Page 68 - Studio International - April 1965

New books

Ivory Hammer 2 though varying in influence from the obvious links to both Giacometti's emaci-
The Year At Sotheby's 220th Season archaic Greek to the streamlined Brancusi, ated marchers and Moore's King and
1963-1964 one can only wonder at the two-sided Queen has, over the years, broadened into
10 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. xxii + 256 pp. talent given to one man who, famous as the triangulated articulation that is visible
(London: Longmans Green & Co. Ltd.) painter, left sculptures that deserve in the recent sculptures. Intervening have
£2 5s. almost equal respect as works of art. Dr. been the weathervane shields and massive
In the season covered by this book, Werner has prefaced the splendid plates boles of standing figures. In all of them we
Sotheby's. the world famous art sale room with the fruit of a thorough research into feel the constantly irrepressible search for
of London, held no fewer than 319 sales Modigliani's activities as sculptor. the effective forming of the bronze to
with a total turnover of £13,251,455, a express a three-dimensional idea, invari-
world record to date More than 60,000 ably tautened on the spring of an organic
Picasso
items were sent in and though most were interior life. Complementary to the free
Text by Hans L. C. Jaffé. 13 x 9* in.
on exhibition before the sales, the majority imagery that has concerned him has gone
160 pp. With 133 reproductions,
will not be on view to the public again. a sensitive portraiture of which the book
including 48 hand-mounted colour
This handsome volume includes 45 full presents some notable examples. Among
plates. (London: Thames and Hudson)
colour reproductions and 215 black and them. Eve Molesworth which solidifies the
£6 6s.
white plates of some of the treasures charm of the sitter in a perfectly telling
'Of making many books there is no end !'
of paintings, scultpures. furniture, jewellery way, Elizabeth Frank, in unmistakable
Ecclesiastes was never more right when
and objets d'art that have changed hands, poise and Sir William E. Williams.
we come to count those published on the
among them some of the fifty Kandinsky 147 monochrome plates excellently illus-
theme of Picasso. The latest is written by
paintings from the Guggenheim Founda- trate the widely ranging oeuvre from the
a well-known critic and Professor of
tion, Rene Fribourg's gold boxes, precious hollow-eyed elm wood carving of 1936
Modern Art at the University of Amsterdam,
books, faience, porcelain and Sevres to the Crankshaft figure of 1963. Roland
Hans Jaffe. His approach is straight-
figures and bases. The text is no less Penrose sketches the main outline of the
forward enough though coloured with the
interesting in its catholicity: Frank Davis artist's career with sympathetic insight—
hero-worship inescapable from any work
reviews the season and records some of his English text is translated into
on the modern master. Larded by quota-
the highlights; Wolf Mankowitz writes a French in a flanking column. Notes of his
tions from the artist (of which no sources
salutary story Portrait of an Incorrigible life's major events, public commissions
are given), we are led through the now
Collector: John Rickett writes a fascinating and private collectors fail to mention
familiar history from birth in Malaga to
history of Richard Dadd; Richard Day on what the initials 'F.E.' stand for. They can
second marriage in the South of France
the Rothwell Family Raphael drawings; be revealed as 'Frederick Edward' though
(several liaisons intervening) expressed
Lord John Kerr on Diaghilev in Paris 1909 : he is almost universally known as 'Mac'.
solely through the description of the work-
W. Winkworth on Netsuke Collecting;
ing programme as evidenced by the paint- Francis Bacon
essays on watches and armour, and on
ings that have been publicly exhibited. Little
an ivory relief portrait of Sir Isaac Newton By John Russell. 7 1/4 by 5 1/2 in. 52 pp.
new can be found to say in the general (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.) 8s. 6d.
