Recently in Issue 2009 Category
by Ruxandra E. Todosi
Forget criticism. Forget art history. Forget chronology and artistic divisions. Recall Cobra years: the post‑war struggle for upturned definitions of expression, the breaking with past constraints, the class clash, the desolation; the revival of youth.
Erected as a protest against early twentieth century culture‑packed intellectual figures, the Cobra artistic moment empowered a ludic avocation against residual surrealistic stumps, a veracious taste for creativity on a loose leash, and a frolicsome process of regaining the light‑hearted spirit of genuine conception. It proclaimed art engendered by the masses, not merely for the masses and it dispersed an embryonic language articulated through the shared dreams of three city esprits: Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam.
by Jolanda Thielens
There once was a president who was convinced that everything his predecessor had done was thoughtless, weak, stupid, and even corrupt. Consequently, this president found it wise to reverse almost every single decision and regulation of his preceding government's rule. White became black, cautiousness became aggressiveness, and saving became spending. His followers, excited as they were, vigorously applauded the daring decrees of their president. His name was George W. Bush.
door Philippe Dauphin
1968 was een gewelddadig jaar. De Vietnamoorlog escaleerde: het Tet-offensief kostte veel soldaten en burgers het leven, voor de ogen van tv-camera's executeerde de Zuid-Vietnamese generaal Nguyen Ngoc Loan koelbloedig een Vietcong-gevangene en in My Lai moordden Amerikaanse troepen een dorp uit. Over de hele wereld groeide de weerzin tegen oorlog. Ook in Europa en de VS waren gewelddadige conflicten: studentenprotesten in Frankrijk, Polen, Tsjechoslowakije, Mexico en verschillende steden in Amerika werden bruut neergeslagen omdat het gezag niet wist wat het ermee aan moest.
by Dinu Munteanu
"My wish is to be a citizen of the world" -- and although the world did not always understand him, the man who in a tormented age had expressed this irenic desire has since become such a symbol. Erasmus sounds familiar, centuries after his death in 1536. A model of scholarly erudition, subtlety and wit, he was the most perceptive and nuanced Christian humanist of all times, a champion of Gospel truth, but also of classical antiquity, a truly unprecedented defender of peace, and a prodigy at making compromises without once compromising himself. To honour him, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen introduces Erasmus of Rotterdam to the wider public through other means than the philosopher's words.
