Contesting "Le corps militaire": Antimilitarism, Pacificism, Anarcho-Communism and 'Le Douanier' Rousseau's La Guerre

When the 1889 Military Law was passed, it established three-year universal conscription and a greater army of citizens to boost military preparedness for war in French colonies and against Germany.Far from its ramifications being of no concern to neo-impressionists, it was the subject of bightingly bitter antimilitarist cartoons by Maximilien Luce and antimilitarist paintings by the neo-impressionist outsider, 'Le douanier' Rousseau. Far from picturing the patriotic honor of becoming a soldier and the victories of war, as did Edouard Detaille, Rousseau did the opposite. In the heat of military slaughter of families at Fourmies, Rousseau revealed how conscription would transform French citizens into le corps militaire to fight not just against their arch-enemy with machine-like precision but against their very own people

Image & Imagination : Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2005

"Whether one is being photographed, making a photograph, or looking at a photograph, photography is an act of the imagination. In nine original essays, art historians and cultural theorists break with photographic tradition to explore the crucial role of the imagination in photography from nineteenth-century studio portraiture to twenty-first-century digital innovations. Drawing on the twenty-nine exhibitions of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2005, Image & Imagination features the work of over sixty contemporary artists from Canada, Australia, the United States, France, England, Haiti and Japan." -- p.[4] of cover

The Art Dealer and the Devil: Remarks on the Relationship of Elia Volpi and Wilhelm von Bode

The essay focus on the relationship between the powerful Wilhelm von Bode, creator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, and the Florentine art Dealer Elia Volpi, in the historic context of the end of 18 and beginning of 19 century. The text explores connections among Florentine antiquarians, trading strategies and relationships between them, the museum curators and the decadence of noble family