Page 95 - Studio International - March April 1975

nude in American art from the intentions which each artist adopts. forms, are extremely arresting works of
seventeenth century to the present day, it This gives rise to some surprising art. Karshan is a fervent admirer of
gathers speed as it goes, so that the final results. Of course it is very easy to Archipenko and describes him as the
chapter on the last thirty years of activity equate a photograph of the wrinkled most inventive and influential sculptor
— the most important period of all, one face of a 130-year old American with that of the first quarter of the twentieth
would have thought — is little more than of a rotten apple covered in fungus but as century. This elegantly designed book
names, dates and notations, like the final Kahmen points out, it is this type of concentrates on his graphic work: it
page of somebody running out of time in analogy along with a host of others that contains a catalogue raisonné of prints
an exam. The reason for this is revealed the photographic technique gives rise to. produced between 1913 and 1963.
in the introduction where Mr Gerdts We are now able to view the world not
duly acknowledges his access to all the with our own eyes as such but with the
material compiled for an earlier but camera's, and to form previously Semiology
unpublished book on the subject by Paul undiscovered links between objects by
by Pierre Guiraud. ix, 106 pp;
Magriel. The loving academicism of the enlarging and reducing, editing, placing Bibliography. Routledge & Kegan Paul,
earlier sections suggest that much of this one photograph beside another and so
material was used piecemeal, and its tone forth. As Walter Benjamin says, 1975. £1.25.
is totally at variance with the Wesselmann `Structure, cell-tissue, with which
cover and genteel pornography of the technology and medicine strive to come Semiology, or semiotics, the theory of
final pages. The social mores at force in to terms — all this is far more relevant to signs and sign systems, is an extremely
America were, of course, much the same the camera than the atmospheric fashionable but little understood science.
as in Europe and no doubt all that public landscape or the soulful portrait'. This paperback version of a text first
published in France in 1971 provides an
civility gave way at times to private The photographic medium easily adequate introduction to the subject but
emotion, but not here. Audubon's facilitates a sequential approach to its notes and bibliography need
mysterious lady, for instance, who he viewing where moments in time can be expanding. Semiotics is of interest to
painted for ten days but whose picture caught as it were in the blink of an
is now lost : the only nude done from the eyelid. Muybridge's quasi-scientific visual artists because it may be able to
life that is known of from the period. The explorations and those of Thomas explain the communication mechanisms
of artworks; Guiraud discusses this issue
secret American nude, if it exists, is Eakins in the 1880's bring the camera's
what needs revealing. intrinsic function to the fore. A series of in a chapter on aesthetic codes.
These books deal unapologetically movements can be arrested in all their
with American provincialism, and in so varying stages of occurrence. In contrast,
doing, they tantalizingly avoid discussing the work of Froissard for example, some Skin deep
most of the best — and therefore twenty years earlier and also Cartier- The mystery of tattooing, by Ronald Scutt
indigenous — art so far produced by the Bresson (born 1908) rely heavily on the and Christopher Gotch. 205pp ; 16 plates,
Republic. Why were the writers impressionist painter's approach. They 200 illustrations (6o in colour).
incomparably superior in the nineteenth have a certain aura about them. Yes, a Bibliography. Peter Davies, 1974. £8.50.
century ? How much has America freed camera can lie; stage sets can be erected.
itself culturally from Europe ? If it has, Kahmen quotes the foreword to Renger- Tattooing is a decorative artform which
why, for a start, was Louis Armstrong Patzsch's book, 'Die Welt ist Schön', treats the surface and topography of the
never admitted to the Musicians' Hall of `There is nothing which cannot be made human body as a support. In spite of its
Fame ? "When the highbrows get together beautiful.' Even a rusty beer-can can be antiquity (it is 10,000 years old), and its
it's just too tight" as Miss Bessie Smith cosmeticized. primitivistic associations, tattooing is still
laments. There are a lot of questions still With the coming of the popular with many members of Western
to be asked in 1976. • photomontage the 'illusion' of the society. This book is a fully illustrated
John McEwen photograph was destroyed. John and exhaustive survey which covers the
Heartfield's experiments in this field historical, geographical, artistic,
accompanied by his pointed captions technical, social, and medical aspects of
(oddly missing from the plate section of tattooing. •
Equations the book) showed the power of the
photograph when used as a tool for John A. Walker
Photography as Art undermining the socio-political situation
of the early 1930's. Atget's work on the
By Volker Kahmen. Trans. Brian Tubb. Contributors
232 pp. 37o illus. Studio Vista. other hand goes some way towards Richard Cork is Editor Designate of
eliminating the aura surrounding both
Cassell & Collier Macmillan Publishers man and object and it is with Blossfeldt's `Studio International' . . . Malcolm
Ltd. £6.5o net Le Grice is a film-maker and teaches at
enlargements of objects as objects St Martin's School of Art, London . . .
unadulterated by any overtones which
Photography as art has been questioned anticipates to a marked degree the Kenneth Baker is a freelance writer
ever since the process was first invented. photographs of like objects which living in Boston . . . Frank Whitford is
At the time, Baudelaire declared that it Bernhard and Hilla Becher Senior Lecturer in Art History,
was a 'refuge for all failed painters', systematically collect.. Homerton College, Cambridge . . .
though there were many who 'used' it, Michael Spens is an architect and film-
not least Corot and Degas. Delacroix saw Gerald Newman maker . . . Leon Krier is an architect
it only as a 'remedy against the mistakes teaching at the Architectural
of the eye'. Volker Kahmen in his new Association, London . . . Peter Turner is
book 'Photography as Art' traces its Shorter notices Assistant Editor of 'Creative Camera' . . .
historical development and relates it to Charlotte Townsend till recently ran
the prevailing social conditions of the the gallery at Nova Scotia School of Art
time. The major part of his book is Archipenko . . . Peter de Francia is Professor of
devoted to a comprehensive The sculpture and graphic art, including a Painting at the Royal College of Art,
photographic section. The plates are print catalogue raisonné, by Donald London . . . John McEwen is Assistant
arranged not as one might at first Karshan. 163 pp; 168 illustrations. Editor of 'Studio International' . . .
imagine, chronologically — seeing that Bibliography. Tubingen: Wasmuth, Gerald Newman is an artist .. .
they range from as far back as 1839 1974. DM 48. John A. Walker is an artist and writer
when Daguerre made his well-known
long exposure shot of a boulevard in Archipenko (1887-1964) was born in the
Paris — but instead the order taken is a Ukraine; he later worked in Paris and
pertinent cross-referential one. With Berlin, and in 1928 he became an
such juxtapositioning one is able to American citizen. His highly stylized
form a more cohesive understanding of sculptures and sculpto-peintures, a
the vast range of approaches and peculiar blend of Cubist and organic
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