Reflections on the Art of Our Time

Previously unpublished, Josef Frank's searching essays on art and modernism find trends of totalitarianism in European aesthetics have crossed into the United States. Reflections on the Art of Our Time is Josef Frank‘s (1885–1967) previously unpublished analysis of cultural developments since the fin de siècle. Frank believed that modern art and design had fallen prey to totalitarian and dictatorial currents in Europe, which culminated in the Second World War. He also observed that these same disturbing trends were spreading to the United States, where he was then living in exile, teaching and writing. Frank’s “Letter to the Editor” concerning Piet Mondrian, written on the occasion of the latter’s major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, which is also included in this work, exemplifies Frank’s concerns about the development of contemporary modernism. Edited and with contributions from Tano Bojankin, Caterina Cardamone, Hermann Czech, Christopher Long, Claudia Mazanek, along with an extended article by Otto Kapfinger. Includes full-color reproductions of Frank's letters and notes, photographs, and maps.