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The Man from Highbelow: the Autobiography of Robert Jay Wolff
Arts & Activities, Dec, 2003 by Jerome J. Hausman
(2001; $19.99), edited by Dina Wolff Authentic Publishing, P.O. Box 1616, Durango, CO 81302.
It was in the late 1940s that I first heard of Robert Jay Wolff. He was the chairman of the Art Department at Brooklyn College (City University of New York). A number of my friends (Ed Reinhardt and Harry Holtzman in particular) were members of his department. It was a distinguished faculty. All spoke well of their chairman. Three years ago, I visited Berlin's Bauhaus Archives and, to my surprise, I saw a painting of Robert Jay Wolff. Could it be the same person, I wondered? Yes, it was! Then, more recently, I received a copy of The Man from Highbelow so that I might write this review.
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The book was edited by Dina Wolff, the author's granddaughter who was 12 years old when he died in 1977. She had not met him, but soon found herself wanting to know more about "Grandpa Wolff." Highbelow is an invention, a place of spiritual dimensions from whence we came, in which there are four fatal maladies: "looking back with longing, looking forward with anxiety, looking up with humility, and looking down with pride." "Our bodies shrink or expand according to the condition of our outlook on life." Wolff's writings juxtapose his experiences in the "real world" with what are the dramatically different perceptions and values of "Highbelow." Through notations of random thoughts and descriptions written in notebooks, he tells the story of his coming to maturity as an artist. It is a wonderful story, lovingly compiled by his granddaughter. For information about this publication, circle No. 399 on the Reader Service Card.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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