Page 52 - Studio International - March 1973

trying to do with language. At the same time as 'Thanks to us the time will come when life will students in his audience shouted him down,
the painters were trying to break new ground in no longer be a simple matter of bread and `uproariously chanting "Get to the point ! Get
the visual arts, when the musicians were labour, nor a life of idleness either, but a work of to the point !" ' The passage itself is a classic
contesting traditional sounds and scoring, art. Every man will live his best possible novel. example of the rhetoric, vague, inflated, totally
Marinetti was seeking absolute freedom of The most gifted spirits will live their best uninformative and deeply nationalistic, with
expression in words : the use of infinitive verbs, possible poem. There will be no contests of which a succession of French poet-critics of
unlinked adjectives, or the telling of a complex rapacity or prestige. Men will compete in lyric whom Apollinaire and Breton are the types,
story, complete with effects ranging from the inspiration, originality, musical elegance, have imprisoned their beloved artists like
rattle of gunfire to the pattering of surprise, gaiety, spiritual elasticity.' untouchable butterflies. Aragon' book must
raina, all—rendered with onomatopoeic sounds. The The anthology approach is world's away from surely be the buffer at the very end of the line.
spatterings that do appear in 'The Untamables' the concentrated detail and analysis that makes Nothing could credibly surpass it in weight,
(included) give little idea of this. Selections often John Golding's study of Boccioni's 'Unique grandeur of production, richness of paper,
being governed by the availability of material, Forms of Continuity in Space' such a valuable price. As to its contents, it too has the air of a
this might be understandable, were it not for the contribution to futurist literature. Originally final meditation on a subject whose outlines are
fact that, as the credits acknowledge, the choice delivered as the 54th Charlton Lecture at still clear in the subdued light of memory but
was made from Luciano De Maria's excellent Newcastle University a year ago, it is now which fade in the glare of the present. He has
and comprehensive volumes of Marinetti's obtainable in booklet form. A serious and mustered every article, speech, note he ever
collected writings, which of course include all dedicated scholar like Golding comes into his wrote about Matisse and cobbled them together
these key texts. Mondadori, who published the own with the format of the Charlton lectures, into one vast text which he calls a 'novel'. He
volumes, also took the trouble to lay out the structured as they are round analysis of one work knew Matisse during the early years of the war
writing in Marinetti's exhilaratingly of art. when he was in the south not far from the
experimental visual way, with typographical Golding builds up a complex and fascinating painter, and again after the end of the war until
variations, pauses for breath, etc. All this is picture of all the factors that led up to the Matisse's death. Many of the original notes and
lacking from Seeker and Warburg's appearance of Boccioni's extraordinary Futurist texts were read and annotated by Matisse
production. They've gone for classy paper, a demi-god striding sightlessly through space. He himself The annotations are printed in the
few photographs, and with less than a fifth of demonstrates Boccioni's realization that cubist margins. Many more notes were added by
the pages their price is £5 to Mondadori's £3.50 sculpture was more vulnerable to challenge than Aragon during the years between. These
. was cubist painting. He traces the sculptor's too are printed, often with further annotations.
Be that as it may we must be grateful for the highly relevant interest in Bergson's theories of The text itself contains a great deal of reported
inclusion of passages like this, which comes as it movement and memory. Boccioni's iconography, conversation and extracts from letters. Aragon's
happens from 'Beyond Communism' of 1920, the relationship between theory and artifact, the own reflections are of varying interest. Whatever
and which counterbalances the image of introduction of polymaterials, the notion of a he says is couched in such a self-consciously
Marinetti as a diabolical, if pathetic buffoon: sculpture of the environment, and the literary way, vacillating between the chatty and
contradictory nature of 'Unique Forms', all are the highfalutin' that even when he is reporting
explained with admirable clarity. One quibble: the painter, or developing an idea of some
the sad loss of those mixed media pieces of interest and originality, one can never be
THE ARMORY SHOW
I9I2-I3 was not due to 'mysterious absolutely certain of what it is that is being said.
3 volumes. Containing the Catalogue of the Show.
Contemporary documentation and criticism. 798 circumstances'. They fell victim to snow and Having read the book through I was left with the
pages 150 illustrations £28.50 rain in the winter of 1916, left unceremoniously feeling that it could easily be what he calls it, a
outside the Galleria Cova in Milan after the novel — except for some embarrassing passages
THE CATALOGS OF THE Boccioni memorial exhibition . . . D where Aragon the pundit of the official
VENICE BIENNALE,1895-1920
CAROLINE TISDALL Communist party justifies the concept of luxury
12 volumes. 3,600 pages. 1,300 illustrations £180.00
and then justifies his justification. The plates
remind one that it is not. There are over a
THE YELLOW BOOK 1894-1897
Aragon outpointed hundred in colour, many well-balanced, others
Edited by Henry Harland and Aubrey Beardsley. 13
volumes. Henri Matisse by Louis Aragon. Vol. I, 36o pp too dense. A great many drawings are
Cloth £90.00 Paper £75.00
with 234 illustrations, 76 in colour; Vol. 2, reproduced, many of which I had not seen
THE BULLETIN OF THE 376 pp with 307 illustrations, 79 in colour. including two long series of portraits of Aragon
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Collins. £28. and of his wife Elsa Triolet. As a picture book it
1933-1963
Henri Matisse: écrits et propos sur Part edited by is enjoyable. It is too arbitrary and tasteful to be
7 volumes £105.00
Dominique Fourcade. Collection useful. I cannot imagine anyone but millionaire
`Savoie, Hermann, Paris. collectors buying it and I suppose they would
THE BULLETIN OF THE
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, have no difficulty with its hero-worshipping
BOSTON 1903-1942 'Today young men throughout the world who afflatus.
9 volumes £150.00 are seized with a passion for painting look first Get to the point ! The second book is as far
of all towards Matisse. He is above all the man from Aragon's as his posture as critic is from
THE BULLETIN OF THE whose presence makes France the land of criticism in Paris today (see Marcelin Pleynet's
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM painters, and Paris the capital of living essay on Matisse in his recent L'Enseignement de
OF ART 1905-1942 painting . . . During the most difficult hours of la Peinture). It is an extremely useful selection of
38 volumes. 12,000 pages our national life, yesterday when we suffered statements, letters, reported interviews and
£555.00
shame, today when we are still surrounded by first-hand notes by and about Matisse, from the
ruins, we are still indebted to Matisse for having key Notes d'un peintre of I908 to recordings
maintained, for still maintaining, the radiant made at the end of his life. Specially welcome
IDEA DISTRIBUTION image of France.' These lines are from the features of the book are the concordance in the
18 Endell Street, London WC2 preamble to a lecture that Aragon started but form of footnotes which give alternative versions
01-836 0911 didn't finish, in December 1946. The reason of the painter's statements as quoted by other
why he didn't finish it is because after a bit the reporters (most of Aragon's quotations appear
138