Page 17 - Studio International - April 1966

important part of the art h. ;tory curriculum in tive headings, so that the thread of continuity into most books dealing solely with painting. The
any college. should not be lost when one puts the book down. two books Cubism and twenti.eth-century art by
From the various discussions and notes supplied If one estimates that it would be possible to sell an Robert Rosenblum ( 1961) and Cubism-a history_
by the students 3 it was established that since most edition of20,000 copies of such a book in Great and anarysis by John Golding (1959), should
books are read in bed (art history included) the Britain alone, the price could probably be in the probably be counted among the standard works on
size should be no more than 12 x 10 inches, but region of thirty shillings, which would make it cubism although the sneer size, weight, and
preferably 12 x 9 inches, with plastic-coated accessible to most art students. column width of the first prevents ease ofreading,
hard covers, approximately I-inch spine and some The thirteen or fifteen books on cubism in French whereas the second appears more like a thesis
350 pages of white art paper with main text 12 on and English all fall short of the sort of master work which proves the ability and knowledge of the
14 point, and captions and notes in 10 point solid. that the Corsham students envisaged-there is author without showing overt concern to make the
The content of the book was envisaged as a docu­ nothing that would be either as readable, subject alive to the reader. The only work which
mentary manual subdivided as follows: sources of comprehensive or lively as this imaginary idea. approximates to the ideal, as discussed at Corsham,
cubism, analytical cubism, synthetic cubism, late Today's student of cubism must still start with the is Alfred H. Barr's Cubism and Abstract Art published
cubism, and the influences and implications gospel of cubist theory Les peintres cubistes by by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in
of cubism, with notes printed in the margins in Apollinaire with chapters on such diverse themes 1936. The volume, which contains only eight pages
different colour; pictures, however small, accom­ as The plastic virtues and nature of printed text on analytical, synthetic and later
panying the text throughout; quotes from Purity cubism as well as cubist sculpture, is the most
contemporary critics in both French and trans­ Unity lucid, concise and interesting treatment of the
lation; photographs of the artists taken at the time; Truth subject on an introductory level, especially as Barr,
statements by the artists; facsimile reproductions Abandonment of the representational subject throughout the volume, talks about painting,
of contemporary literature dealing with cubism; Pure art and past art sculpture, as well as constructions, photography,
biographies of the artists, their critics and their Modem art not a hoax architecture, industrial art, theatre, films, posters,
dealers; bibliography subdivided into general Cubism and art of conception and typography. The book incidentally contains no
section and that dealing with specific artists; and Sci.entific cubism colour. If only it were reprinted it could easily
an index. Other points on which most of the Physical cubism serve as an introduction to twentieth-century art.
students agreed were that there should be two Orphic cubism Any approach to a new book on cubism should
colour plates for Picasso and Braque, and one each Instinctive cubism deal with its creators as artists grasping at the
for Gris, Leger, Duchamp, Duchamp-Villon, -the last are categories that have not passed into fundamental substance of reality, as well as their
Metzinger, Delaunay, Gleizes, Marcoussis, Villon, common usage. Metzinger's and Gleizes' book place among the aristic bohemia of Montmartre, so
Picabia, Lhote, de la Fresnaye, Laurens, and du Cubisme is another interesting document (1912). that the reader may conjure up the atmosphere of
Archipenko. There should be enough black-and­ Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's The Rise of Cubism the time and the full implications of the movement
white plates to give an idea of the artist's range (written 1915) sees cubism as the.struggle with the in the context of twentieth-century art. D
within the idiom of the movement, as well as absolutes in painting and the author talks solely
illustrations of those works which influenced or about Picasso, Braque and Leger. Christopher 1 Anthony Forster (Methuen), David Herbert (Studio
inspired cubism. The book should also contain a Gray's philosophical expose Cubist aesthetic theori.es Vista), Thomas Neurath (Thames & Hudson),
comprehensive chart of the period covered by the (1953) deals with the idealist background of John Taylor (Lund Humphries).
text, which would relate the events and develop­ cubism, its different phases and Apollinaire's 2 This fi gur e is the result ofa survey done lastJanuary.
ments directly involved with cubism to those in the poetry. Guy Habasque's Cubism (1959) is a com­
fields ofliterature, music, politics, technology, and pact survey accompanied by a useful chronology. 3 Students taking part in this seminar were: Robert
science. Finally there should be a glossary of all art From Cubism to Sumalism in French Literature_ by Barret-Blackmore, Rena Contogonis, Anne Harris,
terms used in the book. In order to facilitate Georges Lemaitre contains much peripheral Elaine Old, Virginia Robinson, Wernli Thairs, David
reading, chapters could be very short with descrip- material of the sort that should be incorporated Walker, Rosemary Wood.

NaumGabo·
and the Constructivist tradition

An editorial note
We have devoted this issue to the work of Naum Mr Gabo has given us the following note on how the To those interested in the first intimations of inspira­
Gaba and the Constructivists not only because the Manifesto came to be written: tion we can also offer this anecdote on Naum Gabo's
'Constructive idea' has been a seminal influence in The Manifesto was a resume of my own thinking­ childhood:
twentieth-century art but because It is a force far what I had been talking about and teaching. It Near one of our family's woods, on the road, was
from exhausted, still offering great possibilities for was written in one night. Really it was a declara­ a boulder. I liked that boulder very much. I had
exploration, and in many ways, as Naum Gaba him­ tion in connexion with an exhibition. I had got a desire to chisel on it a line of a poem I had made
self has said, only a beginning. It is also one of the permission to take over a bandstand, a shell-like up. I didn't have any tools. So I used a big nail
few movements centred on an 'idea' whose adher­ building on a boulevard, out in the open air, for an and a hammer. They didn't have any effect. There
ents have been deeply concerned with social develop­ exhibition. My brother Antoine Pevsner and I and wasn't a mark, not a scratch, on the boulder ..•
ments. As such it is very much part of the present. several students exhibited. We took it in turns to I must have been about six years old at the time,
The Realistic Manifesto, issued in 1920, remains to this stand guard every night so that the exhibits would because I hadn't yet started going to school.
day the most important gloss on the 'Constructive not be damaged. There was, in fact, an attempt to Finally, Alexei Pevsner's brief biographical sketch,
idea', and we have re-printed it, thanks to the kindness break up the exhibition. Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, to which reference
of Naum Gaba and Lund Humphries. As David When I read the Manifesto to Antoine he said, 'I is made in this issue, was published by Augustin &
Thompson points out in his article, it is one of the few will sign it.' He told his students about it, and his Schoonman, Amsterdam, in 1964.
manifestos of its kind 'which doesn't read slightly students and mine wanted to sign it too. At the
embarrassingly today'. Behind the trumpet call is a time about fifteen students used to come to my
very powerful purpose. studio for discussions, and often Lissitsky and
Malevich would come. But I stopped my students
from signing. 'This is a credo,' I said. 'You are
young. You believe me now. You agree.-But how
will you feel two or three years hence ?'
I allowed only my brother to si gn because I knew
he would contribute to the Constructive movement.
125