The Critics of Abstract Expressionism by Stephen C. Foster (review)

64 Book Reviews Angoulerne Cathedral or Notre-Darne-la-Grande at Poitiers, but is a genuine re-assessment of the works in this area from new vantage points. In chapter I, the author introduces us to the problems of interpreting the facades of Aquitaine, critically reviews the important earlier literature on the works, and outlines the organization and strategy ofher analysis which is taken up in the succeeding chapters. Seidel moves from a consideration of the general associative value of the forms used to a detailed discussion of the most important iconographic themes. Chapter 2 begins the multi-level analysis of the facades' arcaded and turreted setting for the sculpture. The ideas behind the form of the facade are found mainly in the Roman Classical past; such a source is commonly acknowledged, but Seidel is able to make the relation of the Romanesque monuments to Roman art more credible by identifying a variety ofsources, showing precisely how their form and meaning could be available to the High Middle Ages, especially through the intermediaries of Carolingian architecture and minor arts, and explaining why such works might be drawn upon. In chapter 3, the general associations of the "architecturally-charged shapes" of the facades are brought together with the specific iconographic themes upon them of the triumph over death and the struggle for moral perfection in the conflict of Virtues and Vices on both the celestial and terrestrial levels. In the latter, Seidel shows how the portals represent "a deliberate contemporalization, like the Song ofRoland, of Prudentius' struggle allegory", and, in chapter 4, the reasons why such collections of facade images are eloquent and subtle expressions of Romanesque art and the lay and ecclesiastical patronage of the period. Songs of Glory is not a corpus of the Romanesque sculpture of Aquitaine; the interpretation of the facades is based on a limited selection of examples, and a small number of themes are explored. However, in forming the broad concepts which she sees motivating the programs, Professor Seidel, while dealing with the general and typical, is sensitive to the individual examples (as the ample footnotes demonstrate ), and at every point the descriptions show the excitement of her direct experience of these important visual expressions of western European culture. Half a Truth is Better than None. John A. Kouwenhoven. University of Chicago Press, London, 1982.248 pp., illus. Cloth,£14.00. ISBN: 0-226451550 -0. Reviewed by Donald J. Bush" In his earlier books, John A. Kouwenhoven sought to establish what is uniquely American about American culture. Made in America (1948) examined the ordinary things of everyday life-designed objects-as evidence of our national values. Our physical and social environment were unprecedented. America was and is the only nation whose birth and development coincided with that of the Industrial Revolution. Its society was "shaped by the twin forces of democracy and technology". Machines, architecture, fine arts and literature were examined and compared with European equivalents with the conclusion that American culture is equally valid and filled with vitality as well. In The Beer Can by the Highway (1961) he noted the American emphasis on process and upon continuous or extendable systems, pointing to skyscrapers, urban grid plans, comic strips, jazz and soap operas as examples of the latter and the assembly-line and the Model T as typifying our ability to develop on-going processes. Once again he drew largely upon popular arts and machine and industrial design. The waste (beer can) was the byproduct of our abundance and our presumption of being without limits, i.e. our vast space, great resources and human talents. Halfa Truth is Beller than None isa collection of essays that span most of the author's career as a professor of English and onetime associate editor of Harpers. It too draws upon vernacular forms-dime novels, popular photography, World's Fairs and machine design. The theme, ostensibly, is truth; how it is conveyed and how it is distorted or misinterpreted. Noting the dangers of all translations and paraphrasing inherent in the generalizing nature of written and spoken language, he suggests we return to sensory experience for knowledge. "Sightthoughts ", like touch-thoughts, smell-thoughts, etc., never generalize, nor can...