The Technique of Fine Art Lithography by M. Knigin, M. Zimiles (review)

274 Books the alphabet: masonry, astronomy, philosophy and all the sciences find in it an invisible, but real, point of departure; and that is as it should be. The alphabet is a source of all things.' Claudel put it more simply: 'Words have a soul', noting the similarities that abound between objects and the words that describe them. Before the advent ofprintingin Europe, the alphabet itself had a knack of attracting both enthusiasts and people riding hobby horses. GeoffroyTory noted in the 16th century how Q was the 'only letter which steps out of line downwards' and concluded that, since it never appears without its 'good friend and companion U', it is constantly 'stretching out its tail to embrace it'. Jean-Pierre Brisset's analysis of words led him to the conclusion 'that man is descended from the frog'! So whereas Hugo might have seen the alphabet as a source of all things, on the evidence Massin gives us, its pictorial incarnations have less grandiose stature, often ending up in the byways of graphics and decorative whimsy. It was perhaps with the arrival of printing and, later on, ofdictionaries that the written letter began to have an edge to it, which forced poets and artists to take a more combative look at the now depersonalized word, the fossilized spelling and the inert and horizontal Latin alphabet that was meant to allow them to express their most subtle and intimate ideas. Apollinaire coined the word 'calligrams' for poems where there was a 'perfect equation between matter and manner', where the shape of the words on the page gave a second dimension to the meaning. But 'calligrams' already were written by the Ancient Greeks; it was not what he did that was new but the spirit in which it was done. Apollinaire, like Lawrence Sterne, Charles Nodier, Rabelais and, to a lesser extent, Lewis Carroll, was a great idolsmasher . Perhaps it was due to the good iconoclastic groundwork done by him and by other innovators, such as Pierre Albert Birot (Grabinoulor ), Man Ray and Duchamp, that the concrete poets have been able to alter radically our perception of the printed letter. Massin claims that the complete 'liberation of the letter' should now be possible through electronic composition. Yet, the irony and wit that inspire some ofthe best efforts in the no-man's land between writing and painting still have the edge over the computer's efforts and Man Ray's odalisque photograph of a woman's back with a cello's f-holes on it gives us a more memorable image than the computer's pedestrianreconstruction ofa female body from letters. Massin effectively considers the Ubiquitous intrusion ofthe written word into our daily field ofvision through signs and advertising. This has had its impact on 20th-century painters. However, Massin's survey of the modern period, dealing as it does with Klee, the Cubists and a handful of other artists, is somewhat disappointing: a strong case could have been made for the land between writing and image being one of the most interesting ccncerns ofmany more recent artists ofthis century, from Stuart Davis to Andy Warhol. There is a good index and a useful bibliography for anyone with a specialist interest in the subject. The translation by Caroline Hillier and Vivienne Menkes is workmanlike, although occasionally too faithful to the French constructions for easy reading. The Technique of Fine Art Lithography. M. Knigin and M. Zimiles. Van Nostrand, London, 1971. 143 pp., illus. £4.70. Reviewed by: S. W. Hayter* Written by two most competent artisans, this is one of the best cookbooks on a somewhat difficult craft to appear in America. Every step from the preparation of stones or plates, transfer drawing or direct work upon them by the artist-line, tone, photo-transfer inversion, negative, texture is illustrated and described clearly in the simplest of language. Thereafter, the preparation of the stone or plate for printing, precise recipes for etching, desensitising and inking, the handling of presses, the registration ofsuccessive colours, characteristics and preparation of inks are all very well described. In the introduction, written by a collector and curator, it is suggested that the use ofthis handbook would...