Les arts sous l’Occupation

On 16 May 1940, a week after the campaign of France was launched, Duchamp settled in Arcachon. On 20 October 1944, Arletty, accused of collaborating with the Germans, was arrested at the hotel Lancaster. Between those two dates, in occupied France and in particular in Paris, four dark but in no way empty years went by. Picasso worked in his workshop in rue des Grands-Augustins, Kees van Dongen exhibited at the gallery Charpentier, Sacha Guitry, Cocteau and Paul Morand wrote, Charles Munch directed at the Conservatory, Abel Gance, Pagnol, Raimu and Fernandel made movies. Should they have done it? Should Marie Laurencin have given illustrations to the weekly Comoedia? Should 56 million francs have been spent to produce Les Enfants du paradis ? It is not so easy as one first thinks to answer these questions. The book is organized like a diary and describes the Occupation in detail, its key-characters, its major works, on one side and the other - from Décombres by Rebatet to Corbeau by Clouzot.

• Les arts sous l’Occupation, directed by Stéphane Guégan, Beaux Arts éditions, 2012, 280 p., €39.50