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Article: Art of darkness
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 21, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Art has been used to reinforce the power of political rulers
and states since the ancient Egyptians, though the relationship
between power and art has not always been smooth. A new exhibition,
Art and Power, illustrates probably the least happy episode in this
relationship in the 20th century, in what has been called the
"Europe of the Dictators", between 1930 and 1945.
Most of the regimes with which this show is concerned
consciously and deliberately broke with the immediate past. Whether
this radical break was made from the political right or left is
less important than that such regimes saw their role, not as
maintaining or restoring or even improving their society, but as
transforming ...