Testing Societal Tolerance: "Murder In Amsterdam" By Ian Buruma

Murder In Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and The Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma, Penguin, 2006. 

On November 2, 2004, Theo Van Gogh, controversial filmmaker and relative of painter Vincent Van Gogh, was brutally murdered on an Amsterdam sidewalk by Mohammed Bouyeri. The killer was offended by the film "Submission," a critical depiction of women under Islam written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken opponent of political Islam who was also threatened. This shocking event tested the attitudes of the Dutch, previously known for their tolerance, as well as the country's immigrant Muslims.

Considering a variety of perspectives, Buruma examines the career of right-wing, anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn, murdered by a fellow Dutchman, who found the Dutch "far too tolerant of intolerance." He also speaks to Paul Scheffer, a former progressive journalist who turned against multiculturalism, stating that the cultural gap was too great between the Dutch natives and bearded Moroccans in a street market near his home. 

Buruma treats Islamic fundamentalist youth like Bouyeri with insight. Caught between their immigrant village culture and the temptations and rejections of modern, cosmopolitan Western society, and also embarrassed by fathers who have trouble coping with Dutch life, they retreat into a closed world of the like-minded, entertaining ideas of destruction and martyrdom.

Buruma also speaks to those who don't necessarily subscribe to an inevitable clash of civilizations. Amsterdam councillor Ahmed Aboutaleb promotes the integration of his fellow Muslims and speaks out against violent religious views. For this Aboutaleb is labeled a collaborator and heretic by the fundamendalists, but he bravely pleads his case, to the point of taking schoolchildren to visit Auschwitz on National Remembrance Day and demonstrating against Theo Van Gogh's murder.

There's also Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam, whose mother experienced the Nazi occupation as a Jew. Cohen stressed, in a famous 2002 lecture, the importance of mutual respect and tolerance for opinions and habits that Westerners neither share nor approve. He also called for the integration of Muslims through their faith itself, "the only anchor they have when they enter Dutch society." 

Buruma gives incisive support to the mayor's thesis and leaves the reader with a point of view that calls for reconciliation instead of conflict: "It is precisely to avoid this notion of Kulturkampf, or 'clash of civilizations,' that Cohen wants to reach an accommodation with the Muslims in this city... Attacking religion cannot be the answer, for the real threat to a mixed society will come when the mainstream of non-revolutionary Muslims has lost all hope of feeling at home."

"Here And Elsewhere" at The New Museum

The New Museum's exhibit  "Here And Elsewhere" is a survey of the work over 40 contemporary Arab artists. This expansive show takes up all five floors of the museum with works in varied media that reflect the complexity, diversity and turmoil of the Middle East. Jamal Penjweny's "Saddam Is Here" photo series (above) presents Iraqis holding up masks of Saddam Hussein, suggesting the lasting influence of the former dictator. Hrair Sarkissian's photos depict public squares in Damascus, Syria, where criminals were hung prior to the current civil war. In Lamia Joreige’s “Objects of War” videos, interviewees speak of the conflicts that have engulfed Lebanon for years. Videos by Bouchra Khalili show hands tracing lines from the Middle East to Europe on maps as undocumented immigrants speak of their complicated quests to find new livelihoods and escape the instability back home. The artists present a provocative, multi-layered, human perspective on the Middle East that makes a more profound impression than the pundits and headlines to which we're constantly exposed. 

"Here And Elsewhere" continues through September 28, 2015, at the New Museum, 235 Bowery, NYC, 212-219-1222, www.newmuseum.org  

“Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival” at the Museum of the City of New York

This outstanding exhibit focuses on the folk music explosion that took place in Greenwich Village during the 1950s and 1960s. The artists who made an impact during that creative ferment are represented: Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Judy Colllins, The Weavers, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, and Pete Seeger, as well as their predecessors, including Lead Belly, Odetta and Josh White. The show is replete with fascinating artifacts, including Bob Dylan’s penciled lyrics for four songs; concert posters; editions of folk-oriented periodicals, such as “Sing Out!”; the original sign from Gerdes Folk City, a Village club; and films and recordings of concert performances. Historical currents are evident in conservative publications and hearings that targeted folk music as part of the “red menace.” While mainstream acts such as the Kingston Trio were apolitical, folk came to reflect the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. The music’s transformation into folk rock signaled the eclipse of folk as the decade progressed. “Folk City” captures a time when folk music played a central role in social change and cultural transformation. “Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival” continues through January 10, 2016, at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd St.), NYC, 212-534-1672, mcny.org

The Beatles: Masterful Biography of the Legendary Band

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. 983 pp. Back Bay Books

The Beatles is so vivid that reading it is like living through the entire history of the band once again. While much of the group’s story is well known, Bob Spitz fills in the details surrounding the world’s most legendary rock band.

