by Jon Lackman | 24 March 2006 | Books, Modern
A new thousand-page tome edited by political scientist Klaus von Beyme collects artist letters, journal entries, statements and manifestoes written from 1905 to 1955, an era in which Goethe’s Zappa-esque admonishment (“Bilde, Künstler! Rede nicht! Nur ein Hauch sei dein Gedicht”) was regularly ignored, writes reviewer Christoph Heinrich in Die Zeit. Artists had never been so eager to explain themselves, and never so brazenly attempting to reform all of life as in this period, writes Jürgen Kaube in the FAZ. In literaturkritik.de, Walter Delabar argues that to understand why we need explanation more than documentation.
