Page 63 - Studio International - July August 1972
P. 63

Supplement                                 claim to pass) one would need rather more help   Mr Lucie-Smith has some brief, and in
                                                    than is given by the odd clues casually thrown   general terms apt, remarks on this distinction
          Summer 1972                               out in the course of the book, to the effect that   between symbol and allegory. But since there is
                                                    subjectivism, catholic revivalism, a tendency to   little attempt to relate the general to the
          New and                                   irrationalize pictorial space, or to `synthetize'   particular in his discussion of individual
                                                    (a term which receives a particularly inadequate   artists the reader may easily, and excusably,
          recent art books                          discussion), were phenomena associated with   fail to grasp its significance. Similarly, to
                                                    Symbolism.                                revert to the claim that Symbolism provides the
                                                      One of the most characteristic aspects of   essential clue to the understanding of late
                                                    late nineteenth-century Symbolism, and one to   nineteenth-century European art, Mr
                                                    which Mr Lucie-Smith, by abbreviating his   Lucie-Smith's short chapters on individual
                                                    discussion of its theoretical concerns to a single   artists, or groups of artists, risk leaving the
                                                    short chapter, does less than justice, is the   reader without any real sense of the imaginative
                                                    conflict, symptomatic of a period when the   currents of the period; in fact with merely a
                                                    boundaries between art theory and art     textbook pragmatism which, despite the
                                                    criticism were growing blurred, between theory   problems presented, needs filling out in a more
                                                    and practice. This existed particularly among   inquiring way. What, for instance, is the real
                                                    painters. The detailed studies of symbolist   relationship between Realism and Naturalism,
                                                    theory which have been published by H. R.   on the one hand, artistic modes which have
                                                    Rookmaaker and A. G. Lehmann contain a mass   perhaps an equal claim to be considered as the
                                                    of material which, while obviously not to be   predominating types of the later nineteenth
                                                    regarded as an accurate reflection of the mental   century—especially if one looks beneath the
                                                    furniture of any given artist of the period,   avant-garde crust—and Symbolism on the
                                                    certainly give one some sense of the      other ? Is it enough to treat these terms as
                                                    theoretical pressures to which artists were   historical abstractions, and juxtapose them as
                                                   subject; pressures to innovate, and to     polarities, in the usual action/reaction manner ?
                                                    rationalize their innovations; or pressures to   There is certainly plenty of evidence that many
                                                   subscribe to and to realize the insistent   symbolists did see the situation in these terms,
                                                    theoretical programmes of others. The progress   at least for polemic purposes; but even from
                                                    of Gauguin's career, from Impressionism, and   what has been said above of Gauguin it can be
                                                    from Pissarro's tutelage, to a more intellectually   seen that the relationship was more complex,
                                                    based art, offers a good example of the former   and much more interesting, than that. And
                                                    kind of pressure. Gauguin's response to this   surely something of the same kind applies to
                                                    problem can be documented both from his art,
         Pragmatic Symbolism
                                                    where right to the end he balances naturalist and
          Symbolist Art by Edward Lucie-Smith. 216 pp,   abstracted synthetist procedures against one
         185 illustrations. Thames & Hudson.        another, and from his letters. In the letters he
          £2.50 hardback, £1.50 paperback           moves from the rather naive formulations of his
                                                    1885 letter to Schuffenecker, where he is trying
         The more complex and heterogeneous a topic,   to come to terms with the idea of an art which
         the greater the temptation to seek a simple   would in some sense determine the spectator's
         formula which will both contain and clarify it.   responses Cil y a des lignes nobles, menteuses etc.')
         Mr Lucie-Smith has resisted this temptation,   without sacrificing the basic premises that
         perhaps reasonably enough in the context of a   painting is based on sensation, and that sensation
         short book whose aim is to provide an     is something which ought to be  formulée bien
         introduction to the wide range of work produced   avant la pensée' ; he moves from this position to
         in the later nineteenth century which can   increasingly strident disclaimers that his art
         loosely be described as 'symbolist'. This means,   was in any sense 'intentional' —for instance in
         of course, that he is able to beg a number of   his efforts to preserve the great Where do we
         questions. That Munch might with some      come from ? What are we ? Where are we going ?
          justice be considered an expressionist is   of 1897 from a critical exegesis which would
         acknowledged, but the notion is not explored   deprive it of 'mystery'. What this problem of
         or accounted for in the discussion of this artist's   Gauguin's reveals, to put it as concisely as
         work. In Ensor's case, the issue is not even   possible, is the quintessentially symbolist
         recognized. Van Gogh is not discussed. Of   dilemma (shared with the poets, incidentally),
         Gustave Moreau we are told that he 'must be   that while on the one hand the best artists were
         the central figure in any discussion of symbolist   trying to present, in their work, the concrete
         art', but why this should be so, apart from being   embodiment of an emotion which could not
         needed by a pragmatic historicism, is not   itself be precisely defined, if only because its
         revealed.                                  nature would alter according to that of each
            It is this pragmatism which characterizes   observer—ie the work was essentially a nexus
         the book as a whole. 'Symbolism', Mr       for the meeting of various subjectivities —on the
          Lucie-Smith concludes, 'is the thread which   other hand the public, and some critics, were
         allows us to make sense of the way in which   continually trying to pin the butterfly down, to
          European art developed in the second half of the   immobilize and analyse it; in other words, to
          nineteenth century'. In fact to make sense of   treat symbol, and the symbolic image, as if it
         this development (and allowing this large    were allegory.
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