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Talks I had with Max and Uncle P.

A (Fragile) Family Portrait with a Vase 

"The epoch whose final years are the subject of this book [exhibition] did not die of old age or accident but exploded in a terminal crisis which is one of the great facts of history, "Like the protagonists of Barbara W. Tuchman's The Proud Tower starting with these words, the main figures in de Lange's series of paintings (who carry on the lost "Talks I had with Max and Uncle p.") are entirely unaware of the "terminal crisis" gaping at their feet, "for the reason that, as it had not yet happened, it was not a part of the experience of this book [painting]."

Even though Tuchman offers a portrait of the world before the Great War, whereas de Lange alludes to pre WWII world, both depict the brittle existence or the illusion of complacent stability that shrouded European bourgeoisie during those times, despite the proximate catastrophes which would soon destroy its very foundations.

Tali Tamir , 2002   

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