Trusted eye
Subtitle: post-World War II adventures of a fearless art advocate
By: Claudia Fontaine Chidester ; with a foreword by Ann Reynolds and essays by Graeme Reid and Dorothea Schöne
Publisher: Fontaine Archive
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Austin, Texas
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
ISBN-13: 9780988835825
Subjects: Art and society; History
Description: Trusted Eye is a compelling narrative of an American wife and mother finding her place amid the rubble of war-torn Germany. Virginia Fontaine fought continually for recognition--as a woman, a photographer, an art curator, and, perhaps most importantly, a liaison between beleaguered German artists and the outside world. Through journals, letters, and photographs, she recorded her uniquely intimate perspective on this period, amid an ever-changing constellation of artists and friends. Fontaine documented her life from a young age: her struggles at Yale Art School, her year as a newlywed in the British Virgin Islands, and her employment in a munitions factory. Later, she helped the Jewish underground in Europe; traveled with gallerists throughout Germany, Switzerland, and France; tangled with the Monuments Men; and experienced the international reach of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist pursuits. Essays by art experts Graeme Reid and Dorothea Schöne illuminate Fontaine's early years in Milwaukee and her impact on German art culture in the early postwar years. This book is both a biography and a visual almanac for an intricate slice of the twentieth century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-287) and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Ann Reynolds; title: Preface and acknowledgments; title: Prologue; title: My avocation has always been art; title: That Yale fizzle; title: Artists whom I believe in; title: When Frankfurt burned; title: We found ourselves helping the Jewish underground; title: In an extremely strategic position; title: Papers, please; title: Cops and robbers; title: A Frenchman and an Englishman will say the same thing...and the American...; title: So tired of this royalty; title: Children should feel a sense of permanency; title: The woman who really runs the art world in Frankfurt; title: Being investigated; title: There are hundreds of jobs; title: You have not left my mind for a single minute; title: Oh, dad, this is a strange time in my life; title: No use to me professionally without official credit; title: Paul, I can't move; title: Epilogue; title: Wisconsin art in the 1930s / Graeme Reid; title: A silent sponsor: Virginia Fontaine's commitment to postwar German art / Eine stille Förderin: Virginia Fontaine's Engagement für die deusche Nachkriegkunst / Dorothea Schöne; title: Unpublished works by Virginia Fontaine; title: International exchange exhibit brochures; title: Endnotes; title: Contributors; title: Credits & permissions; title: Names & subject index.