Art, Culture and National Identity in Fin-de-Siecle Europe

Scandinavian Review, Autumn 2003

Art, Culture and National Identity in Fin-de-Siecle Europe Edited by Michelle Facos and Sharon L. Hirsch Cambridge University Press, New York, N.Y., 2003 297 pages, hardcover $75.00

Asserting that the turn of the 20th century has largely been neglected by art historians, this book examines the phenomenon of politicized art and its connections to modernism. In 11 essays on as many nations an international team of authors explores the complex issues facing artists who helped to form distinct national identities to audiences at home and abroad. The detailed case studies unravel the matrix of circumstances that fostered nationalistic developments, thereby offering a more nuanced understanding of European art and culture around 1900. Two of them focus on Scandinavian countries: "Making of Family Values: Narratives of Kinship and Peasant Life in Norwegian Nationalism" is by Patricia G. Berman of Wellesley College. She is the author of numerous exhibition catalogs and articles on Edvard Munch, Scandinavian art, and turn-of-the-century European art and photography. "Educating a Nation of Patriots : Mural Paintings in Turn of the Century Swedish Schools" is by Michelle Facos, associate professor at Indiana University, Bloomington.