Art in a State of Siege

"We’ve featured Joseph Leo Koerner on Five Books previously, one of the authoritative voices on art history and the Renaissance in particular. His new volume — an “art-historical epic for dangerous times” — examines three works made in moments of crisis: from the visionary pre-modern imagery of Hieronymus Bosch to the anguished modernism of Max Beckmann , to the resistant drawings of William Kentridge under apartheid. Through these, Koerner asks: what does art look like when the rule of law fails? This is a book for the deranged days of 2025. It insists that in “states of siege” — literal or metaphorical — art becomes not an afterthought but a last bulwark: a language of resistance. Especially in a year like this, given societal upheaval the world over, this reads more like manifesto than academic volume."