Page 90 - Studio International - July August 1970

and average distance. 'It may seem a long overstate and determine a restrictive, im- and the text on offset cartridge. There are
jump, but the situation in astronomy over poverishing view of it. Professor Held's book some sections on four-colour offset litho and
quasars is logically similar to the special is not wholly free from both these tendencies some in letterpress halftone. A few illustra-
problem that pictures present to the eye.' on certain of the positions he takes up in tions, not many, are printed on cartridge,
Considering art, the author puts a good deal relation to some works, but on the central probably with a very coarse screen. Typo-
of emphasis on the claim that most painting issues he shows a quality of appreciation and graphically, it is well clothed. The book
does not concern itself with spatial orienta- understanding which makes his interpreta- weighs four and a half pounds and the case
tion: 'it is largely his object-hypotheses which tions a valuable contribution to the already binding adequately contains its bulk.
the artist represents', and 'object-hypotheses vast body of literature on Rembrandt. What The contents of the volume are divided into
cannot contain information of scale, distance gives this book a coherence over and above three main parts. The first, Book One, is a
and orientation'. This, one might reply, is a the individual parts is that the works con- discursive account, loosely chronological, of
pretty truncated view of the aspirations of a sidered fall within the latter half of Rem- Duchamp's work apart from the Large Glass.
good deal of Western painting, from de brandt's career, and that there is something The second part, Book Two, is a lengthy
Hooch to Braque, and one cannot help hoping mysterious regarding the content of the work analysis of the Glass itself. The third book con-
that Gregory will one day comment on that or its position in the artist's oeuvre: they are sists of a section of illustrations, a catalogue
tradition in painting that has been precisely problematical from the outset. Held considers raisonné, and a comprehensive bibliography.
concerned with 'scale, distance and orienta- three paintings: Aristotle, The Polish Rider and The price of the book probably excludes it
tion'. But the point here is different. He is Juno. The other lengthy study concerns the from a general readership. This makes it more
driving towards a link between pictures and illustrations for the Book of Tobit. of an institutional possession. The catalogue,
writing, and thus language. I am especially interested in the view the which was approved by Duchamp, should be
The earliest written languages were pictorial, author puts forward regarding the Aristotle made available separately in a cheaper
using drawings of things as nouns. Later (1563). He disputes the view that Aristotle is volume. It contains nearly twice the number
particular meanings and relationships were contemplating the bust of Homer on which of entries listed by Lebel in his catalogue
given by special signs—determinatives—and his right hand rests. The available evidence raisonné of 1959. The Schwarz catalogue
as concepts became more abstract, these be- relates that the philosopher was 'short, thin- seems to be more or less complete and is only
came more important. Writing at last emerges legged, pot-bellied, with small eyes, sunken occasionally marred by the author's received
as a system of formal symbols, capable of cheeks, and had a slightly mocking expression ideas on the works he describes.
transmitting the most complex abstract ideas. around the mouth'. It also appears that he In his foreword Schwarz outlines the central
Yet its foundations were in perception and in was vain, and the author uses the unfortunate thesis of the text : the focal point of Duchamp's
the hypotheses on which perception relies. term 'dandy' in this connection. Held main- career is The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bache-
Finally he touches on language itself, arguing tains that the work is not about the silent lors, even. This is the work, the author claims,
that the so-called 'deep structure' of language dialogue between Aristotle and Homer but on which the earlier and later works con-
has grown out of earlier perceptual structures. that the insertion of the face of Alexander (on verge and diverge. Two distinct themes
`Perhaps the invention of symbols was suffi- the medal draped around Aristotle's neck) `which run parallel' in Duchamp's activity
cient for this to take place— to externalize the causes a more complex internal drama and are then drafted . . . 'the search for a form
structure of perception in language.' confrontation, for Alexander was tutored by more mental than visual, and, as a further
We end up on a kind of brink; a point where Aristotle and also had a deep admiration for development of this idea, the disappearance of
we have to accept that a great deal of modern Homer. Held suggests that the painting is the art activities in the present conventional
thought, deriving from science, lies beyond result of a deep identification of the artist with sense.' The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp
any possible connection with perceptual pro- Homer, an identification' with his tempera- has several defects, all of them liabilities.
cesses: 'We are being cut off from the bio- ment which was also interested in the 'broad Its central thesis is too glib. Obviously, to a
logical past which moulded the eyes and range of man's physical and emotional life'. large extent the later works allude to, and are
brains and speech of our ancestors...The The author's central insight is that the paint- variants on, the Glass theme, but the earlier
danger is that we may create a world beyond ing synthesizes two traditions of portraiture: work, which was highly eclectic and strongly
the restraints of our intelligence; a world we the first where a special bond links the sitter influenced by Impressionism, Cézanne, Fau-
cannot see.' with a bust of a figure of learning; the second vism, and the Cubists, is often disparate and
q
ANDREW FORGE where a skull is touched by the sitter. In quite arbitrary. It's silly to assume that these
short, Rembrandt sets in a dualistic tension works contain a teleological design. The 'paral-
The later Rembrandt the forces of survival and mortality. Held lel' theory is also spurious; it's too simple. A
rightly extrapolates from the work to the major fault of the book is the exegesis itself.
Rembrandt's Aristotle by Julius Held 155 pp. view that much of the artist's late works are Much of the primary information is obscured
with 49 monochrome illustrations. Princeton. concerned with the nature of man's isolation. by irrelevant detail and is difficult to track.
Oxford University Press. 95s.
CHRISTOPHER FOX q Book One discusses the inceptive work and
Julius S. Held, an eminent Rubens scholar, other domains. In a lengthy description of
has collected here four investigations—written Duchamp bound & jacketed Young Man and Girl in Spring, Sonata, and Dul-
during the past twenty-five years—into the cinea, all painted in 1911, Schwarz brings in
work of Rembrandt. His concern is to go The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp by homosexuality, onanism, hermaphrodism, nar-
beyond the mood of the work in order, as he Arturo Schwarz. 630 pp. 765 illustrations, 75 cissism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, bisexuality,
says in his opening study, to seek a meaning in colour. Thames & Hudson. £20. and incest. This nonsense can be partially
`commensurate' with the mood. Much, of explained by Schwarz himself when he con-
course, has been written by way of psycho- American Painting of the Nineteenth Century by fesses at the beginning of the book that he owes
logical investigation and speculation on this Barbara Novak. 350 pp. Illustrated throughout Duchamp 'more than gratitude—understand-
artist. The most obvious pitfalls awaiting in monochrome and colour. Pall Mall Press. ing him has enabled me to understand my-
those who pursue this course are either a £4 5s. self'. This approach determines much of the
tendency to overgeneralize the work's mean- The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp is text. To support his central thesis Schwarz re-
ing, thus covering most possibilities of printed letterpress in `Monotype' Bembo. The fers to a great deal of esoteric literature. Most of
response or, on the other hand, a tendency to illustrations are printed mainly on art paper this is applied indiscriminately, is gratuitous,