 The book leads the reader to draw certain conclusions, including how vital Brian Epstein was to the Beatles’ success. He came upon them when they were a raucous band covering American rock ‘n’ roll in grungy English and German clubs. Epstein refined their image, as they traded in their black leather jackets for suits. He was an indefatigable promoter and visionary and an equally careless dealmaker who let the band’s finances fall into disarray. 

Spitz captures the madness of the group’s tours, in which they were constantly chased by frenzied adolescent girls and couldn’t hear themselves sing. They finally got to the point where they decided not to tour anymore, becoming strictly a studio band – and they became masters of the studio, known for polished songs, outstanding production, and innovative sounds. In this regard, the contributions of producer George Martin were invaluable.

 The Beatles lasted little more than a decade, splitting apart due to personality differences and monetary squabbles. Lennon, the most psychically complex of all, took too much LSD and, eventually, heroin. The more practical and showbiz-oriented McCartney took over as leader of the band, provoking Lennon’s resentment. When Lennon fell in love with Yoko Ono and brought her to the band’s recording sessions, he in turn sparked resentment amongst the others. Yoko, while not necessarily breaking up the group, is depicted as a divisive force particularly pitted against McCartney, whom she saw as a competitor for influence over Lennon. George Harrison, who always felt overshadowed by Lennon and McCartney, also resented the latter’s instructions about how to play his guitar leads. Seeking financial independence, the Beatles formed Apple, a music, media and fashion conglomeration. That was a carelessly run entity, resulting in further financial squabbles and lawsuits.

 Despite personal and monetary complications, the Beatles remain the most influential band in rock history. They actually were two bands in one, as their rock and pop period gave way to an imaginative, psychedelic period. While Lennon and McCartney wrote their songs individually, they also depended upon each other to refine them. Meanwhile, Harrison emerged from under their shadows as a songwriter and exerted an Indian influence through the sitar. Ringo Starr, sometimes maligned in an era of flashy rock drummers, provided unique patterns, especially in the later period. Bob Spitz masterfully captures the creative collaboration of this foursome and the ways they evolved with and influenced contemporary culture.

Marcel Proust: Breaking the Bonds of Time

The Prisoner by Marcel Proust. Translated by Carol Clark. 384 pp. Penguin Classics

The Fugitive by Marcel Proust. Translated by Peter Collier. 271 pp. Penguin Classics

Finding Time Again by Marcel Proust. Translated by Ian Patterson. 374 pp. Penguin Classics.

(Note: The Prisoner and The Fugitive are combined in one volume. The two books shown are British imports, not yet available from Penguin Classics in the U.S. Prices may vary.)

“The Prisoner” and “The Captive,” the fifth and sixth volumes of “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust, are also collectively known as the Albertine novel. Both share the unhappy theme of the first book, “Swann’s Way”: the role of jealousy as the prime motivator of love. In “Swann In Love,” the dilettante Charles Swann is obsessed with Odette de Crecy, known for her loose morals. The more she stays aloof from Swann, the more he pursues her. In “The Prisoner” and “The Fugitive,” Marcel, the narrator, is living with Albertine, a woman he met in volume three, “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower,” while vacationing during the summer with his grandmother at a seaside hotel in Balbec.

Marcel is consumed with hints and allegations that Albertine is a lesbian. He interrogates others regarding her past, restricts where she goes and whom she sees, and basically keeps her as a captive in his apartment in Paris. Though he is the captor, he becomes a captive himself in the same setting. Once she is his captive, his jealousy abates somewhat and he resolves to leave her–only to find that she has left first. While Albertine’s death through a horse-riding accident ends their tortured affair, Marcel continues with his posthumous investigation of her lesbian afffairs.

In the final volume, “Finding Time Again,” Marcel has gotten over Albertine and is living in Paris, suffering from bombardment during WWI. In addition to the war, the theme of mortality is starkly rendered at a ball he attends, populated by figures he has not seen for many years. At first, he believes that he must be at a costume ball, since he cannot recognize anyone. Soon, though, he realizes how everyone has deteriorated due to the ravages of time.  

