Karla Huebner's Blog, page 26

The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary

And another intriguing book comes to fruition! The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary: Art and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century, by Matthew Rampley, Markian Prokopovych, and Nóra Veszprémi, has just been published by Penn State University Press. This study of Austria-Hungary's public art museums considers them in the context of European museums and collecting, as well as looking at their place in the Empire's complex cultural politics. From the installation of imperial art collections in the Belvedere Palace in 1784 to the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, and focusing on institutions in Vienna, Cracow, Prague, Zagreb, and Budapest, The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary traces museum culture over the long nineteenth century.

For more info, and to order a copy, click here.

Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond

I'm so very pleased to announce a volume edited by two of my friends from graduate school, Cindy Persinger and Azar Rejaie--Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond: Alternative Approaches to the Theory and Practice of Art History. With contributions from an international set of professors, curators, and arts organizers, this book asks "What is socially engaged art history?" and is the first full-length study to focus on the ideas of the growing number of art historians who seek to look beyond the academy in their art-historical praxis.

Presenting arguments for the benefits of community-engaged, applied, and socially engaged art history, the first two sections look at socially engaged art history from theoretical, pedagogical, and contextual perspectives. The concluding section offers case studies that highlight the work that is being done in this area, with the intention of inspiring further theoretical and practical work.

You can read more about it and order here.

Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office

Another intriguing book by a scholar of my acquaintance is Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office, by Jennifer Kaufmann-Buehler. Jennifer is a design historian and has long been fascinated by the utopian but now-despised open office. She " traces the history and evolution of the American open plan from the brightly-colored office landscapes of the 1960s and 1970s to the monochromatic cubicles of the 1980s and 1990s," and analyzes both the original architectural intentions and how workers have actually experienced these spaces. (I can affirm that working in a gray cubicle during much of my early adulthood was not a pleasant experience.)

I love her book cover! You can read more about the book and order it here.

Photofascism

Another new book of interest is Vanessa Rocco's Photofascism: Photography, Film, and Exhibition Culture in 1930s Germany and Italy, published by Bloomsbury. As the publisher points out,

"The 1930s provides a potent case study for every generation, and it is as urgent as ever in our global political environment to deeply understand the central role of visual imagery in what transpired. Photofascism demonstrates precisely how dictatorial regimes use photographic mass media, methodically and in combination with display, to persuade the public with often times highly destructive-even catastrophic-results."

This is an important study and should be of considerable interest to both scholars and the wider public, given the present rise of authoritarian-tending regimes in many parts of the world.

Modernity, History, and Politics in Czech Art

Returning to my shout-outs to interesting and important books by friends and colleagues, I must mention Marta Filipová's recent book Modernity, History, and Politics in Czech Art, published by Routledge in 2020 (it actually appeared in 2019, in a reversal of the more usual phenomenon of a book coming out after its copyright date).

While I have a review of Marta's excellent book forthcoming in Austrian History Yearbook, Cynthia Paces has written a much more in-depth review in the Journal of Art Historiography than I had space for, so please take a look at that!

It Was a Sad Day in US History

Yesterday's mob riot in Washington DC, which began with a peaceful but ill-informed protest by supporters of the current president, marks a tragic breakdown in social norms and shows the danger to our democracy that this president and would-be dictator has posed throughout his term of office. As others have noted, it is not a matter of rejoicing to have comparisons to the rise of Nazi Germany proved accurate. That Americans carrying Confederate flags and wearing clothing celebrating Auschwitz should break the Capitol windows to swarm in and threaten Congress, leave graffiti, and rummage through the desks of members of Congress, is a sad comment on our current situation but an unsurprising outcome of the lies and white-supremacist attitudes of this demagogue president and his enablers. These people left bombs for both Democrats and Republicans, and it is not surprising that one person was killed.

It is time to remove this president and heal our nation.

Magnetic Woman Delayed

At Christmas time, friends and family reported that Magnetic Woman was unavailable from the publisher and Bookshop.org, and that Amazon had only five copies left. What was happening? Was the book already a massive success?

Alas, the answer proved much less pleasant. Two of my author copies arrived--not sure where the other ten mentioned on the shipping paperwork have gone--and within moments I had discovered that the index ended at Freud. More minutes, and I found that the color plates were in the wrong order. I contacted the press and learned that the entire print run was affected. The book has to be reprinted, which is why few copies have made their way into the world yet.

In these pandemic times, it is unclear how quickly the corrected printing will occur, but I hope it will happen right away.

If you are one of the few people who has managed to get hold of a copy already, it should be fine to read--I am not aware of anything wrong with most of the book--but you will probably want to exchange it for a perfect copy once those are available.

The Last Ghetto

Today seems like the right time to give a shout out to Anna Hájková's new book The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt. This book uses extensive sources, including victim testimonies, that were collected in 99 archives from ten countries on three continents and were written in nine languages. Reviews are already enthusiastic, and according to the publisher, it is the "first modern study of the Theresienstadt ghetto." You can read more about this book here and order your own copy.
The author, much of whose research has focused on women's experience in the Nazi concentration camps and on sexual economics within the camps, has been the target of some attempted censorship as a result of her investigation of lesbian relationships within the camps. You can read more about this at The New Fascism Syllabus, which also offers the opportunity to sign a petition supporting her (I am one of the many scholars to have signed).

The Fastest Game in the World

Bruce Berglund is best known to me as a historian of early Czechoslovakia--we met through Fulbright and both work on the interwar period. We have some other things in common too, like Minnesota origins. Bruce's latest book goes in a direction that gets to those northern roots--hockey and its history! In The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports, which is just out from University of California Press, Bruce looks at how hockey spread across the world and how games connect with politics, economics, and culture. You can read more about it here and order a copy in either hardback or paperback.

New Journal Founded: Art East/Central

Art East/Central is a new English-language, open access, peer-reviewed journal that will publish original articles on architecture, design and the visual arts in Central and East-Central Europe 1800 to the present. It will also feature book and exhibition reviews, reports, and occasional discussion forums. An international editorial board and a rigorous, double-blind peer review process are intended to ensure the high quality and originality of the contents.

"We welcome your submissions to be considered for future issues at journal@arteastcentral.eu. We are particularly interested in contributions that adopt a transnational approach, examining practices, ideas and traditions that cross the political, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural boundaries of the region. Interdisciplinary approaches, as well as reflection on the particular challenges this region raises for relevant academic practices, are also encouraged. Submissions from graduate students are welcome."
Published by CRAACE (CONTINUITY/RUPTURE: ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN CENTRAL EUROPE 1918-1939), the first issue is expected to be out in early 2021. Check here to find it.