complete the reading matter. But the
way but Professor Jaffe makes page-long
chief delight is in looking at the objects Of contemporary British painters, Francis
detailed commentaries on the 48 works
of beauty seen and sold at Sotheby's. Bacon is the one whose reputation at
reproduced in large colour plates of good
home and abroad is unique, not essentially
quality. Largely chosen to represent differ-
for his quality of paint though this is
ences and changes of style, these plates
Modigliani the sculptor frequently praised beyond reason, but
include, among other outstanding and
By Alfred Werner. 12 3/8 x 9 3/8 in. xxxii and for the psychological frisson his images
well-known canvases, Portrait of J. R.with
89 large plates (London: Peter Owen) induce. It is also noteworthy that, as the
roses (his present wife) La Joie de Vivre
£4 4s. catalogue compiled recently by Ronald
the large panel in the Musée Grimaldi.
Sculptures by Modigliani are rare, only Alley proved, few painters have had so
Alberto Giacometti about twenty-five examples of his work Antibes, Night Fishing at Antibes, Three many of their works change hands in such
La Femme qui Marche, Bronze Dancers, now bought for the Tate, and
1933-34 59 in. high in three dimensions are known to survive. a short space of time, which is hardly
Sold for £9,400 ($26.320) Yet at one period in his short and freneti- Portrait of Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler. surprising. Few people could endure
From Ivory Hammer 2. Photographs in the text show the artist
The Year at Sotheby's. cally active career—from 1909 until the in various settings as well other examples living with a Bacon painting for long and
outbreak of World War I I—he devoted him- their ideal setting is a public gallery. It is
of paintings, sculpture and graphic work.
self intensely to the glyptic art working in getting on now for thirty-one years since
In his opinion of Picasso, the author is
studios on or near the Boulevard Mont- Bacon held his first one-man show at the
correct when he says: 'He rejects perfec-
parrasse. Critics and fellow-artists, among Transition Gallery, London—over three
tion, the consummation of a picture,
them Bernard Dorival and Jacob Epstein, years previously The Studio had published
because he attaches too much importance
considered his oeuvre very seriously and an article dealing largely with his work as
to variety to the flexibility of life.'
indeed at that time, he did so himself an interior decorator. Much water has
though ill health and other reasons gone under the bridge since those events
compelled him to abandon it. This is the McWilliam until today the artist has arrived at a peak
first book on Modigliani exclusively as Introduction by Roland Penrose. of expression that is without parallel
sculptor though the author, Dr. Werner, 9 7/8 x 7 3/8 in. 138 pp. anywhere—analogies drawn with Fuseli,
assesses his work in relation to the painting (London: Alec Tiranti Ltd.) £2 10s. Grunewald and Goya get us nowhere
activity that distinguishes his record in British sculptor, F. E. McWilliam, came and a credible analysis of his motives has,
contemporary art history. Excellent photo- from Northern Ireland to London in 1928 up to date, not been written. In this pocket
graphs in large scale illustrate the traced where he began studying painting at the monograph John Russell wisely treats
sculptures from different viewpoints and Slade. But probably his most exciting his subject on a fairly withdrawn level:
provide a picture book of the sculptor's art contact with living sculpture was with the to get to closer grips would mean a
that has a gravely impressive value. Draw- work of Brancusi during a stay in Paris. confusion of critical values. Bacon is and
ings of four heads and twenty-six caryatids Subsequently he joined the British Sur- remains a painter whose art is extremely
convey the graphic outlines of ideas that realist Group before war service with the personal. For those who wish an easily
the artist undoubtedly intended to carry R.A.F. interrupted his development. On assimilated introduction to one of the
out as sculptures. Of the carved heads, return to civilian life, his art gradually fore- most enigmatic living painters this book is
none measures more than thirty inches in sook the disjointed character of surrealist excellent. The several plates including two
height and only one stone caryatid has imagery for a more closely integrated form in colour give some idea of the frenzied
been recorded. But such is the inherent that now distinguishes it. What might be originals and there are lists of exhibitions,
personality projected by each sculpture, described as the spindly totemic with publications and works in museums. •