Books Received

Books 83 Cubics. J. Slothouber and W. Graatsma. Cubic framework from which a more serious study could Construction Center, Heerlen, Holland, 1970. emerge. 428 pp., illus. Reviewed by :Yona Friedman* Still, this small volume does have its merits. It This is really neither a book nor a catalogue for an exhibition but a compendium to provoke ingenuity . It is obvious that practically every shape or pattern could be approximately represented in a cubic or a number of other reference systems. Thus, in Cubicsone finds world maps, roof elements, toys, calendars, cylinders (pseudo), spheres (pseudo), tesselated designs and ziggurats fitted into a cubic system-and why not? I enjoy looking at playthings made by adults, provided they play intelligently, and this applies to Cubics. It is an invitation to artists to play the role of the geometer with the cubic system, which is the most easily understood by novices in mathematics. Dada. Kenneth Coutts-Smith. Studio Vista, London, 1970. 166 pp., illus. E0.75. Reviewed by: Gabriel P. Weisberg** This should have been a stimulating book, since it covers one of the more imaginative art manifestations of the early twentieth century. Today, NeoDada concepts are still very much with us and this should have been another added incentive to create an informative volume. What has been produced is a somewhat superficial, frequently disjointed, introductory account of Dada art as it appeared in Europe in the 1920’s and 30’s. Attempting to capture the broad picture of its development against an international framework similar to that of the art nouveau style of the 189O’s, the author has failed to dig deeply enough in order to clarify fully the aims and goals of the differing Dada segments. It is a mammoth task, one requiring a full knowledge of contemporary literary trends and familiarity with pertinent periodicals. What in the end has been revealed is the bones of the Dada period, a * 42 Ed. Pasteur,75-Paris 15,France. ** Department of Art History, CollegeIof Design, Architecture and Art, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA. provides a suitable rapid introduction to many of themajor figuresinvolved, suchas Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and George Grosz. The volume attempts to set the Dadaists against the society they disliked and to show examples of their satire and mockery. Further, the author occasionally tries to emphasize some of the technical inventions of the Dadaists, pointing out that the photomontage was an innovation of the Berlin Dadaists. The value of the book is greatly enhanced by the number of illustrations, which allow one to see many of the major Dadaist contributions by Duchamp and by others, such as Kurt Schwitters and Max Ernst. Not all of the illustrations are clearly discussed in the text and this does create a bit of confusion as the reader tries to assimilate the material, however, the end result is that, at least, the reader has been visually exposed to many Dadaist works. The philosophy of Dadaism is not sharplydefined. The involvement with anarchism, so important to the Dadaists in their formative period with its deliberate program aimed at sapping and undermining the codes of society, could have been more forcefully examined. Similarly, the interest in nonsense, satire, irrational acts of creativity and the interest in the Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work) might have been more deeply probed. Interestingly, the author attempts to link the first stirrings of Dada with the newer circumstances of the NeoDada conceptsof our day. Thisisan important idea, as it lends relevancy to the Dadaist outlook and contemporaneity to its theories. The author points out that ‘Dada was not simply an art-historical moment; it was, and is, a frame of mind, one that evolves to the changing conditions of society. ... There is hardly an aspect of the mainstream fine arts today that has not been influenced by Dada’. These are exciting ideas. They must await a more detailed and thorough study in order to seehowt‘l:y were put towork fifty years ago. Until this happens, this small volume can serve only as a precursor to studies that will have to come in order to place the Dada adventure into clear focus. BOOKS RECEIVED Animalsin...