museums and collections

A handsome catalogue of the exhibition that Benson, head of the Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, curated at LACMA, and sent on to Munich and Berlin. The design of the bookÑby Scott Taylor with Katherine GoÑperfectly captures the impassioned experimentation that occurred in cities all over central Europe before it was snuffed out by political reactionaries who hated free-thinking artists. A few familiar namesÑBrancusi, Moholy-Nagy, and El LissitskyÑflit through these pages, but most are as little-known as their movements. All were, to some degree, revolutionaries and even participated in street battles in Berlin and Budapest in the chaotic aftermath of the first World War. The world changed around them, and itÕs fascinating to discover, so long after that vanished era, how well they expressed the progressive spirit of the age. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)