Malvina Hoffman

The full story is about Malvina Hoffman's travels throughout the world to create a collection of sculptures of the different body types of people from all cultures and races for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in the 1930s. Heads and Tales is an engaging read from many perspectives: a historical perspective of race in the 1930s; a great art story; a look at feminism in the 1930s; and, a historical snapshot of the world from an artist's perspective. Malvina Hoffman was not a polished writer but her story is told in an honest and straightforward way as if she were telling you her life story over a cup of tea. It is an inspiring story of a courageous female sculptor who's memory has not beeen honored well. Her Hall of Man collection which is chronicled in this book, is now dismantled, damagaed and scattered around two separate museums. In a world of political correctness gone crazy, there is a paranoia that her work is racist because it dares to typify races of people. Overlooked is that this is one woman's vision and an outstanding body of work created under extreme circumstances. I highly recommend this book which has many original black and white photographs of her and her work.… (mais)