Art Discovery And Censorship In The Centre William Rappard Of Geneva

This is a history of the Centre William Rappard, the first building designed to house an international organization in Geneva, and its art treasures. For nearly a century, these works of art and decorations offered by governments and institutions encouraged smooth diplomacy and fluent international negotiations in the fields of labour, trade and human rights. On occasions hidden, removed and forgotten, and then recovered and restored, the history of the artworks in the Centre William Rappard represents the confrontation between art as diplomatic device and aesthetic experience, between representation and represented, between censorship and free expression. Even before its opening in 1926, the building started receiving works from the International Labour Organization member governments. Some pieces, such as the Geneva Window by Harry Clarke, never arrived in Geneva since it was censored by the Irish government. The Spanish Pygmalion by Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera was latter covered for its female nudity and remained hidden during decades. Later in the 1970s the secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade occupied the building and requested the removal of other major works. This was reversed in the 2010s by its successor the World Trade Organization, when many artworks were rediscovered, restored and placed in their original locations. However, new values in the world scene contributed to further changes in the building art, including the removal of Claude Namy’s caricature In GATT We Trust from public view in 2019. Art in the Centre William Rappard continues to speak to the viewer after waves of positive reception, censorship and recovery.

This history of GATT explains how trade was implicated in foreign policy and international relations and connected to global order.

In spite of the steadily expanding concept of art in the Western world, art made in twentieth-century totalitarian regimes û notably Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the communist East Bloc countries û is still to a surprising degree excluded from main stream art history and the exhibits of art museums. In contrast to earlier art made to promote princely or ecclesiastical power, this kind of visual culture seems to somehow not fulfill the category of 'true' art, instead being marginalised as propaganda for politically suspect regimes. Totalitarian Art and Modernity wants to modify this displacement, comparing totalitarian art with modernist and avant-garde movements; confronting their cultural and political embeddings; anti writing forth their common genealogies. Its eleven articles include topics as varied as: the concept of totalitarianism and totalitarian art, totalitarian exhibitions, monuments and architecture, forerunners of totalitarian art in romanticism and heroic realism, and diverse receptions of totalitarian art In democratic cultures.

"English version has been translated from German and French original text.".

Marshalling facts and the latest research findings, the author systematically refutes the adversaries of globalization, markets, and progress. This book will change the debate on globalization in this country and make believers of skeptics.

An exploration of the current state of global trade law in the era of Big Data and AI. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.