Chaos and Classicism

This catalogue accompanies 'Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936', the first exhibition in the United States to explore the classicizing aesthetic that followed the immense destruction ofWorldWar I. It examines the interwar period in its key artistic manifestations: the poetic dream of antiquity in the Parisian avant-garde of Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso; the politicized revival of the Roman Empire under Benito Mussolini by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico and Mario Sironi; and the functionalist utopianism at the Bauhaus as well as, chillingly, the pseudobiological classicism, or Aryanism, of nascent Nazi society. This presentation encompasses painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, film, fashion and the decorative arts. Fully illustrated and with essays by Emily Braun, James D. Herbert, Jeanne Anne Nugent and Kenneth E. Silver, this book is the first to examine classicism between the wars in Europe, and as such will be an original addition to the art historical canon.