-
Moholy-Nagy ed. by Richard Kostelanetz (review)
- Leonardo
- The MIT Press
- Volume 6, Number 1, Winter 1973
- p. 74
- Review
- Additional Information
74 Books Bosch: R. H. Marijnissen, K. Blockx, P. Gerlach, H. T. Piron, J. H. Plokker and V. H. Bauer. There is little known about this Flemish painter. Although he lived in isolation, sovereigns and the rich bought his works. Did he belong to the 'brothers and sisters of the free spirit' or to any other occult sect? Many have tried to decipher his esoteric imagery. Hundreds of texts of interpretation and speculation have been published on his works. Marijnissen has prepared an essay that summarizes and attempts to unify the various approaches to understanding the artist. Blockx describes the religious aspects of life in his time. The painting 'The Garden of Delight' is discussed in an essay by Gerlach entitled 'Proof of an Interpretation' and Piron, through psychoanalytic analysis, considers the tortured and mutilated nudes to wonder if sadomasochism underlies the work of Bosch. Plokker studies the works from a Jungian 'projections' point of view and Bauer, in the final essay, stresses the parallelism between Bosch and his contemporaries in introducing St. Anthony's fire into their compositions . This book, with excellent reproductions in color and in black and white, will long remain a basic source of information for those interested in the works of Jheronimus Bosch. Moholy-Nagy. Ed., Richard Kostelanetz. Allen Lane the Penguin Press, London, 1971. 240 pp., illus. £3.15. Reviewed by: Dya Bolotowsky* This book consists of articles and letters by Moholy-Nagy as well as essays by the editor, Herbert Read, Sybil Moholy-Nagy and others. Today, nearly a full generation after the publication of his 'Vision in Motion', we are still impressed with Moholy-Nagy, an artist-educator, explorer and innovator in numerous visual art media and disciplines, a dynamic personality, a Renaissance type of man of our time. It is remarkable how many ofhis predictions have come true, for we now have happenings, mixed media, experimental film and light machines of the kind he foresaw. A cybernetic light tower, about 1300 feet high is being built in Paris. It was designed by Nicholas Schoffer, a French artist, said to be a follower of Moholy-Nagy. There were more profound artists than he who also had taught at the Bauhaus, such as Kandinsky and Klee. But to many of us it was he who truly represented the innovative spirit of the Bauhaus. More than most of his contemporaries, he affected the teaching ofart in the U.S.A. Many ofhis radical departures are now so commonly accepted that they have lost all shock value and may even seem a little obvious to us (such as his photographs from bird's eye and worm's eye views). Some of his ideas were quickly exhausted because they were immediately too successful (such as his and Man Ray's photo- *Box 288-A, Sag Harbor, L.I., New York 11963, U.S.A. grams and rayograms). His 'Vision in Motion' was a precursor to MacLuhan's 'The Medium Is the Message' and years ago, he wrote a critical appraisal of James Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake', long before professors of literature began to give it attention. And yet, in spite of his remarkable prophetic insight, he is beginning to seem dated. He went through the horrors of the First and Second World Wars. But by approach and temperament he was closer to the optimists of the 19th century than to many ofus, his contemporaries. A highly intelligent man, he warned of the dangers of misusing technology . Yet he still believed that education and technology would solve the problems of the world. He especially thought that the exploration of new possibilities of visual experience and of new kinds of visual media would help improve education. Herbert Read warns in his essay that it will take more than visual education to improve man and society. Moholy-Nagy's idea of progress seems a little naive and simplistic to my disillusioned eyes. The new is not necessarily an improvement on the old. In some cases, both the new and the old may be valid and may functionally coexist without having to displace one another. 'Frescoes oflight' need not displace painting. And yet, in a letter to Fra Kalivoda...