Carl Einstein's 'L'Art du 20e siècle' Revisited

A review of the reissued 1926 book 'L'Art du 20e siècle' by Carl Einstein, published by Jacqueline Chambon éditeur. The volume was a critical success upon its original publication, with updated editions in 1928 and 1931. Einstein, often mistaken as a nephew of the physicist, is known for his 1915 book on African art. In 1928, while in exile in Paris, he collaborated with Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille on the journal 'Documents,' which introduced psychoanalysis and social sciences to French thought. Born in 1885 in the Rhineland Palatinate, Einstein was a German Jew who engaged in political movements: in Brussels in 1918, with the Spartacists in Berlin in 1919, and in Spain with Republicans in 1936. He was interned at Camp Bassens near Bordeaux and, like Walter Benjamin, committed suicide by jumping into the Gave de Pau. His book covers art from 1860 to 1920, starting with Impressionism as a prelude to cubism. He critiques Matisse as a 'technician of quick solutions' but praises cubism for its radical novelty. The book consists of monographs on Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, the Blaue Reiter, Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoschka, and Otto Dix, with few quotations and no reproductions. Einstein dismisses 'taste' as conservative and reactionary. The review highlights his unique perspective as a contemporary witness to the art of the century.