CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/3/2017

New Edition of Willemijn Stokvis' definitive, 416-page study of the Cobra movement

“In essence, our culture is already dead,” Cobra cofounder Constant Nieuwenhuys said in a 1948 interview. “Any facades still standing can be blown away tomorrow by the atom bomb, but even without that they can no longer bewitch us. All certainty has been stripped away, leaving us bereft of belief. Save this: that we are alive and that the nature of life is to manifest itself … The structure of our society means that we are certainly not yet free, but we are working for tomorrow’s world. A new society will follow this and then man will naturally do what now demands of us a tremendous effort: be a living creature.” Featured image is Constant's 1949 oil painting, "Apres nous la liberté (After Us, Liberty)."