High Drama

the long version

The work of the acclaimed visionary artist Eugene Berman taps into a fascinating and little-known undercurrent in twentieth-century aesthetics. Variously labeled neo-Romantics, fantacists, neo-humanists, and magic realists, Berman and his peers ignored the formalist dicta of modernism to explore lyrical, emotive, and highly personal realms deemed the "melancholic sublime." In High Drama, Michael Duncan's exploration of the beliefs, styles, and legacy of the "melancholic sublime," and the biographies and reproductions of the work of thirty-five artists, complete a thorough look at a school of great interest, ripe for rediscovery by today's museum-goers and readers. "The sadness that pours from Berman's outlandish works never dead-ends in self-pity. Instead, the depths of despair give birth to complex visions rooted in the public space of social life." -David Pagel, Los Angeles Times.