialized practices of solidarity--to create space for non-violent governance amid armed repression. By working within urban, national, and transnational political networks and social movements, local activists bring resources into their neighborhood and protest violence while avoiding dangerous alliances. Activism under Fire demonstrates that non-violent collective action is possible amid extreme poverty and violence, and shows what strategies enable it to survive and effect political change. In so doing, Fahlberg reveals the possibilities for collective action in violent and chaotic democratic states, not only in Latin America, but throughout the world.
Download or read book Artists Under Hitler written by Jonathan Petropoulos and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Artists Under Hitler' closely examines cases of artists who failed in their attempts to find accommodation in the Nazi regime as well as others whose desire for official acceptance was realised. They illuminate the complex cultural history of this period and provide haunting portraits of people facing excruciating choices and grave moral questions.
Download or read book The Room Is on Fire written by Susan Weinstein and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blends history and theory with practical descriptions of how spoken word poetry is taught and how to produce spoken word events. The Room Is on Fire offers an overview of youth spoken word poetrys history, its practitioners, participants, and practices. Susan Weinstein explores its grounding in earlier literary/performance/educational traditions and discusses its particular challenges. In order to analyze these issues, the story of how youth spoken word poetry developed as a field is told through the voices of those involved. Interviewees include the people who organized the first youth poetry slam festivals, the founders of central youth spoken word organizations, and a selection of young people who have participated in their local programs and in regional and national events over the last two decades. Narratives about individual and communal efforts and experiences are supported by analyses of full-text poems by youth poets and by reference to contemporary scholarship in performance studies, critical youth studies, and new literacy studies. Blending history and theory with practical descriptions of how spoken word poetry is taught and how to produce spoken word events, the book will appeal to researchers, teacher educators, and K12 teachers.
Download or read book Burning Man written by Jennifer Raiser and published by . This book was released on 2016-08 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authorized collection of more than two hundred color photos showcases the sculptures, art, stories, and interviews from the annual celebration of artistic expression in Nevada's barren Black Rock Desert
Download or read book Modern Perspectives in Western Art History written by W. Eugene Kleinbauer and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays that reflect the breadth of twentieth-century scholarship in art history. Kleinbauer has sought to illustrate the variety of methods scholars have developed for conveying the unfolding of the arts in the Western world. Originally published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1971.
Download or read book Creative Pep Talk written by Andy J. Miller and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every artist needs a little pep talk now and then. An inspiring tool and beautiful art book in one, Creative Pep Talk offers illustrated words of wisdom from 50 of today's leading creative professionals. With full-color, typographic prints and explanatory statements from a host of creative luminaries—including Aaron James Draplin, Oliver Jeffers, Lisa Congdon, Mike Perry, and many others—this volume encourages artists to stay excited, experiment boldly, and conquer fear. "Create curiosity," "Learn to say no," and "If you can't be good, be different" are just a few of the motivational maxims in this visually rich collection that's perfect for students, designers, artists, and creatives at any stage in their careers.
Download or read book The Politics of Artists in War Zones written by Kit Messham-Muir and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-14 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What exactly is contemporary war art in the West today? This book considers the place of contemporary war art in the 2020s, a whole generation after 9/11 and long past the 'War on Terror'. Exploring the role contemporary art plays within conversations around war and imperialism, the book brings together chapters from international contemporary artists, theorists and curators, alongside the voices of contemporary war artists through original edited interviews. It addresses newly emerged contexts in which war is found: not only sites of contemporary conflicts such as Ukraine, Yemen and Syria, but everywhere in western culture, from social media to 'culture' wars. With interviews from official war artists working in the UK, the US, and Australia, such as eX de Medici (Australia) and David Cotterrell (UK), as well as those working in post-colonial contexts, such as Baptist Coelho (India), the editors reflect on contemporary processes of memorialisation and the impact of British colonisation in Australia, India and its relation to historical conflicts. It focuses on three overlapping themes: firstly, the role of memory and amnesia in colonial contexts; secondly, the complex role of 'official' war art; and thirdly, questions of testimony and knowing in relation to alleged war crimes, torture and genocide. Richly illustrated, and featuring three substantial interview chapters, The Politics of Artists in War Zones is a hands-on exploration of the complexities and challenges faced by war artists that contextualises the tensions between the contemporary art world and the portrayal of war. It is essential reading for researchers of fine art, curatorial studies, museum studies, conflict studies and photojournalism.