What, then, rescues the narrator from the cycle of time and enables him to find it again? He has a number of experiences toward the end that resemble the famous opening episode of “In Search of Lost Time,” when he has tea and madeleine and, by a process of association, sees the entire town of Combray spring up before him. The past is connected with the present and experienced again, proving that it has never left him. Further, through deciding to write the book that we have just finished, he will also recover his entire past. Proust’s narrative, then, comes full circle and is self-contained.

Written in memory of my mother, Dorothy Tone (1923-2006), who introduced me to the writings of Proust and an entire world of art and literature.

"The Village": An Elegy for America's Artistic Center

The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues by John Strausbaugh. Illustrated. 624 pp. Ecco. $17.99 (paperback)

Sitting on a bench at Washington Square Park, having an espresso at Caffe Reggio, listening to music at the Bitter End, and wandering Cornelia, Jones, Barrow, and other winding streets that don’t follow Manhattan’s grid, one can almost imagine that Greenwich Village remains a center of bohemia and artistic experimentation. Armed with a good walking guide, one can visit the spots associated with famous artists and movements. That Village no longer exists, a reality that John Strausbaugh ruefully acknowledges in his outstanding history.

Strausbaugh’s narrative is encyclopedic in scope and teeming with Village characters, major and minor. Starting his narrative at a time four centuries ago as Manhattan gradually developed from its southernmost reaches, he quickly moves into the bohemian movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Marxism, Freudianism, free love, women’s emancipation and avant-garde art held sway. Every cultural and political movement is accounted for, as the Village gained a reputation as a countercultural haven: the New York School of abstract expressionists, the Bebop jazz musicians, the Beat writers, the folk-music scene, the ‘60s radicals, and the gay liberation movement. Along the way, we meet legendary figures: Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, John Reed, W.H. Auden, Jackson Pollock, Dizzy Gillespie, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs. We also stop in at legendary writers’ bars such as the Lion’s Inn and the Whitehorse Tavern, where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death. And, of course, there are storied music venues, whether the Village Gate for jazz or Gerde’s Folk City for folk.

This captivating history reaches a melancholy climax, one recognized by anyone who has witnessed the Village’s contemporary evolution. The author recaptures the long history when the Village was a magnet for young artists and writers. Now, it’s affordable only to investment bankers and corporate lawyers, as “…skyrocketing prices drove resident bohemians and artists out of the Village…” This “shiny and new” gentrified area of upscale shops and restaurants is a far cry from a Village once known for its artistic and cultural experimentation and political dissent. Strausbaugh’s powerful history reminds us of those traditions and celebrates them, in an outstanding narrative that is ultimately elegiac.

“Love & Mercy”: Inside Brian Wilson

Listening to the early Beach Boys, no one would realize the anguish and the genius that made up Brian Wilson. His songs about surfing, the beach and hot rods played into the stereotype of young Southern Californians in the early- to mid-1960s. The young Brian (Paul Dano) wrote about this life, but did not live it. He was abused by his father (Bill Camp), heard sounds in his head, and was eventually too anxious to tour with the band. While the group took off for Japan, the fragile Brian stayed back and promised to come up with a great new repertoire.

 Brian was tremendously impressed with The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” and responded with compositions that made up another classic rock album, “Pet Sounds,” which, in turn, inspired The Beatles. The rest of the Beach Boys were puzzled by Brian’s experimental new album; cousin and band member Mike Love was openly hostile. He was unimpressed by the fact that the critics loved it and, as did fans in England. Sales were relatively low in America and Love did not want to disrupt the formula. Brian, however, did not want to continue with the same sun and fun themes.

 “Love & Mercy” switches back and forth between the young Brian and the older man (John Cusack), who added drugs to his toxic psychic issues. At this point, he was on the verge of complete mental collapse and controlled by a lunatic psychologist, Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). He meets Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), a Cadillac dealer and an exceptionally understanding woman who falls in love with Brian and defeats Landy through legal means.

 Whether encountering the humiliations of his father, the lack of support by his band, and the regimen imposed by his psychologist, Brian is a passive character without the resolve to push back. He is liberated only by Ledbetter, the woman who became his wife. Brian is fulfilled and alive only in the studio, where he can collaborate with musicians and create the sounds he hears within. As “Love & Mercy” shifts seamlessly back and forth between the young and older Brian, it also movingly portrays both his torments and the innovations that made him one of rock’s creative geniuses.

