Page 57 - Studio International - March 1973

a pity though that more information is not Rodchenko's texturing of his completely black revolutions in ideas and perceptions of modern
presented on some of the lesser known artists. paintings is cited as an example of this. The art'. In other words Lipchitz was uniquely
Turning aside from the artist, one must not reliefs of Popova and the free-standing shaped placed to record an individual memoir of the
lose sight of the fact that what a picture means paintings of Pavel Miturich examined related period, and clearly capable of doing it well; but
to the viewer is, to a large extent, dependent on problems. Tatlin in his counter-reliefs carried now is concerned to reconstruct these early and
his past experience and knowledge; the visual the study of material and structure even further crucial years as his adolescence in art, the
image is not merely a representation of 'reality' away from the illusionary picture-surface of prelude to later and more monumental
but a symbolic system. Basically, it is this traditional or even suprematist painting. 'Every triumphs. He is generous to his models, Picasso
system that Cardinal questions, though time a painter wants to rid himself of and Gris, who successively influenced the
alternatives are difficult to conceive, let alone representation,' wrote Taraboukine, 'he can sculpture of his best period, 1915-19 : deriving
postulate. One thing is certain however — only do it at the expense of destroying painting initially from Picasso's vertical synthetic cubist
compared to artistic creativity, criticism is easy. and his suicide as a painter.' paintings, clustered images of interleaved
Finally, since this is an important book (with Taraboukine greatly admired Cezanne for rectangular shapes 'floating' on a uniform
a good bibliography), why not a paperback revealing the process of the build-up of his ground such as the famous Harlequin of 1915 —
edition that students can afford ? 0 paintings in the finished works. It became a themselves in a way 'substitute sculptures',
MAURICE YAFFE central tenet of productivism. Art, no longer continuing in painting the direction of the
contemplative, resulted from direct activity, the wooden constructed reliefs at the point where
process of working on a material. Through his technical resource and sculptural ambition
Counter relief production and a functional outlook it could ran out. There is no evidence from this book
Le Dernier Tableau by Nikolai Taraboukine transform daily life. that Lipchitz appreciated what was happening
edited by Andrei B. Nakov. 165 pp. Editions These two essays are an essential tool for the in sculpture before Cubism, or what indeed
Champs Libres, Paris 1972. Paperback. understanding of the 'leftist' art of Soviet Cubism meant for sculpture. He says :
Russia in the early 1920s. André Nakov's lucid '. . Cubism was for me the great liberating
`The concept of "taste" like that of "beauty" is introductions and unobtrusive notes add greatly force. I realized early in my career that it had a
excluded from my vocabulary,' wrote NikolaI to the usefulness of the book, and adequately significant role to play for sculpture as it did for
Taraboukine, critic and theorist of Russian explain every obscure reference. It is greatly to painting . . . It was a means of stating the nature
Constructivism. His statement was be hoped that the texts will appear in English of sculptural form in its simple essence and
characteristically direct. Working within the (with illustrations) in the near future. 0 asserting the work of sculpture as an identity
circle of the Moscow constructivists, and JOHN MILNER rather than as an imitation of anything else . .
subsequently with the productivist group, he Brancusi might never have existed — indeed he
devised a critique of their art which was only rates one passing and dismissive sentence
completely materialist and made no reference Fallen idle (and in Arnason's introduction, contrasted with
whatsoever to aesthetic values. His two most The Documents of 20th Century Art — My Life in Lipchitz's 'versatility', Brancusi is one of the
important texts, 'From the Easel to the Sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz, with an
Machine', and 'Towards a Theory of Painting', introduction by H. H. Amason. 249 pp, 202
both published in 1923, are here translated into black and white illustrations. Thames and
French by Andrei Nakov and Michel Perris. Hudson, £4.00 net.
The essays throw considerable light on the work
of Rodchenko, Tatlin and others by presenting A long time ago, before I ever heard of Jacques
a coherent contemporary critique of their work. Lipchitz the sculptor, I read and re-read a
When so little by Rodchenko or Tatlin is visible paperback in the Pocket Library of Great Art on
for inspection in the west, such a detailed my current hero, Modigliani, written by
critique is all the more valuable, providing Jacques Lipchitz. Whether it is just nostalgia on
information about the works themselves and the my part, or whether this little book would still
confluence of ideas which surrounded them and project an impression of its author as the modest
arose out of them. and sympathetic associate of the most romantic
Taraboukine is openly partisan: he writes of the painters of pre-1914 Paris, I do not know;
specifically as a spokesman for the productivist but this image of Lipchitz persisted for me up to
group, and employs its principles to criticize the time I read 'My Life in Sculpture', against
the work of the constructivists on the one hand, all the evidence of the work itself, which few
but also Kandinsky and Malevich on the other. would surely deny has become progressively
It is contemporary criticism and it throws new more empty, aimless, vulgar, bombastic,
light on all of these artists. sentimental, pretentious and confused, as he
After his rejection of the aesthetic values of a himself has become successful. Perhaps it was
work there remained only its physical presence the cubist Lipchitz — serious, humble,
as the sum of its component parts, and tentative — who wrote the Modigliani book: but
Taraboukine endeavoured to base his rigorous the present work, some 200 pages of transcribed
system of art-criticism on this alone. He tape, of repetitive and banal self-justification,
demanded the abandonment of illusion and was written apparently by Bellerophon Taming
representation in painting in favour of the Pegasus, or Prometheus Strangling the Vulture.
factual construction of works; they were no It is a disappointment, both because Lipchitz's
longer to be windows looking out on to reality or own career has been deeply disappointing, and
mirrors of psychological states but simply because Lipchitz (and Picasso and Chagall) are,
objects that are made. Taraboukine places great in H. H. Arnason's words, 'the final survivors of
emphasis upon the texture and scale of the the first heroic age of twentieth-century painting
processes of their construction. Illusion is and sculpture, those artists who were in Paris by
replaced by structure and surface, and 191o, and who in different ways created the
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