This book has its origin in an exhibition, “Images of Horror and Fantasy”, which I organized for The Bronx Museum of Arts, November 15 through December 30, 1977. An exhibition of this title had been planned by the museum long before I was asked to be its guest curator. The idea was conceived by Dr. Judith Van Baron in conjunction with Dr. Roberta J. M. Olson.
The relation of the book to the exhibition is that of a finished painting to a first tentative sketch. The works of art discussed on the following pages are meant to illustrate ideas. Therefore, no attempt at constructing a historical evolution was made, and the presentation is neither chronological nor even remotely aiming at completeness. Born out of the contemporary experience, the argument is based upon twentieth-century works and their antecedents in the nineteenth century. It unfold simultaneously on the level of historical and social reality and on the level of dreams. Its purpose is to expose some of the principal anxieties of modern man and their resolution in utopian reveries and escapist fantasies.
In working out this concept, I had to rely on a wide variety of sources; the Elected Bibliography lists all those writings from which I quoted or to which I owe a debt of ideas. One source, however, stands out: Barry N. Schwartz’s The New Humanism: Art in a Time of Change, New York and Washington, D.C., 1974. I received the most vital stimulus both from this book and from its author’s noble and ardent mind. His tragic death was the most terrible of all the horrors I had to face in conceiving this book.
The most joyous experience in the course of its writing was my collaboration with my editor, Mrs. Margaret L. Kaplan. Her literary expertise and gentle wisdom brought light into even the most tormenting passages.
G. S.
New York, July 1978
