INTERESTED IN BRING OR SELLING? Art As Omen A Pleasant Ridge resident considers art, ideology and power. FRANK PROVENZANO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS VISIT OUR GALLERY AND YOU'LL SEE AN EXTRAORDINARY • COLLECTION OF: N • Fine Jewelry • Perfume Bottles • Vintage and Designer Costume Jewelry • Paintings • Bronzes • Silver • Crystal • Furnishings NEED ASSISTANCE? We Offer You Estate , Insurance and Fine Art Appraisals. ARE YOU MOVING OR IN NEED OF AN ESTATE SALE? We offer professionally run sales and also buy out whole or partial estates. Monday—Saturday 11:00-6:00 and by Appointment. Dell. Ginalice Fine Arts & Anfiques 515 S. Lafayette corner of 6th Street (in the old Church), Royal Oak 810.399.2608 - 7.7.777mOi • ?. POTTERY ♦ PAINTINGS ♦ JEWELRY • FURNITURE UNIQUE ACCESSORIES FOR THE HOME NMESA ARTS — GALLERY COLLECTION 32800 FRANKLIN ROAD ♦ FRANKLIN, MI 48025 TUESDAY - FRIDAY 10 A.M. - 5 P.M. SATURDAY: 11 A.M. - 5 P.M. (810) 851-9949 Turn Your Furniture into a Work of Art Liir,K1- , ■ -44 00 al I> Abby • 810/682-8905 • Linda I early 80 years after the Al- lies and Germans signed the Versailles Treaty, his- torians generally agree that the pact sowed the seeds for World War II. History always reads as an inevitability. But art historian Dora Apel be- lieves in a more immediate barometer of the direction of his- tory. Actually, her belief can be re- duced to a monosyllabic word — one which most politicians might have trouble spelling: "art." Not just any art. But art that is representative of a society's po- litical struggles. For those who believe art is ir- relevant, or merely decorative, Ms. Apel, of Pleasant Ridge, is prepared to argue her point. Her academic excursion into the corridors of history is not a mere intellectual exercise. Rather, it's a sojourn. An attempt to grasp the historical forces that six decades ago swept across Eu- rope. And swept away more than 100 of her relatives living in southeastern Poland. Her parents barely escaped the concentration camps in time to migrate to America. The memories linger. Her mother was the only survivor of her family in a town where nearly 70 relatives had lived. "I've always felt a compul- sion to study that period in a systematic way, to try to understand the many per- sonal histories involved," she said. For Ms. Apel, what the world initially failed to com- prehend in the belligerent, in- humane methods of the Nazis was readily apparent in the Nazis' treatment of art and artists. Art can serve as a omen. "If one can sort out the rela- tionship between art and ideolo- gy; it can give a clue to the thinking of those in power," she said. Last April, Ms. Apel put the finishing touches on her doctor- al dissertation titled "Cultural Battleground," an analysis of German art between the wars. She's now applying for a research grant and hopes to transform her dissertation into a book. As an art historian, Ms. Apel moves along the familiar acade- mic territory with a multidisci- plinary approach, examining the many historical forces that dis- tinguish works of art. At the end of July, she completed a series of lectures on 1920s and 1930s Ger- man art for the Detroit Institute of Arts public-education pro- grams. Each year, the DIA offers a series of three-four week cours- es to go along with its full 33- week art history course. Ms. Apel's lectures were in- tended to enhance the DIA's on- going German Expressionism exhibit, said Linda G. Margolin, assistant curator in the muse- um's department of edu- cation. "Dora made the class very accessible to the students," she said. "She got beyond lecturing and got people to interact." The subject of Ger- man art between the wars is hardly irrelevant ciety losing its compassion and humanity. The works of German Dadaists, satirists and such artists as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Ernst Barlach and Kathe Koll- witz drew the wrath of the ruling Nazis, who termed the work "de- generate." Art between the world wars in Germany, Ms. Apel said, was distinguished by the visual debate between the antiwar Right: Otto Dix's self- portrait. Below: Kathe Kollwitz: "Degenerate art." Below Right: Otto Dix: Drawing the Nazis' wrath. to current American cul- ture, Ms. Apel said. In- deed, she contends that the issues before the Weimar Re- ' public and then, the Nazis, are the universal themes of the 20th century. Responding to the Nazis, artists created stark portraits. "It's all about alienation, psy- chic fragmentation, and the im- age that human beings can be atomized — mechanized," she said. In response, many German Expressionist artists created stark, revealing portraits of a so- artists and those who created pa- triotic imagery. It serves as an example of the battle between art and ideology or, in essence, free- dom and control. When the images of the Ger- man soldier became "heroic" and more accepted, the path to World War II was being paved, she said. "The debate over what consti- tuted the 'public image of war' was the first step of control of German society," she said. "We've witnessed where you can't sep- arate cultural control from over- all economic or political control." Ms. Apel points to the current debate over who should "control" American culture. Within the last several years, major nation- al debates have centered on fund- ing for the National Endowment