Ideas of Space: Euclidean, Non-Euclidean, and Relativistic by Jeremy Gray (review)

248 Books aware and question someof our premises. Thisquestioning is interesting and valid and should be of interest to almost anyoneteaching, writing or painting. Very careful planning and research went into this document. This publication is tastefully presented with 6 black and white illustrations. It is in French with an English translation. The French reads fairly easily-the translation is awkward. Some editing for both texts would make for easier reading. Goncharova: Stage Designs and Paintings. Mary Chamot. Oresko Books Ltd., London, 1979. 104pp.. illus. €8.95. ISBN: 0905-368525. Reviewed by Anthony Parton’ This is Mary Chamot’s second book on the Russian artist Natalya Goncharova, 1881-1962 (her first was the French monograph Goncharova, Paris, 1972). Chamot, a distinguished art historian and Russian scholar, is the acknowledged authority upon Goncharova, and was a personal friend of the artist’s during her later years. The introduction gives an authoritative over-all view of the Russian cultural scene and presents the most detailed account to date of Goncharova’s life and art. The author dwells particularly upon Goncharova’s collaboration with Larionov between 1907and 1914,and describes the progression of bold formal experiments in Goncharova’s paintings culminating in the rayonist anticipation ofabstract art, as well as the various exhibitions that she and Larionov organised [here, on pp. 10-1 I, there are unfortunate misprints in the Russian for the Knave of Diamonds which should,of course, read Bubnovy Valet, not Bululvy. And the Donkey’s Tail Osliny Khvost not Khvast]. Study is also made of Goncharova’s lithographs for the poetry of Khlebnikov and Khruchenykh and of the close connection between futurism in literature and in the visual arts. The author clearly defines Goncharova’s artistic position amidst the futurist hubbubof this complex period in the history of Russian art. At the same time, through well-chosen illustration and apt comment, she shows the important influence of the icon, the shop sign, and the popular print (lubok) on her subject’s art. Chamot recounts Goncharova’s meeting with Fokine and Diaghilev during 1914and discusses her subsequent costume and stage designs for the Ballets Russes. Special consideration is given to her designs for ‘Le Coq d’Or’(1914), the unstaged ‘Liturgie’(1915)and’LesNoces’(1923). Chamot then comments on Goncharova’s early 1920’s lithographs for the publications of Zetlin, Roubakine and Anet, and traces the increasing geometrical simplification in Goncharova’s abstract paintings of the time. Diaghilev died in 1929and the author dates from about this period a certain decline in artistic vitality, which was precipitated in later years by personal problems: Larionov’s strokein 1950and the arthritiswhich, by 1958, had virtually crippled Goncharova. Chamot discusses the artist’s theatrical designs over these later years before concluding with the heroic triumph over ill health when, inspired by the first ‘Sputnik’ in space, Goncharova painted about 20 abstract works, three years before her death in 1961. The whole is told with quiet authority and contains much information on the dates and histories of individual paintings. Throughout the text are frequent references to the 104 illustrations which form the main body of the work (pp. 25-104). Each of these is accompanied by essential information and an interesting explanatory paragraph. There are over 40 reproductions of paintings in the many styles in which Goncharova worked throughout her life. Interspersed with these are reproductions of costume and stage designs for 16ballets. including ‘Le Coq d’Or’. ‘Liturgie’ and ‘Les Noces’. Finally there are 15 reproductions of Goncharova’s book illustrations. some of which have unfortunately been enlarged from the original, something which, I understand, was not in accordance with the author’s intentions. A disappointing feature of the book is that it contains only nine colour plates, but presumably it is thanks to this economy that the publishers are able to offer this immensely informative and representative book at such a reasonable price. Prior to this publication, Goncharova’s life and art were only known from diverse French and Russian sources, and for the English reader had to be surmised from the occasional article or references in general books such as the two general histories of Russian futurism by Markov and Gray...