Page 64 - Studio International - November 1969

The treatment of Turner's use of colour in his ception of circa 1802, the date of Turner's 293 Renaissance Woodcuts for Artists and Illus­
actual pictures is, surprisingly, one of the first sketch, whereas earlier it is used as an trators /Jost Amman's Kunsthuchlin with a new
book's weaknesses. Dr Gage's judgements argument for Turner's continued use of a dark introduction by Alfred Werner, Dover Publi­
often seem partial and inconsistent. For in­ palette up to 1811, the year in which it is first cations, Inc. $3.00. Constable. 28s 6d.
stance Crichton Castle is described on page 31 as known definitely to have been exhibited. In Art Now: New Tork, edited by Paul Katz and
'fully prismatic', on page 111 as 'far from other cases Dr Gage discovers subtleties that Ward Jackson. Published by Roger Peskiin's
being purely prismatic', and on page 124 as do not seem to be there, for instance the in­ University Galleries, Inc. $25 per year of
'wholly based on a structure of red, yellow terest in the language of symbolism said to be ten monthly issues.
and blue'. In fact the colour reproduction discernible in the letters about the engraving
( which, unlike some of the others, is remarkably of Modem Italy. 'Art' publishing has become a Big Thing in
accurate) suggests that more than just the With so much new material it is not surprising the middle-man flow and form of 'soft-ware'
three primaries were used or at least mixed that each page is interrupted by as many as information about Art. Editors parallel
on the artist's palette. This is confirmed by an nine references to the notes, which are mad­ museum curators and gallery directors in
examination of the actual watercolour, where deningly tucked away at the end of the book. responsibility, influencing what is available
one can also see, from the colour tests on the Some perhaps contribute more to one's ad­ if not what is made. Increasingly frequently,
facing page of the sketchbook from which it miration at the author's industry and know­ if one is to get at the real responsibility for the
comes, that Turner used a separate brown ledge than to the argument on hand: 'A more character of particular publications, fairness
wash. The haloed sun in Staff a, Fingal' s Cave likely source [for the recipes of colours in one demands critical anal is of editorial con­
ys
does not at all precisely echo the description of Turner's notebooks] is the Italian scene­ cepts rather than authors' activity.
quoted from David Brewster's Treatise on painter, James De Maria, for on p. 1 Turner For me, the best sort of publications are
Optics. It is difficult to accept The Dort as an notes a remedy for Maltese plague'. Others beautiful, scholarly, and not over-priced.
anticipation of the opposition of warm and contradict assertions made in the text, as for They provide direct access clearly to primary
cool colours found in the two versions of The instance over the degree of Soane's participa­ information, its sources, and self-criticism;
Burning of the Houses of Parliament; in fact its tion in the building of Turner's second gallery. they are well printed within an economic
relative lack of such contrasts is demonstrated The references are further confused by a scope which would attract readers with more
by the juxtaposition of its reproduction in number of misprints, only serious however love and knowledge of the material than
colour with that of Ulysses deriding Polyphemus, when the important note on Lawrence's money. Within these criteria, Thames and
where the contrast is a major feature of the letter about frames lacks its key number on Hudson's History of Mexican Mural Painting is
picture. The bright colours of this last­ page 164, followed by the dislocation by one about the lousiest book I've seen for a long
named picture are seen, in one of the book's of each of the numbers of the next three notes. time; Dover's 293 Renaissance Woodcuts for
many new and stimulating suggestions, as Worse is the confusion over plates 10 and 11, Artists and Illustrators succeeds; and University
partly the result of Turner's study ofTrecento still further confounded by the errata slip: it Galleries' Art Now: New Tork is almost un­
and Quattrocento frescoes during his second is plate 11 that is reversed while plate 10 is adulterated joy.
Italian visit, but so also are the nearly mono­ merely mislabelled with the wrong Turner Thames and Hudson's latest addition to their
chromatic sketches on millboard probably Bequest number; in fact, like the others of the over-priced coffee-table range is no less than
dating from the same visit and now in the same group (CCLXXX) cited by Dr Gage, it an English translation of a German transla­
Tate Gallery. Not everyone will share the does not show the burning of the Houses of tion (and printing job) of a Spanish text
description of Benjamin West, who comes Parliament. Other slight inaccuracies have written by a Mexican 'critic' writing pseudo­
under discussion as the advocate of an crept in, some as the result of reliance on art history for a parochial (Mexican) audience
opposed theory of colour, as being not 'a secondary sources, such as the Whitley papers, more interested in the art as an indigenous
particularly distinguished colourist'. rather than the original texts. off-shoot of national political and social
On occasions Dr Gage's enthusiasm for some Exasperation with certain features of this book events than in the art itself within a global
new discovery, and there are many, leads him must not however detract from a realization context. In terms of sheer mass, it is awesome:
to develop it beyond all probability in a of its importance. Though it is impossible to 56 colour and 256 black and white repro­
sequence of successive steps, each flimsier acc�pt the thesis that 'Turner's artistic per­ ductions ( of varying clarity and 'truth') ; 517
than the last. One such concerns the subject­ sonality was essentially an intellectual one' pages of wandering text, some notes, a glossary
matter of a group of Turner's early oils. As he did have intellectual pretensions, fortified list of illustrations (and no bibliography)-all
has become increasingly realized in recent by his grounding in eighteenth-century aca­ printed on large, heavy ('expensive') paper
years the paintings of de Loutherbourg were demic theory, and at last these are taken which somehow manages to allow 'see
an important influence on the young Turner seriously and set into the context of the artistic through'. The illustrations are not inte­
(the Tate Gallery has even demonstrated theories of his contemporaries, both in Lon­ grated with the text ( although there are
this on its walls though it has also shown, pace don and abroad. No valid approach to Tur­ margin numbers referring to illustrations­
Dr Gage, that Fishermen at Sea off the Needles ner's art can now ignore the immense new which are not themselves clearly numbered).
owes more to Wright of Derby); Turner areas of knowledge and research laid bare by The text itself is so weighted towards the
perhaps (doubtfully) worked with him in Dr Gage. indigenous inspiration of Siqueiros, Orozco,
1799; de Loutherbourg was interested in MARTIN BUTLIN and Rivera 'Since the Revolution' that it
alchemy; among his books may have been becomes a self-contradictory embarrassment.
A.-:J. Pernety's Les Fables Egyptiennes et Gre qu es The basic inspiration to Rivera and the
though it is not actually listed in his sale; this The gentle art of fascinating Dr Atl of Italy's frescoed murals
book (in a language of which Turner had at publishing is mentioned (p. 165) but not explored; and
best an imperfect knowledge) is then treated although the author ingenuously notes that
as an important source for Turner's Jason, A History of Mexican Mural Painting, by 'It seems odd and slightly contradictory,
Apollo Killing the Python and The Goddess of Antonio Rodriguez (translated by Marina although easily explained, that it was in
Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Corby from Der Mensch in Flammen: Wand­ Europe that Siqueiros' attitude to aesthetic
Garden of the Hesperides. All of this is possible malerei in Mexico von den Anfiingen his ;:;ur problems crystallized' (p. 153), he never
but by no means as certain as is implied. I� Gegenwart). 518pp with 312 illustrations, 56 'explains' it and dismisses· Siqueiros' Euro­
this context the Apollo is regarded as a con- in colour. Thames and Hudson Ltd. £8 8s. pean trip in less than 1/250th of his text. To
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