Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art ed. by J. L. Martin, Ben Nicholson, N. Gabo (review)

Books 79 Futurism. Jane Rye. Studio Vista/Dutton, London, 1972. 160 pp., illus. £0.90. Reviewed by: Alfonz Lengyel* In this very useful pocketbook one will find much about Futurism. The author leads the reader through the basic futurist ideology and describes its impact on literature, drama, painting, architecture and sculpture. The text is documented with well-selected illustrations. She sketches clearly the conflict between the ideas of Cubism and of Futurism. The leaders of these movements at one time considered themselves as the true aesthetic representatives of modern art. The international impact of the series of manifestos issued by the futurists is presented in a satisfyingly objective manner. considering the often controversial relations the futurist~ had with artists in various countries. The author shows that almost every movement outside of Italy that was an offshoot of Futurism denied its descent. Most ofthem would admit only that it provided some stimulus. Ezra Pound, for example, admitted that the vorticists in London could not have come into existence without Futurism. Nevertheless, the organizers of the vorticists declared in their manifesto that 'we need the unconsciousness of humanity . . . their stupidity animalism and dreams ... we do not want to chang~ their appearance of the world, because we are not naturalists, impressionists or futurists'. They said this even though their art is of a cubistic kind with an injection of futurist conceptions. Another question that is only touched upon should be clarified. The author does mention that the futurists were invited to the New York Armory Show in 1913 but she does not mention that they refused to participate. The official introduction of Futurism to the U.S.A. by its originators took place only in 1915in San Francisco. The style itself had been introduced to New York in 1913 by Joseph Stella, who was in contact with futurists in Italy, however, a futurist group was never formed in the U.S.A. Milton Brown, in his book The Story of the Armory Show, New York (Greenwich, Conn.: N.Y. Graphic Soc., 1963) published on the occasion of the show's 50th anniversary mentions that President Theodore Roosevelt, after visiting the Show, wrote an article on it in the March issue of Outlook Magazine, entitled 'A Layman's Viewof an Art Exhibition'. Roosevelt stated that in the show the alienation of the spirit was evident, especially in the room reserved for the cubists, futurists and impressionists. Apparently, he had seen in the catalogue the announcement that the futurists would participate but went through the show without realizing that they had withdrawn their paintings prior to its opening. Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art. J. L. Martin, Ben Nicholson and N. Gabo, eds. Praeger, New York, 1972. 292 pp., illus. $18.50. Reviewed by: ClivePhillpot** Without the assistance of the blurb on the dust jacket an uninformed reader would find no indication in this book that it is a reprint of the volume first published in 1937. Contrary to the blurb, there is no 'new introduction ' in the book and this is a serious omission, for this would have been an opportunity to place the publication in its historical context and to mention the original date * Department of Fine Arts, Northern Kentucky State College, HighlandHeights,KY 41076, U.S.A. u 9Grangecliffe Gardens,London SE25 6SY,England. of publication (which was also omitted when Circle was first published in America). Only the verso and recto of the title page differ from the original. The plates, black and white as in the original, are satisfactory, though there has inevitably been a slight, but generally unimportant , loss in quality and darkening of tone. Why reprint? Copies of the original edition have been circulating at four or five times the price of this reprint and so an acceptable and substantially cheaper facsimile is welcome. Was it worth reprinting? The collection of plates (almost 200) stands up well after 35 years, practically none is redundant. The roll-call of writers sounds impressive but their contributions are not all of equal importance. Circle is largely a period piece and its value is largely art-historical, but not entirely. The text by Mondrian, 'Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art', I find...