Page 54 - Studio International - December 1965

New books

The success and failure of Picasso administered by the National Trust and paintings. sculptures and objets d'art
By John Berger. 7¾ by 5 in. xii+ 210 pp. contains the greatest mural painting that acquired through hundreds of years by
With 120 illustrations. (Harmondsworth: has been completed in Britain in this the ancestors of their present owners.
Penguin Books) 7 2s. 6d. century. These homes. by years of contact. seem
Of the making of books about Picasso ideal for the display of the works which
there is no end. The latest joins those Dictionary of art and artists in many cases are contemporary with the
which have appeared in recent years that By Peter and Linda Murray. 7 7 ¼ by 6-!, in. architecture and the decoration. In this
have attempted to cut down the giant from 464 pp. With 52 colour plates and 1198 sumptuous volume. Douglas Cooper. the
the legendary stature he has achieved in black and white illustrations. (London: distinguished art historian, has taken 12
popular assessment. Though written by a Thames and Hudson) £6 6s. of the most superlative collections remain­
well-known art critic the approach is a From the original publication of a ing in private hands and presented their
'human· one and the net sum of the dictionary of art and artists published by riches in generous reproduction. each
author's criticism is roughly that Picasso Penguin. the idea has been expanded into described by an eminent scholar in an
is growing old and his powers are what is a virtual necessity for any family evocative essay. The collections are
diminishing. It is of course not inevitable or library concerned with the visual arts. widely separated. From Rome. the
that all artists should improve with age The scheme of the contents begins with Princes Colonna. the Princes Doria
and Mr. Berger's complaint is largely over 700 biographies of painters. sculptors Pamphili and the Princes Pallavicini;
frivolous though he makes it appear well­ and engravers from about the year 1 300 from England. the Dukes of Devonshire,
founded as it stems from Picasso·s to the present day who were working in the Earls Spencer and the Marquess of
apparent wish to exercise a virtuosity with Western Europe and the United States. Cholmondeley: from France, the Princes
his undoubted powers rather than create The entries are full of respect for those de Conde and the Due d'Aumale and the
a new vision born of his social convictions. artists whom history has honoured; Princess de Beauvau-Craon : from
Seen against the history in Europe of the Aelbert Cuyp is given 30 lines whereas Sweden, the Counts Wrangel and Brahe:
past 65 years. the book makes for lively Dai i. Salvador (b. 1904) is summed up in from Vienna, the Counts Harrach; from
reading though one is amazed to learn five lines as follows: ·was originally a Germany, the Princes Furstenberg and
that author and artist have never met. nor Cubist but became sne- of the leading from Spain, the Dukes of Alba. The
presumably has the former had the Surrealists until he abandoned its implied authors include such authorities as F. J. B.
opportunity of seeing the several hundreds Marxism and returned to the Catholic Watson. Director of the Wallace Collection.
of paintings by Picasso which he has Church. Glasgow. New Brunswick. New London. and Franco Russoli. Chief Curator
kept himself. Picasso in fact seems to be York and other U.S. museums have of the Brera Gallery, Milan. Superb
the whipping boy for the society that pictures·. Three hundred essays deal with photographs illustrate such fabulous
, Mr. Berger condemns and there is a movements. ideas and processes. etc. interiors as that of the Palazzo Colonna. a
strange irony in the fact that both are. or The second section deals in nine parts beautiful panel of The Concert by the
were. brother communists. But in his with the major techniques in colour and Master of the Half-length in the Palais
success materially Picasso has failed to here the 50 plates are of particular interest Harrach. Vienna. a sketch of the Island of
produce a painting that carries the being captioned to note their proportion Hispaniola by Christopher Columbus
Marxist battle nearer to world victory. in relation to the originals which are owned by the Duke of Alba and the unique
Perhaps for the writer this was his greatest reproduced in small dimensions beside Sevres porcelain chamber pot of Napoleon
failure. though. it must be added. the most the detail in colour. One hundred and I in the Scholoss Donaueschingen.
fruitful period of activity, from 1930 to seventy pages comprise the visual history
1 944. is accorded the credit it deserves. of art in which all the five major schools of Bernard Buffet
A book that will provoke discussion and Western painting. sculpture and engraving Text Maurice Druon. Photographs Luc
disagreement but unique in its scheme and are illustrated in small scale demonstrating Fournol, Captions Annabel Buffet. 17 2 pp.
method of exposition. the progress of the media in the different 11½ by 70½ in. (London: Methuen & Co.
countries and periods. supplementing the Ltd.) £3 7 Os.
earlier biographies. Classified and alpha­ How can a painter survive such an early
Stanley Spencer at Burghclere betical bibliographies complete the most success as Bernard Buffet? The question
By George Behrend. 7 O¼ by 7 ¼ in. 64 pp. comprehensive illustrated reference book is an academic one for as yet there is no
(London: Macdonald & Co. Ltd.) 21s. on Western art since the middle ages that sign that Buffet is not surviving and
In the Sandham Memorial Chapel built has appeared to date. Authors are both comfortably at that. although in recent
specially to house them are the mural lecturers on the history of art at the years there has been a diminution in the
paintings by the late Stanley Spencer University of London and Dr. Peter acclaim that formerly accompanied each
based primarily on the artist's experience Murray is also the Witt Librarian at the exhibition of his work. This de luxe
during the First World War when he was Courtauld Institute. Both were trained volume combines the contributions of.four
with a medical unit during the Macedonian as painters which gives their comments participants: the author Maurice Druon.
campaign. The late Mr. and Mrs. John the authority of practitioners no less than a critic and friend. who describes the art
Behrend commissioned Spencer to carry historians: on Jackson Pollock's methods. and the life of the artist with candour and
out the plan after discussing it with him for example. the comment is: 'He used admiration; the photographer who follows
in 1932 and in 1937 the chapel was metallic paints and ordinary commercial Buffet and his wife through church doors
dedicated to the memory of the late synthetic and enamel and plastic paint. where his religious paintings are hung on
Lieut. H. W. Sandham. brother of Mrs. with results that are already unfortunate'. the walls and into the home and studio
Behrend who died in 1919 from an where he draws and she models as a
illness contracted during the Macedonian Great Family Collections toreador; Annabel Buffet the wife who
campaign. George Behrend. a son of the Edited with an introduction by Douglas captions the photographs with wit and
donors. here describes the story of the Cooper. 7 2½ by 7 7 i in. 304 pp. 400 discernment concerning not only the
paintings and how they were created. plates includmg 48 colour pages. (London: subject matter of the paintings but also
Fifty-two photographs illustrate the Weidenfe!d & Nicolson.) 6 gns. 5 gns. the character of the entomological
different canvases including the enormous unuJ 31 December. sculptures that surround the studio. Chief
Resurrection of soldiers handing in Museums extend their collections of old contributor to the success of the book is as
crosses that fills the end wall behind the masters and antiques by the purchase of he should be-the artist himself. whether
altar. Despite the somewhat disjointed old family heirlooms that once adorned seen. reserved. unimpulsive at work. but
narrative and the indifference of some of stately homes. Modern private collections chiefly in the scores of reproductions.
the reproductions. ,his book is a reminder are acquired on the basis of art history His tenacity. his unimpaired conviction.
of an astonishing feat of picture-making rather than taste. Yet there still remain in may yet serve to confound those critics
that is too little known. The chapel is Europe houses that are the settings for who prophesy an early eclipse.
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