Page 65 - Studio International - November 1968

worth studying for it provides us with a means of paintings, which are perhaps the first geometric ab­
understanding the inspiration of greater painters in stractions (the discussion of Balla's work is one of
whose art 'idea' was more completely integrated with the most valuable contributions of the book since, in An invaluable guide
form. the context of the 1960's, his work has acquired a
To this end, one must welcome Mrs Martin's attempt new relevance that merits further investigation). to the current market
to define the sources and nature of the Futurists' Whilst Mrs Martin has deliberately.limited her task to
ideas, whilst. at the same time, regretting that she has the analysis of painting and sculpture, she does
not made obvious the interpretations which would mention the Futurists' proposals for changes in music, ART AT
have given thematic unity to the book. The ideas architecture and town-planning, poetry, typography,
which the Futurists absorbed, formulated and trans­ the theatre and even clothes. These are just the major
mitted are discussed by Mrs Martin but they become ideas proposed and, in some cases, realized by the
Futurists-they are certainly important enough to
lost through organization of the book as a chrono­ demand further questions: the question of why, at AUCTION
logical sequence.
The ideas which motivated the Futurists were of so this time (and all over Europe), there should have
wide a range that one can find in them the roots of been so fundamental a change in conceptions of art; 1967-68
nearly every succeeding artistic development-of geo­ the question of the underlying nature and function of
metric and painterly abstraction, of Constructivism, the new art. These questions are, of course, un­ n.
of Dada and Surrealism. Mrs Martin gives a very answerable, but I feel that they should be raised.
complete enumeration of these ideas and their realiza­ The book is well-produced, well-indexed and docu­
tion-but one has to search hard to find them. Thus mented. Whilst the range of illustrations is excellent,
one can find discussion of their insistence on the it raises the perennial problem of how to illustrate an
necessity of expressing new perceptions of the inter­ art-form in which colour plays an essential expressive
relationship of time, space and movement; of their and constructive role. COMING
emphasis on the need to respond to the conditions of In short, this book will undoubtedly prove itself SOON
the new technological and urban environment; of essential in the study of the period and should stimu­
Boccioni's advocacy of the use of 'junk', industrial late new interpretations of the nature of the move­
materials and even motors in sculpture; of Balla's ment. Virginia Spate
THE YEAR
AT SOTHEBY'S
Mr Geist's text. AND PARKE-BERNET
Wily old bird I could sympathize with Mr Geist when he criticized Edited by
And this brings me to another unsatisfactory feature.
Mrs Giedion's Brancusi book for too much cosmic Philip Wilson
appreciation and too little detailed analysis. but his
Brancusi, a study of the sculpture by Sidney Geist. own book errs in the opposite direction. The great A lavishly illustrated account of last Season's
Illustrated throughout in monochrome. Studio Vista. bulk of the text is taken up with endless brief formal auctions at Sotheby's and Parke-Bernet, with
photographs of several hundred recently sold
55s. analyses of over 200 sculptures treated in 'temporal objects, among them many of supreme beauty
order' (i.e. chronological sequence). Of course some and importance.
'Nude men in sculpture are not so beautiful as toads' comments make you think, but the cumulative effect 600 illustrations, 80 pages in colour 84s
-Brancusi. is deadeningly negative: one is reminded of those
short reviews in the American art magazines that are Two new titles in the
I can't think of any great sculptor who offers quite the so impressively succinct and yet so completely point­ GREAT GALLERIES series
problems of interpretation and evaluation that Bran­ less.
cusi does. Something of a cult figure among sculp­ Apart from the very useful catalogue, more complete THE MUSEUMS
tors today, he gets an uncritical adulation at the and accurate than Jianou's, and the twenty-seven
moment that can't possibly last. For the minute that appendixes, full of fascinating material, the book OF PARIS
one begins to probe his achievement awkward ques­ concludes with a short chapter of rather haphazard
tions arise. Perhaps this is the reason why serious Reflections. Here again I find Mr Geist most dis­ Translated from the Italian
studies of Brancusi are rare, and Sidney Geist's book appointing. Some of his points are telling, but others by James Brockway
is certainly warmly welcome, though I'm afraid with I don't understand, and I don't feel he gets to the
considerable reservations. heart of the matter. It's this that's particularly dis­ illustrated with 32 colour and 113 black and
white photographs 63s
Anyone interested in Brancusi has long been fami­ turbing in a book about Brancusi, who more than
liar with Mr Geist's writings. He is a New York any other twentieth-century sculptor does raise THE ESCORIAL
sculptor and critic whose reviews of the existing general issues. Let me give three examples of what I
monographs on Brancusi by David Lewis, Carola mean. and La Granja De San Ildefonso
Giedion-Welcker and lonel Jianou have always been 1 : Mr Geist makes an equivalence between Mon­ Translated from the Italian
fair and perceptive, if rather sharp in tone. And as his drian and Brancusi, which· is common enough. but
journal of a visit to Rumania in 1964, Looking for isn't it rather absurd? For Brancusi never was an by James Brockway
1
Brancusi, is by far the most illuminating recent article abstract artist. strictly speaking-he carried his formal illustrated with 32 colour and 110 black and
on Brancusi that I've come across, I approached his simplifications to an extreme, but never lost the basic white photographs 63s
book with great expectations. animal. bird, or part-of-human-body connection.
In the event they were disappointed, and it's not He couldn't get beyond this stage, and like so many HENRY MOORE
easy to say just why. The easy readability of Mr artists of his generation his development atrophies in
Geist's articles doesn't carry over into his book, which mid-career. (After a marvellous period in the 191 0s, ON SCULPTURE
is rather heavy and turgid in places. Another trouble what happens to Brancusi ?) The greatness of Mon­
is the book's rather depressing appearance (it's an drian in my view lies precisely in that he alone Edited by Philip James
American production, distributed here by Studio decisively passed this artistic position and provided a "The only practising artists who have made
Vista). The illustrations are often miserably small, basis for building a new art. Brancusi pointed a new statements of comparable acuteness are perhaps
because Mr Geist has wherever possible reproduced direction with the Cups of 1918, and the Arch (see Leonardo and Rodin" - Sir Herbert Read
The Listener
them all to scale. This is an ingenious idea which below) but doesn't follow it up. The brutal difference 5 full colour illustrations, 128 in black and
helps us appreciate at a glance which are the large is that Brancusi dried up, and Mondrian didn't. white6gns
and which the small sculptures. but otherwise there's 2: Isn't the central problem in Brancusi the rela­ 133 black and white illustrations
not much to commend it. I know that good plates tionship of the so-called pedestals and decorative 25s paperback
and a larger format would have greatly increased the works to the so-called sculptures? For the distinction MACDONALD
price, but it's a bit crazy when you need to have begins to break down, yet Brancusi can't resolve it.
another volume on Brancusi at hand to appreciate (Perhaps this was a cause of his later inactivity.) I
223