John McPhee's The Ransom of Russian Art is a suspenseful, chilling, and fascinating report on a covert operation like no other. It offers unprecedented insight into Soviet culture at the brink of the Union's collapse. In the 1960s and 1970s, an American professor of Soviet economics forayed on his own in the Soviet Union, bought the work of underground "unofficial" artists, and brought it out himself or arranged to have it illegally shipped to the United States. Norton Dodge visited the apartments of unofficial artists in at least a dozen geographically scattered cities. By 1977, he had a thousand works of art. His ultimate window of interest involved the years from 1956 to 1986, and through his established contacts he eventually acquired another eight thousand works—by far the largest collection of its kind. McPhee investigates Dodge's clandestine activities in the service of dissident Soviet art, his motives for his work, and the fates of several of the artists whose lives he touched.

Every so often, the organizers of an art exhibition attempt to address head-on issues of interest in the world of contemporary politics. Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890-1990 represents such an undertaking. With the break-up of the Soviet Union, countries and cultures under Soviet control suddenly opened up to the West. In the past few years, as information has begun to flow more freely, art historians have found themselves having to re-examine their subjects and concerns in the light of newly accessible information. Nowhere is this situation more apparent than in the study of Jewish artists in Russia. Until recently, books and catalogues written in the West have concentrated on work done by Russian Jewish artists in exile. Now, for the first time, an international group of scholars has been assembled to address the last hundred years of art produced by Jews living in Russia itself. Given the present state of research, Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890-1990 - which documents an exhibition organized by The Jewish Museum, New York - purposely proposes more questions than it answers. A lucid historical overview by historian Michael Stanislawski followed by seven thought-provoking essays by an international roster of art historians who address, in chronological sequence, the difficult, frequently uplifting history of Jewish art in Russia in the modern period.

Presents extended reviews of noteworthy books, short reviews, essays and articles on topics and trends in publishing, literature, culture and the arts. Includes lists of best sellers (hardcover and paperback).

"Itinerary: Art Institute of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX ... Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV ... William Bonifas Fine Arts Center, Escanaba, MI ... Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI ... Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield, CT"--T.p. verso.

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Motion pictures, television, radio, music, theater, publishing, sports.

This elegant book reveals a body of art practice previously and necessarily hidden from public view in both the Soviet Union and the West. Bringing together artists who worked in a broad range of styles and approaches, and often at great personal risk, Forbidden Art reveals artwork that challenged Soviet totalitarianism. From the horrific purges of the Stalin Era, to the time before the Soviet Union's collapse -- when failure to conform could result in loss of employment, imprisonment, or death -- this book documents the heroic legacy of Soviet nonconformist art, and includes a group of scholarly essays on such issues as the relation of Russian "outsider art" to the avant-garde. With a bibliography and artist biographies, this book is a captivating reminder of the artist's role in challenging the status quo.