Page 56 - Studio Internationa - March 1971

witchcraft are as varied as any other aspect of to the ethnography of African art, it is a information. Most of the book is devoted to
African culture—a few years ago several beautifully produced catalogue of Josef saleroom lists of selected items by various artists
anthropologists tried to produce a useful Herman's very fine and unusual collection, or schools, and to a rather perfunctory anthology
definition of the word which would be valid which as William Fagg says 'is above all an of prices given for a selection of other artefacts
throughout Africa and they were unsuccessful. artist's collection' (page 13). The two books ranging from armour through Fabergé and
Willett should have illustrated some Nok under review thus seem to complement each Limoges enamel to Tapestry and Watches. Too
animals so that we could see the differences for other, and indeed Fagg discusses in his generalized for the dealer, too specialized for the
ourselves. introduction the way in which the artist's general reader, these records omit many
Chapter Four is a brief survey of architecture intuition and the ethnologist's scientific method economically significant figures.
in wood, earth and stone; and if this chapter should complement each other in the study of Mr Reitlinger's original contributions to the
seems the weakest in the book this only reflects African art. He also pays tribute to the admirable book play a less important role than before.
the lack of published research, relatively quality of the Herman collection. Herman After an explanatory note there is a stimulating
speaking, in this area of African culture. It is himself provides a short Foreword in which he and valuable essay on art and inflation followed
a pity, however, that he has not devoted more tells us some of his reasons for specializing in by helpful notes on the value of the pound over
space to the variety of moulded ornament and African miniatures. The plates are excellent in the past two centuries and on fluctuations of
mural painting. quality and in many cases there is more than foreign currency. Unfortunately he cannot
In the fifth chapter, 'Looking at African one illustration of each piece, showing it about resist the temptation to act as critic as well as
Sculpture', Willett stresses the danger of life-size and then enlarged and often from a commentator, and on this plane he is deplorably
relying entirely on the appreciation of sculpture different angle. This is a highly commendable arch, whimsical and inaccurate. To label Roger
through Western eyes, for what it is in itself, scheme; 'we know how irritating it is to the de la Fresnaye, Delaunay, Gleizes and Picasso as
and he compares statements by particular scholars, and how misleading it can be to the `abstract or semi-abstract' shows at best a
writers with the facts of ethnographic research. average reader, to be confronted with a certain lack of awareness of what is happening in
Chapter Six, 'Understanding African reproduction say 15 in. large of an object which art today, and at few points in the book are we
Sculpture', has six sections in which he writes in reality is only 3 in.' (page 14). q free from what Mr Reitlinger no doubt thinks
about the proportions of the body in sculptures JOHN PICTON of as his own refreshing candour. On page 31 for
of the human figure, the functions of art in instance an item reads : 'MAX ROTHKO [sic]
African society, the context in which it is used, Art and Mammon 1913-1970', and is followed on the next page by
variations of style within and between different an entry about a Mark Tobey sale, '1968.S.Earth
cultures, aesthetics, and the individual artist The Economics of Taste ;vol. 3: The Art Market rhythms 25 x 181 (indistinguishable from
and some of his techniques. in the 196os by Gerald Reitlinger. 720 pp. marbled linoleum) £4,600'. One might have
The final chapter is about the state of African Barrie and Jenkins. £7.50. expected at least a little accuracy from anyone
art today. Willett discusses the effects of Islam with such obvious critical acumen.q
and Christianity, and the work of Father Kevin A little more than a century ago Charles Eastlake, BERNARD DENVIR
Carroll (who has employed traditional Yoruba the Director of the National Gallery, paid £140
sculptors for the Church with remarkable for Piero della Francesca's The Baptism of On-line nothings
success), Ulli Beier and some of Africa's Christ. Today his successor is trying to wheedle
contemporary artists, and he concludes 'many the government into paying two and a half The Computer In Art by Jasia Reichardt. 96 pp
writers have bemoaned the sorry state and million pounds for an infinitely less important with 84 monochrome illustrations. Studio Vista.
impending death of African art. Happily they and significant portrait by Velasquez. Every 90p.
are mistaken' (page 264). major national paper has saleroom
African Art contains well over 300 correspondents; on our television screens we This brief book is well worth reading. It is
illustrations, although there are some notable are constantly being presented with the unlikely to occupy more than an hour of your
omissions, such as the stone sculptures of Esie spectacle of the rituals enacted in Bond Street or time and at the end you will almost inevitably
and the Cross River. Ibibio monuments in St James's as new price records are broken with have changed your views on computer and
cement might also have been included, as well almost monotonous regularity. Journalists cybernetic art. I came away from it having
as weaving and dyeing and a host of other calculate with meticulous delight how many discovered two new (to me) phenomena: sterile
decorative arts —but perhaps one is asking too thousand pounds per square inch somebody has art-about-art cyberart and hooray cyberart. The
much from a book of this size. There is also the paid for a piece of old canvas covered with former sterile tendency is a joyless sibling of big
occasional spelling mistake, such as Ilorsin chemicals held in a state of suspension in business—just as a big corporation spends n
(illustration 118) for Ilorin, Kworra (page I27) linseed oil. The whole art world has become a million dollars on research 'to further man's
for Kwara, and the village of the famous Yoruba realm of twentieth-century fantasy— quest for knowledge' so it feels that a few
sculptor Arowogun is properly called Osi-Ilorin economically illogical, over-publicized, attached dollars spent on 'cultural advancement' will
not Osi-Ekiti (page 228), which is in fact a in the most curious and significant way to the produce an instant new Movement x. Thus
different place. The publishers are presumably apparatus of consumer capitalism. Boeing and Bell fostered pioneer doodles done
to blame for the reversed image of illustration 40 Taken in conjunction with the late Francis on computer visual display units. These were
which occurs on the front cover as well as the Taylor's The Taste of Angels, which provides a dreary efforts and nobody would seem to claim
incorrect caption, and it is a great pity that they longer historical background (though it stops at otherwise (least of all Jasia Reichardt, or indeed,
could not have improved on the poor quality of the early nineteenth century) the best source the doodles' original perpetrators). The only
some of the colour illustrations, which have a books for investigating this phenomenon are significance claimed for these indulgences is that
curiously rough texture that seems to obscure Gerald Reitlinger's The Economics of Taste, the they 'demonstrate that creative activity need not
the clarity of the picture. In spite of all these third and final volume of which has just been necessarily belong to the conventionally
criticisms, however, the fact remains that published. Containing a great mass of valuable prescribed areas of painting, sculpture, poetry
Willett's book is one of the most valuable if eclectic information about the prices reached and music'. This is a remarkably underwhelming
contributions to the general literature on African by both paintings and objets d'art, it is not quite discovery which hardly needs demonstration —
art yet published. what its title implies, and in part at least, is a and, if it does, could be demonstrated in a much
Miniature Wood Carvings is a very different kind of post-script to the first two volumes, more effective fashion. This incestuous art-
sort of book. Rather than a general introduction bringing them up to date and adding further about-art is unbelievably pompous. It will go to
134