Summer 2016 b

Thereafter a hammer should be
used to destroy the whole mechanism
with a single blow.
Nothing could replace her, not
fame, not suicide, not art. Beyond
their shared bed and shared studio
their lives swam into the core
of the history of their age. His repute
rose strong and enduring as
an erection. Hers recorded the
depredation of the human spirit,
fouled by the torrents of evil
that spewed out of the middle of
the century.
They had joked in bed, fought in
the studio, taunted each other in
their spirit of sexual freedom. Reality
was more outrageous than
surrealism. World War more of
an adventure than fashion. Her
stark black and white images of
SS suicides and concentration
camp inmates both dead and
alive are more shocking than
the staged absurdities of Dada.
She found escape from Dachau
promised but never delivered
however much she drank. In the
long post war English years she
never stopped seeking that unattainable
peace.
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