“Richard Estes: Painting New York City” at the Museum of Arts and Design

Richard Estes is one of the leading artists in the photorealist movement, which dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. As is clear from a current exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design, he focuses on New York City in his paintings, which are so detailed that they look like photographs. This impression is deceptive; actually, Estes takes a number of photos of a scene and shifts objects before working on a composition.

The result is always a remarkable study of light, shadows and, especially, multiple window reflections.  Estes’ photorealism, however, is related to realism as virtual reality is related to reality. Those who live here will not recognize this New York City. Many of the scenes have few if any people. The surfaces are slick, shiny, clean and antiseptic. Estes’ superb technical skills are put to the service of a cold vision. In contrast, the artist Red Grooms, for all the cartoon-like aspect of his work, presents the city as raucous and filled with a wild variety of humanity. His is ultimately the more realistic, lived-in vision.

The museum takes a unique perspective on Estes as a craftsman. In emphasizing his creative process, the exhibition presents the photos, silkscreens and woodcuts that are the raw materials of Estes’ art.

Above: "Columbus Circle Looking North," 2009

“Richard Estes: Painting New York City” continues through September 20, 2015, at the Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, NYC, 212-299-7777, www.madmuseum.org

"Mac Conner: A New York Life" at Museum of the City of New York

Ads in The New Yorker and the New York Times for the Mac Conner exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York associate him with the "Mad Men" television series with good reason. Conner, 100 years old, is an illustrator who work for ads and magazines, including Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan, reflected the American culture of the '40s, '50s and 60s. Illustrators such as Conner played an integral role in postwar ads and in women's magazine stories (see illustration above for "Let's Take a Trip Up the Nile," This Week Magazine, November 5, 1950). Conner's art celebrated postwar materialism and reinforced traditional sex roles, yet it took a darker turn as the '50s progressed and "the age of anxiety became a familiar theme. He illustrated stories dealing with juvenile delinquency (the focus of the film "Blackboard Jungle, 1955) and troubled relations between men and women. During the '60s, images depicting an exclusively white America and happy housewives became increasingly dated with the civil rights and women's movements; however, Conner richly documented an entire American cultural period as depicted in this fascinating exhibit.

"Mac Conner: A New York Life" continues through February 1, 2015, at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd Street), NYC, 212, 534-1672, www.mcny.org

Byzantium By The Hudson: "New Art City" by Jed Perl

New Art City: Manhattan at Mid-Century by Jed Perl. 641 pp. Vintage. $18.95 (paperback)

A renaissance took place during the 1950s in downtown Manhattan, when the abstract expressionists held sway. Jed Perl captures a period when artists painted and exhibited in Greenwich Village; drank at the Cedar Tavern; argued at their forum, The Club; and found success at uptown galleries and the Museum of Modern Art.

Younger painters came to New York to learn from older abstract artists and teachers such as Hans Hoffman and from each other. Painter Willem de Kooning said that that New York was “really like a Byzantine city.” Perl describes the atmosphere: “Tenth Street… was a village within the metropolis, and artists and writers… could go for days and weeks without setting foot outside their own sometimes overstimulating neighborhood.”

Perl emphasizes the artists’ sense of individuality. They were part of a movement, but they refused “to accept any style… that had been thrust upon them.” These artistic rebels were ambivalent about their eventual commercial success and new public roles. They worried about a loss of independence and wondered if the museums had more influence over the direction of modern art than they did.

Qualms about commercialism did not bother the Pop artists who came along in the 1960s. In Andy Warhol’s paintings of celebrities, dollar bills and Campbell’s soup cans, we instead see a deadpan reflection of American commercialism. Painter Al Held spoke for others when he rejected the earlier painters’ subjectivity: “The Abstract Expressionists covered everything up with this sensibility and feeling…” For Held, there was to be “No spiritual overlay.”

A book of this breadth takes in more than Abstract Expressionism and Pop; there are realists, collagists, minimalists and assemblage sculptors, along with the influential critics Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg. Perl’s emphases are sometimes questionable; he treats Hoffman and de Kooning in depth, while giving short shrift to Pollock, Rothko and Kline. The closing chapter on the empiricism of painter Fairfield Porter and minimalist sculptor Donald Judd seems too narrowly focused. These reservations, however, are set against the strength of this study as a whole; in New Art City, Jed Perl fully lives up to his ambitious goal, to depict the artistic excitement, crosscurrents and innovation that made New York the artistic capital of the world for two decades.