ABSTRACT
The two interviews that follow are very much concerned with the relationship between the artist and society. They are with two of Vavra's peers, who are also linked with the avant-garde of the thirties, with that great artistic revolution and promise. Both of them were marked under Nazism by their Jewishness, so that they were unable to work at home. One (Alfred Radok) left his native land, the other (Jir1 Weiss) stayed behind. Radok, born into modest surroundings, sought to listen to the world, its illnesses, its aches and pains, to point out its ailments in a manner both quiet and penetrating, to mistrust everything that puts on too much of an air. Weiss, the son of a wealthy family, went directly to extreme political radicalism, to seeking quick and radically effective cures for old, chronic ailments. A coincidence? Of course. But only a coincidence?
