The surrealists and the modern movement in painting as a whole seemed to offer a key to the strange postwar world with its threat of nuclear war. The dislocations and ambiguities in cubism and abstract art as well as the surrealists reminded me of my childhood in Shanghai.

If one seeks to analyze experiences and reactions to the first postwar years I hope one may say without being accused of bias that it is easier for the victor than for the vanquished to advocate peace.