On her book Four Metaphors of Modernism: From Der Sturm to the Société Anonyme
Cover Interview of May 20, 2018
The wide angle
The book argues for a new paradigm: only in considering Der
Sturm and the Société Anonyme together, can we grasp the extent of their
respective influences on Euro-American modernism; both decenter Paris as the
capital of modern art. I also argue for the unacknowledged centrality of
metaphor in modern art through an exploration of four recurrent metaphors that
shape the realm of possibility of art in these intertwined networks.
Consideration of metaphor returns allusion and the real to modernist abstraction—a
field long thought to be pure and devoid of reference. This re-envisioned modernism,
in turn, is more feminine, intermedial, and relational than has been previously
understood; the modernist principle of masculine, medium-specific autonomy all
but disappears here.
How did such a book come about? My dissertation, followed by
my first book, Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art, pointed me
toward this project. I was interested in Klee’s early career, and I learned at the
Sturm archive at the State Library of Berlin that it took off under Walden’s
tutelage in the 1910s. At the same time, I was impressed by the immensity of
the Sturm collection, which I was fairly certain had not been studied
thoroughly by scholars writing in English. Many years later, I had my hands
full studying Der Sturm alone when I discovered its ties to the Société Anonyme.
I felt these connections were imperative to pursue, especially because the
American angle might appeal to American readers. The addition of the Société
Anonyme added a few years to this book’s writing, but I think it tells such a
rich story that it was worth it. Indeed, the extra time allowed the metaphors I
kept coming across to crystallize in my mind, such that I decided to eschew a
conventional historical narrative and, instead, frame each section with a
pressing metaphor (which is to say that there were others that felt less urgent
and did not make the cut).
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The wide angle
The book argues for a new paradigm: only in considering Der Sturm and the Société Anonyme together, can we grasp the extent of their respective influences on Euro-American modernism; both decenter Paris as the capital of modern art. I also argue for the unacknowledged centrality of metaphor in modern art through an exploration of four recurrent metaphors that shape the realm of possibility of art in these intertwined networks. Consideration of metaphor returns allusion and the real to modernist abstraction—a field long thought to be pure and devoid of reference. This re-envisioned modernism, in turn, is more feminine, intermedial, and relational than has been previously understood; the modernist principle of masculine, medium-specific autonomy all but disappears here.
How did such a book come about? My dissertation, followed by my first book, Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art, pointed me toward this project. I was interested in Klee’s early career, and I learned at the Sturm archive at the State Library of Berlin that it took off under Walden’s tutelage in the 1910s. At the same time, I was impressed by the immensity of the Sturm collection, which I was fairly certain had not been studied thoroughly by scholars writing in English. Many years later, I had my hands full studying Der Sturm alone when I discovered its ties to the Société Anonyme. I felt these connections were imperative to pursue, especially because the American angle might appeal to American readers. The addition of the Société Anonyme added a few years to this book’s writing, but I think it tells such a rich story that it was worth it. Indeed, the extra time allowed the metaphors I kept coming across to crystallize in my mind, such that I decided to eschew a conventional historical narrative and, instead, frame each section with a pressing metaphor (which is to say that there were others that felt less urgent and did not make the cut).