Page 63 - Studio International - July August 1971

Shorter notices Roy Lichtenstein: Drawings and Prints with an Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art
introduction by Diane Waldman. 265 pp with 31 by Robert Rosenblum. 203 pp plus 215
colour and 146 monochrome plates. Thames monochrome plates. Princeton University

and Hudson. £8.50. Press. London: Oxford University Press. £1.75.
Superbly produced book which catalogues Paperback edition of Rosenblum's important
Pall Mall Encyclopaedia of Art edited by David Lichtenstein's graphic output from 1961 to 1969 volume of essays, originally published in 1967.
Bell. 5 volumes with total 2139 pp; over 5000 and reproduces the majority of his large
illustrations including 1700 in colour. Pall Mall drawings, together with a selection of small Photography: Materials and Methods, by John
Press. £40 complete set. studies made as preliminaries for his paintings. Hedgecoe and Michael Langford. An Oxford
A beautifully designed and produced The latter, in particular, are of considerable Paperback Series, Handbooks for Artists. 170 pp,
compendium. The original Dictionnaire universel interest and quality and are for the most part plus 15 colour and 155 monochrome plates.
de l'Art et des Artistes, published by Fernand previously unpublished. Great care has been Oxford University Press. £1.50.
Hazan in 1967, has been 'reviewed, updated, taken in controlling the quality of reproduction, A short introduction to photography, starting
and, in many cases, completely rewritten'; 400 and the documentation is scrupulous with a description of the working of a lens, with
new entries have been added, chiefly in the areas throughout. Diane Waldman, who has an a good deal of practical advice for the layman.
of American, British and German art, to bring intimate knowledge of Lichtenstein's work, has
the total up to nearly 4000; 'Particular emphasis written a succinct and lucid introduction. Building in the USSR 1917-1932, edited by
has been placed on contemporary artists in 0. A. Shvidkovsky. 144 pp with 285
Europe and the United'States. Bibliographies— MA (1916-1925) edited by Lajos Kassák. monochrome illustrations. Studio Vista. £3/5.
which conveniently follow each entry—have also Facsimile edition in 4 vols. Akadémiai Kiadó, Socialismo, città, architettura URSS 1917-1937,
been added, stressing material recently Budapest. Cloth edition $50. Distributed by edited by Manfredo Tafuri. 342 pp with 201
published in English; cross references have been Kultura, Budapest 62, P.O.B. 149, Hungary. monochrome plates. Officina Edizioni. 550o lire.
thoroughly reviewed and revised; and a Reprint of the most important periodical of the The English-language book consists of a series
complete index has been provided in the final Hungarian avant garde (MA means `Today'). of short biographies and descriptions of the
volume' (a welcome corrective to the Contributors included Picasso, Bartók, work and development of the leading Soviet
irritating French habit of dispensing with Apollinaire, Schwitters, Cendrars, Eggeling, architects of the period, with a chapter on
indexes altogether). Richter, Mayakovsky, Tzara, Hausmann, creative trends. The illustrations are numerous
We have tended to be too dependent upon Reverdy, Léger, Puni, Arp, Van Doesburg, but rather small and scrappy; however, the book
the art-encyclopaedomania of the French and Cocteau, Malevich, Marinetti, Moholy-Nagy, serves a useful purpose as an introduction to the
upon the enterprise of the Larousse publishing Lissitsky, Braque, Grosz, Gabo, Gropius, subject.
house (one wonders how the curatorial staff of Kupka, Boccioni, Whitman and Tatlin. The The Italian book is a much deeper analysis of
the Louvre manage to find the time to discharge magazine served as one of the more significant the development of Soviet architecture and of its
their curatorial duties), and this English- and typographically stimulating organs of links with the rest of Europe. It is very well
language edition offers an extensiveness of view futurist, expressionist, dadaist, and
which does much to compensate. constructivist ideas and means of presentation,
The encyclopaedia still shows some covering film, music, advertising and graphic
unfortunate traces of its French origins (a arts as well as fine art. Kassák died in 1967. The
column and a colour plate for Bernard Buffet as volumes are well bound and, despite the
against the total omission of Caro is an example language barrier, excellent value at the price for
chosen at random; the buffoonish entry on any specialist scholar or library.
Rauschenberg is another which Praeger/Pall
Mall's new contributors might have been Moholy-Nagy and John Cage both edited by
expected to improve upon), and there are Richard Kostelanetz. Each 237 pp, illustrated
inevitable inconsistencies of emphasis, throughout in monochrome. Documentary
particularly in the allocation of reproductions Monographs in Modern Art series. Allen Lane
(three Pollocks, of which two are in colour, The Penguin Press. £3.15 each.
against none for Newman). But the Two contributions to what promises to be an
compensations are very considerable: the excellent and useful series. Both books are well
excellence of the design throughout; the (in this presented and designed and include chronology,
kind of context) unprecedently serious bibliography and, in the case of Cage, a
treatment of African art (generally and by catalogue of compositions and complete
tribes); the very high quality of the discography.
monochrome illustrations and the above-
average quality of the colour, together with The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth
their scrupulous captioning. The encyclopaedia 1960-69 edited by Alan Bowness. 222 pp, with
plainly does not—and indeed perhaps could not— 16 colour and 247 monochrome illustrations.
adhere throughout to reasonable academic Lund Humphries. £7. (Limited edition of 150
standards, and every specialist will be able to with original screen print £30.)
find the usual gaps, inconsistencies and To quote the jacket: 'Between 1960 and 1970
inaccuracies (it was certainly not hard to find Barbara Hepworth produced 227 works of
enough of the latter within a sampling of sculpture, almost as many as in the whole of her
modern-period entries to qualify the editorial earlier career.' The volume does justice to the
avowals quoted above). But this perhaps output. Apart from the plates there are a
testifies as much as anything to the marketing biographical summary, a list of exhibitions and
factors involved in an enterprise of this nature. collections, a select bibliography, and a
`Art' books tend to sell very largely through their transcript of conversations between artist and
reproductions—quantity and quality. editor. The works are scrupulously catalogued.
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