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180 Books nology, he reveals humanist concerns. Yet he overlooks one way out of the current dilemma in the face of his quotation of Uvi-Strauss’ belief that ‘myth is the reconciliation of poetry and science’ (p. 16). Nonetheless it is myth in the form of art and art history that he contends is no longer valid. His effort in investigating the structure of art is the coup-de-grace for ‘when, as Uvi-Strauss maintains , we do structurally derive an activity-for our culture or for others-we have moved considerably towards eliminating it’ (p. 7). Moreover, there is some lingering doubt as to whether it is the myth alone or art in general that Burnham is aimingat, although hedoesstate: ‘If heunderstands his work, and the fact that it no longer demands mystification [read- mythification. A.B.], the artist can still be a tremendously valuable figure in society’ (p. 181). As an artist, I suppose I should give him my thanks! I fail to understand his horror of myth, especially since he realizes that ‘languageis the broadest and most useful form of myth, the mode most likely to survive. ...’ (p. 7). Without language this book could not have been written. Perhaps it would have been better that way. Light in Art. Thomas Hess and John Ashbery, eds. Collier-Macmillan, London, 1971. 154 pp., illus. E0.85. Reviewed by: J. S. Bodolai* In the four years that have passed since this book was prepared, contemporary ‘technological’ art has lost much of its fashionable critical appeal. In fact, many of the writers whose essays appear in this collection have become bored with the movement . But this book does not purport to be about the technology of ‘light’ art but about the varied historical role of light as idea and as medium in all art. The editors have assembled a diverse collection of essays by art critics and historians. In a somewhat chronological sequence, problems of luminosity in art are traced from the pyramids of ancient Egypt to Watts’ works with Neon and Flavin’s with fluorescent lights. Nowhere, however, is there any attempt to state just exactly what light is. In fact, the theme is repeated throughout the book that, in the visual arts, luminosity is really inseparable from the other elements, such as colour, form, scale, method and concept. And it is abundantly clear that artists’ ascription of the various elements of their art has changed as society has changed. In particular, artists’ understanding of what light is and how they used it havebeen surprisinglydifferent throughout history. The ideas of the ancient Egyptians about light and itsplacein art seemtobethe most removedfrom contemporary Western thinking, at least of the ones discussedin the book. Kim Levin’s superlative essay, ‘The Eye of Ra’, is one of the finest in the * 390Huron Street, Toronto5, Canada. collection. Her research, exposition and considered speculation about light as idea and as medium are especially provocative, even toward understanding one’s own ideas about the visual arts in general. The excellence of this piece, however, makes one wish that the editors could have included another essay or two about light in the art of other cultures, perhaps that of China, India or of the American Indian. Yet each essay also makes evident how each change in Western artists’ understanding of light was closely linked to and encouraged by technological developments and availability of new media. Florens Deuchler’s essay on Gothic glass and John Beckwith‘s ‘Byzantium: Gold and Light’ are fine illustrations of how media were selected for their light-handling properties. But Scott Burton’s contribution on American painting from 1945to 1970,which he calls a ‘generation of light’, effectively makes the point that technological developments in lighting and the large kinetic lightscapes of the city greatly influenced the subject matter of art and later even techniques. And it is in this way that the terms ‘light’art and ‘technological’art have become linked. The use of literal light, as John Perreault calls it, becomes an art form in which light is both subject and medium. As a medium, contemporary technologyhas created vast areas for exploration. But when any medium isin itselfits own subject,it...

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