Page 51 - Studio International - February 1966

Piet Mondrian
Broadway Boogie-Woogie 1942-43
Watercolour
The Whitney Museum of American
Art, New York
Of this, Mondrian's last complete
painting, which is reproduced in
Modern Art Explained, Katharine
Kuh says:
'a painting Mondrian made toward
the end of his life after he moved
to New York. reflects his delight in
America. Broken into staccato
colour areas, the picture recalls the
snapping rhythms of modern jazz.
Recently the late American painter,
Stuart Davis, also a jazz fan, said
in speaking of Mondrian, 'I talked
to him about jazz several times. He
responded to its basic rhythms in a
direct physical way; it even
made him want to dance.'

ism' that it 'takes its ... models ... from ... the Danube But what can be enjoyed today as never before since Hibbard concentrates more on the content of the
school of the 16th century, from the Mannerists and the 18th century are the aesthetic and technical sculptures—the idea or concetto underlying each work
the 19th century Symbolists and from various other qualities of Bernini's art—his astounding virtuosity, his —than on their form. He treats the architecture only
sources'—but quotes with approval a dithyramb inventive genius and his originality in transforming in passing and omits the painting and stage design
John Anthony Thwaites marble into expressive shapes of a kind previously
of praise. altogether; he also says less than he might have done
unknown. His mastery of his profession was absolute on the artist's preparatory drawings. Of the sculpture,
and, unlike Michelangelo's, seemingly effortless. however, he gives a clear, painstaking account, adds
An artistic dictator Although primarily a sculptor, he was also an some new, post-Wittkower dates, and incorporates a
Bernini by Howard Hibberd architect, painter, playwright and stage designer. He number of original observations on the portrait busts.
Penguin Books was virtually artistic dictator of Rome for much of his The plates in the book are copious and well chosen but
255 pages, 127 monochrome plates 12s. 6d. life and dominated European sculpture for nearly a have come out too soft and dark in the printing.
Twenty years ago the name of Bernini still provoked century after his death. A glimpse of his power in Altogether this monograph will be an invaluable aid to
mild hostility in England and America, especially in action can be seen on a small scale in the Victoria and students, but to make up their minds why they like
circles connected with modern art. Now, with this Albert Museum, where his Neptune and Triton (one of Bernini they must go and look at the sculptures for
book, he has become one of the few Old Masters to be the very few full-size examples of his work available themselves. Michael Kitson
given a paperback monograph all to himself. outside Italy) lords it over every other piece within
Art in London: a guide by Brian Brooke
Admittedly this is partly due to chance (further similar range except a tiny wax model by Michelangelo for one
monographs are no doubt planned) and partly to the of his Slaves. More than any other sculptor, Bernini Methuen 221 pages
fact that the barriers to appreciating him have fallen made the triumph of creative wizardry over inanimate paperback 8s. 6d., cloth bound 18s.
away rather than that he has become a fully materials into a source of aesthetic excitement. A sensible and useful handbook on where to find
sympathetic figure. At the heart of Bernini's work lie Howard Hibbard's book is useful and scholarly but what in London—paintings, sculpture, ceramics,
values of authoritarianism and Counter-Reformation suffers from being up against the almost impossible tapestry, furniture, musical instruments, 'useful,
spirituality which the modern mind finds hard to take, as competition of Professor Whittkower's chapter on decorative and popular arts', etc. Appendix gives
it can take, say, the values enshrined in Michelangelo's Bernini in Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750, a opening times of museums and galleries and
work, even though these are equally out of date in the chapter which is arguably the best thing ever written information on how to get to them, and there is an
chronological sense. on a 17th-century Italian artist. Like Wittkower, index of artists.