Page 66 - Studio International - November 1973

of data one can use it for some games which may Duchamp, Greenberg, Hamilton, Morris, early 6os, Symbolism remained almost
have a certain significance. First, which terms Newman, Noland, Oldenburg, Pollock, - untouched. Its contemporary attraction is not
are given most space ? Conceptual Art has three Rauschenberg, Rosenberg, Stella and Warhol. that of simply an alternative late- 19th-century
and a half pages, followed by Concrete Poetry Again, what does this mean ? The four critics are art movement, a mysterious force previously
with two, Minimal Art and Technological Art listed frequently, not only because of their indiscernible because of the dazzle of sun on the
with one and three quarters, Environmental ability to coin or promote labels, but also water at Argenteuil, but of a whole alternative
Art, Participatory Art, Process Art and Serial because of their prominence in the discussion life-style. It stood as much in violent opposition
Art with one and a half, and then a whole pack of the art of our time. The artists are listed to the naturalism of the impressionists as to the
of terms with at least a page each. Does this frequently for different reasons, but primarily vulgarities of academic art, preferring the
mean that these are the most important areas of because their art is multifaceted and therefore imaginary to the real, the temples of the mind to
recent art, or that these terms need more difficult to accommodate under a single label, the humdrum and increasingly industrialized
explanation, or both ? A comparison with such rather than that they are particularly eclectic; pattern of bourgeois reality. To this extent it is
terms as grew from Vauxcelles' 'cubes' and other reasons are that the artists have often been precisely in tune with the 197os and finds not
`fauves' suggests that art lingo is becoming involved in art world activities and polemics, or just a receptive but an avid audience.
more sophisticated and precise; however, a that they are particularly responsive to new To add to the fascination, it depends as a
glance through the Glossary shows that this is materials and processes, or in the case of movement more than most on close links
not for want of more colourful terminology, Duchamp because he is the precursor of so between painters, poets and musicians, and is
usage therefore must also have become more many post-war developments. more easily discernible by the shared themes of
discriminating. The Glossary is a useful tool which very its inspiration than by any specific style of
A breakdown of the bibliographical references adequately fills a gap on the reference shelves expression. This wider area, after stirrings during
reveals more quantitative information: out of and provides sources and further reading for the early Eos at the Louvre and the Museum of
the 647 references, 244 are to books or most of the terms which it lists. It also looks Modern Art in New York, was finally opened up
catalogues, while 403 are to periodicals; the at the art world from an art language point of by Mme Legrand, Mme Lecambre and the
latter are derived from 75 periodicals, but view and makes a creative contribution to the author with major symbolist exhibitions in Paris
more significantly over half of these 403 discussion of living art. q and London in 1972. M. Jullian has explored it
references are derived from only ten titles : Art CLIVE PHILLPOT with previous books about D'Annunzio and one
and Artists, Artforum, Art in America, Art about the movement in general called 'Dreams
International, Arts Magazine, Leonardo, Studio of Decadence'. Here, while re-examining
International, Architectural Design, Architectural Asleep in Avalon influences and precursors in some detail, he
Review, and Design. No surprises ? The Symbolists, by Philippe Jullian. 240 pp, with focuses in particular on the relative cohesion of
The other source of data, primarily about 163 monochrome and 5o colour illustrations. symbolist painting in Brussels and Paris from
individuals, is the index. Those with most Phaidon. £7.95. the late 188os to 190o. The results are
references are: Alloway, Andre, Banham, Burne-Jones, by Martin Harrison and Bill spectacular. Thanks to his scholarship, style and
Waters. 209 pp, with 280 monochrome and 5o a sympathetic translation by Mary Anne
colour illustrations. Barrie and Jenkins. £10.50. Stevens, the astonishing array of diverse
illustrations that he assembles under one banner
The pendulum of taste in the last five years has stand together convincingly. The book goes a
had an edge on it, sharpened, among others, by long way to consolidating Symbolism, along
Philippe Jullian, and already it has swung close with that other alternative, Art Deco, as the
enough to scratch the mysteriously ecstatic body revival of the decade, and it could certainly not
of Symbolism. The commercial aspect of works have been argued so persuasively ten or even
by the heroes of European painting since the five years earlier.
186os seems at last to have wounded their Hung with sickly blossoms eventually to
artistic vitality, and this, combined with their mature into the poisoned fruit of art nouveau,
unquestioned over-exposure, has recently the sources of the movement can be looked at
precipitated an almost aggressive scramble for (perhaps rather smugly) with the advantageous
alternatives — the kind of alternatives that only hindsight provided by a working knowledge of
yesterday did not even seem worth taking into Freud and the surrealists. The meaning, and
account. The worst ios kitsch is at once somehow especially the veiled eroticism, of much of the
more interesting than the hairshirt austerities of imagery is much more immediately conspicuous
the Bauhaus, and truth to self in architecture to us than it would have, been to the public—
and design has just recently come to seem even, one suspects, the involved and 'decadent'
infinitely more important than old gods like public so vividly discussed in the book — for
truth to materials. whom it was intended; and yet the best pictures
Symbolism, as understood in M. Jullian's by Puvis, Moreau, Lévy-Dhurmer, Redon and
book was a visual rather than a literary episode, others, many of whom have been rescued by
lasted for little more than a decade, and few this from oblivion, remain hypnotically
movements can ever have been regarded since compelling. The argument, as well as
with such universal contempt. Partly it must predictably including Gauguin and Pont-Aven,
have been its obsessive affectedness, its self- finds some unlikely symbolist bedfellows in
conscious straining after artistic effect, that was Seurat, Vuillard and blue-period Picasso, but a
responsible for its precipitate disappearance and development founded to such an extent on ideas
which, despite the resurrection of several of its rather than the real world was heavily dependent
progeny later, kept it firmly out of sight for on an equally diverse library for further
sixty years. Even after art nouveau, with Mucha inspiration.
and Gaudi, had been safely assimilated Apart from the twin gods of Wagner and
(admittedly on largely formal grounds) in the Baudelaire, and their respective cults,
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