Download or read book A House on Fire written by John A. Jackson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost," "The Soul Train Theme," "Then Came You," "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now"--the distinctive music that became known as Philly Soul dominated the pop music charts in the 1970s. In A House on Fire, John A. Jackson takes us inside the musical empire created by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell, the three men who put Philadelphia Soul on the map. Here is the eye-opening story of three of the most influential and successful music producers of the seventies. Jackson shows how Gamble, Huff, and Bell developed a black recording empire second only to Berry Gordy's Motown, pumping out a string of chart-toppers from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Spinners, the O'Jays, the Stylistics, and many others. The author underscores the endemic racism of the music business at that time, revealing how the three men were blocked from the major record companies and outlets in Philadelphia because they were black, forcing them to create their own label, sign their own artists, and create their own sound. The sound they created--a sophisticated and glossy form of rhythm and blues, characterized by crisp, melodious harmonies backed by lush, string-laden orchestration and a hard-driving rhythm section--was a glorious success, producing at least twenty-eight gold or platinum albums and thirty-one gold or platinum singles. But after their meteoric rise and years of unstoppable success, their production company finally failed, brought down by payola, competition, a tough economy, and changing popular tastes. Funky, groovy, soulful--Philly Soul was the classic seventies sound. A House on Fire tells the inside story of this remarkable musical phenomenon.
Download or read book Brazilian Art Under Dictatorship written by Claudia Calirman and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-28 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Non la biennale de Sao Paulo -- Antonio Manuel: experimental exercise of freedom? -- Artur Barrio: a visual aesthetics for the third world -- Cildo Meireles: an explosive art -- Conclusion: Opening the wounds : longing for closure.
Download or read book Art in Time written by Dan Nadel and published by Abrams ComicArts. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: . . . Focuses on the lesser-known comic works by celebrated icons of the industry, like H.G. Peter (the artist behind Wonder Woman), John Stanley (the writer and artist for Little Lulu), Harry Lucey (one of the artists behind Archie), Jesse Marsh (the artist for Tarzan), and Bill Everett (best know for his characters Sub Mariner and Dr. Strange).
Download or read book Child of the Fire written by Kirsten Buick and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Child of the Fire is the first book-length examination of the career of the nineteenth-century artist Mary Edmonia Lewis, best known for her sculptures inspired by historical and biblical themes. Throughout this richly illustrated study, Kirsten Pai Buick investigates how Lewis and her work were perceived, and their meanings manipulated, by others and the sculptor herself. She argues against the racialist art discourse that has long cast Lewis’s sculptures as reflections of her identity as an African American and Native American woman who lived most of her life abroad. Instead, by seeking to reveal Lewis’s intentions through analyses of her career and artwork, Buick illuminates Lewis’s fraught but active participation in the creation of a distinct “American” national art, one dominated by themes of indigeneity, sentimentality, gender, and race. In so doing, she shows that the sculptor variously complicated and facilitated the dominant ideologies of the vanishing American (the notion that Native Americans were a dying race), sentimentality, and true womanhood. Buick considers the institutions and people that supported Lewis’s career—including Oberlin College, abolitionists in Boston, and American expatriates in Italy—and she explores how their agendas affected the way they perceived and described the artist. Analyzing four of Lewis’s most popular sculptures, each created between 1866 and 1876, Buick discusses interpretations of Hiawatha in terms of the cultural impact of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha; Forever Free and Hagar in the Wilderness in light of art historians’ assumptions that artworks created by African American artists necessarily reflect African American themes; and The Death of Cleopatra in relation to broader problems of reading art as a reflection of identity.
