Sculpture in Progress by Chaim Gross, Peter Robinson, and: Figure Sculpture in Wax and Plaster ed. by Richard McDermott Miller, Gloria Bley Miller (review)

84 Books£5.95. Oil Painting: Basic and New Techniques. Leonard Brooks. Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, 1971. 96 pp., iIlus. Oil Painting in Progress. Moses Soyer and Peter Robinson, Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, 1972. 64 pp., iIIus. £2.50. Reviewed by: Vic Gray* Each of these three books on the act of painting adds something useful to the vast amount of writing in this genre. To acknowledge this isindeed a recommendation, as on picking up a book of this kind I groan in anticipation of a 'I've-read-it-all-before' reaction. Painterly Painting sets out to define and make explicit the qualities of painterly works of art and does so in an interesting and diverting way. Oil Painting was written to provide an up-to-date handy reference and guide to the aspiring painter in oils. This it will be. In Oil Painting inProgress Robinson fulfils his intention of advancing technical knowledge of portrait painting by exposing the progression from start to finish of a study by an eminent practitioner. The first book is a compendium of articles capably assembled from Art News in this its thirty-seventh annual. The entire debate is timely and pertinent, as the epithet 'painterly' is in the throes of rehabilitation from the derisory connotations of the past decade. Louis Farkelstein in the opening chapter says that painterly , ... both is and is not one thing, is and is not transmissable . Between technique, vision, intention, design, expression there is no seam. Neither is one thing the cause and another the result.' Is this an indulgencea self-indulgence? Does the technique seduce one from the intense experience of colour by its sensuous use of paint? When Wolfflin coined the phrase 'painterly painting' to differentiate between the hard contour and rigid compositions of Raphael and the fluid and freer use of paint by Tintoretto and Velasquez, there were denigratory undertones. Later, 'painterly' at its best came to mean more artistic freedom and at its worst sloppiness. The chapters that follow examine the painterly technique from the point of view of illusionistic style of Imperial Rome, the Venetian School and so on to de Kooning and Hoffman's abstract expressionism. A final chapter makes an appraisal of the situation in painting as regards young artists who are asserting the right of the hand-made to serve visual and intellectual needs. The book by Brooks is no 'how-to-do-it' but rather a collection ofvery sound and wholesome advice on how to short circuit the necessary preparations for the act of painting. Beyond this, there is sufficient information on styles and basic concepts provided for starting points of personal exploration. Much care has been taken with the illustrations and the progression of examples on composition techniques leads naturally to a chart for guiding a study. Casein and polymer paint are written about as media in their own right and their use as underpaint when using oils. With emphasis throughout on exploration and the need to continuously look anew, this book will be a worthwhile addition to any painter's library. In the third book one is guided, with a minimum of text and a very full content of photographs, through the vicissitudes in the evolution of a portrait by the painter Moses Soyer. The documentation in the form of over 100 photographs, nearly halfin colour, is commendably complete. A summary of small format reproductions of * 137 Westbury Road, Westbury on Trym, Bristol BS9 3AN, England. the colour plates delightfully encapsulates what was quite an extensive journey through the previous pages. As a description of a painter's involvement in the creative process this manner of presentation is the next best thing to continuous 'over-the-shoulder' observation in the studio. This approach to obtaining an idea of a skilled painter's technical and creative processes must encourage and influence for the good those who wish to be painters. Sculpture in Progress. Chaim Gross and Peter Robinson. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1972. 63 pp., iIIus. £2.50. Figure Sculpture in Wax and Plaster. Richard McDermott Miller. Gloria Bley Miller, ed. Watson-Guptill, New York, 1971. 176 pp., iIIus. $10.00. Reviewed by: Peter Lipman-Wulf* The first...