Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918 by Jan CavanaughReview by: David CrowleySlavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 139-140Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696995 .

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Book Reviews 139

proper context, the Meciar years appear as a period when the inhabitants of Slovakia shed the habits developed during half a century of one-party rule from Prague, learned to gov- ern themselves, and debated the direction their country should take. Meciar deserves to have his role in bringing this about assessed objectively and fairly, warts and all. In this re- spect, Sharon Fisher's detailed discussion of the 1998 election campaign helps to under- stand the evolution of the Slovak political scene. Similarly, Karen Henderson's paper on "the image of Slovakia" in western journalism and scholarship documents in depth one of the major problems that confronted the Meciar government and one that continues to haunt Meciar but also the post-Meciar government. Henderson's paper should be read by all journalists and scholars interested in contemporary Slovakia.

The Slovak literary and cultural scene also provokes curious reactions. Do bestsellers necessarily constitute a contribution to a nation's literature? Robert Pynsent seems to think so in the case of the popular writings of Peter Pist'anek, whose books, written in a style cho- sen to shock, paint a negative, even cynical, portrait of Slovak society in the first decade af- ter the fall of communism. From the way he deals with the subject, one gets the impres- sion that Pynsent is attracted to Pist'anek because of the latter's style and approach to the Slovaks and Slovakia rather than to the literary value of his books. As Timothy Beasley- Murray indicates in his analysis of contemporary Slovak literature, it is not clear that post- communist writers in Slovakia have produced anything of lasting value so far. To be fair, this is ajudgment that could well be revised one day.

STANISLAV KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University, Toronto

Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918. By Jan Cavanaugh. Berkeley: Univer- sity of California Press, 2000. xxiv, 307 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Il- lustrations. Plates. Photographs. Maps. $60.00, hard bound.

Unlike the art produced in Silver Age Russia or during Hungary's "Golden Age" before World War I, early modern Polish Art has not enjoyed a great deal of international at- tention. Polish art has occasionally been the subject of survey chapters in encyclopedias representing east central Europe, and the work of individual figures like the fantasistJacek Malczewski have been introduced to wider audiences by international exhibition. Jan Ca- vanaugh's Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918 is the first English-language monograph to synthesize a diverse field of artistic production. By contrast, this period in Poland has a rich historiography that includes examples of scrupulous "factografia," such as Polskie iycie artystyczne w latach 1890-1914, edited by Aleksander Wojciechowski (1967), and thoughtful interpretation such as Tadeusz Dobrowolski's still impressive Sztuka Miodej Polski (1963). Since the 1960s, the "Mloda Polska" period has received more art historical attention than any other. Cavanaugh makes good and fair use of this scholarship to pro- duce a book that will probably contain few revelations for anyone who has followed this lit- erature. Nevertheless, it does present the work of what will still be virtually unknown artists to art historians interested in European paintings of the period. As Cavanaugh stresses in her introduction (and implies in the title that she has given to her study), not only are Polish modernist artists of the fin de siecle relatively unknown, but the Polonocentrism of much of their art does not encourage easy comparison with that of much better known contemporaries in western Europe. Thus she sets about exploring artistic practice in the context of the long trauma of partition. As she convincingly shows, however, by the 1890s art's interest in the Polish question was by no means a matter of nationalist sentimentality or nostalgia. In the early years of the new century, for example, the dramatist and artist Stanislaw Wyspianski produced great works, such as his cycle of designs for stained glass windows at Wawel, that aimed to question messianistic readings of national history.

Cavanaugh's concerns necessitate particular emphasis on Krak6w as the center of cul- tural activism and on institutions like Sztuka, the major modernist exhibiting society lo- cated in the city. Moreover, Krak6w naturally leads to Vienna by dint of the ties of empire. In the best section of her book, Cavanaugh explores the relations of the Sztuka group and

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140 Slavic Review

the central European Secession movement, as well as the reception of works by its mem- bers in Vienna in the early years of the new century. The different interests at work in the artistic culture of the "core" made Polish art seem all the more peripheral. This is largely an art world debate in the sense that it is conducted by artists and critics in Vienna and Krak6w. Historians since Carl Schorske have argued over the extent to which support given to the Secession and internationalizing and modernizing influences reflected a strategic attempt by the imperial authorities to depress nationalist strains and tensions in Austria-Hungary. While she has produced evidence that would contribute to our under- standing of such matters, Cavanaugh's concerns are firmly art historical. The greater part of the book is made up of biographical sketches as well as vivid descriptions and cogent analysis of major works of art. To contextualize this material, she offers perceptive analysis of the influential roles of a trio of famous (and sometimes notorious) critics, Stanislaw Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Przybyszewski, and Zenon Przesmycki, as well as institutions like the Krak6w Academy of Fine Art and, of course, Sztuka. Cavanaugh's emphasis is on the no- ble practice of painting (with a detour into Xavery Dunikowski's sculpture) despite the fact that a number of her key figures were committed to the Wagnerian principle of the Gesamt- kunstwerk, the idea of bringing art to all aspects of life. Consequently, Wyspianski's interest in typography, furniture design, and architecture is mentioned but not analyzed. Similarly, the remarkable political illustrations by the protoexpressionist artist Witold Wojtkiewicz for the satirical publication, Hrabia Wojtek, which ridiculed the Kola Polskiego (Polish Circle), the aristocrats who claimed to represent Polish interests in Vienna, lie outside Cavanaugh's cautious study. This is a book that is likely to encourage not only careful ex- amination of Polish art from the 1890-1914 period but also further research.

DAVID CROWLEY Royal College of Art, London

In the Shadow of the Polish Eagle: The Poles, the Holocaust and Beyond. By Leo Cooper. New York: Palgrave, 2000. xiv, 255 pp. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $65.00, hard bound.

Until recently the historiography of Polish-Jewish relations was divided into two distinct and hostile camps, roughly coterminous with the ethnic identities of their members. For the most part they produced accusatory and hortative works aimed at adducing evidence for one group's claims against the other and demanding apology or redress from the other side. Their theses were often maddeningly simplistic: for one camp, Poles were culturally predisposed to anti-Semitism; for the other, Jews were inclined by nature to Polonopho- bia. And their sources were largely testimonial; the authors, often veterans of the ongo- ing Polish-Jewish conflict, rooted their conclusions unabashedly in their own personal experience.

Much has changed in the last decade: in Poland, Israel, North America, and western Europe there is now a community of serious scholars operating on the premise that, as one of the seminal works of this new wave put it, Polish-Jewish relations ought to be studied "in neither ajewish nor a Polish spirit, but in the spirit of learning" (Krystyna Kersten, Polacy, Zydzi, komunizm: Anatomia p6lprawd, 1939- 68, 1992, 12). These scholars have brought to light considerable new documentary material and have made significant progress in un- derstanding the nuances of a difficult and complex subject. They realize that this approach "will meet resistance among people whose consciousness is dominated by memory" (12), but they insist that both Polish and Jewish memories be challenged so they will not con- tinue to fuel antagonisms based on myth.

One does not have to read too far into Leo Cooper's entry into the discussion to dis- cover that he has no use for this trend. In fact, he seems ignorant of its existence: his bib- liography lists no scholarly works on any aspect of Polish-Jewish relations published since 1995 and only five published since 1990, supplemented by a random smattering of press articles. Such ignorance leads him to the remarkable statement that "unlike Germany, France and other European countries whose role during the Holocaust has been investi-

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