The Germans and their art

the long version

This fascinating book investigates what is specifically German about German art, focusing on the attitudes Germans have had toward their art from the Romantic period to the present and discussing the ways in which they have tried to find their identity as a nation through this art. Hans Belting proposes that the history of German art criticism has been coloured by division, a split caused both by opposing ideologies and by the contradiction between what the Germans have wanted their artand their nation - to be and the reality of what they were.