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Books 177 Art and Society: Sex. Ken Baynes. Lund Humphries. London, 1972. 96 pp., illus. f2.50. Reviewed by: Leonard Blank* The author of this book states his objective as follows: ‘There is the desire to look again at culture in such a way as to focus on the experiences offered by society to ordinary people. In “Sex”, these ideas are examined by taking the socialconceptsof“ma1e”and “female”and the very different interpretations given to sexuality in a variety of cultures. At the core of the book is an exploration of the relationship between culture and the individual.’ He does not succeed with this desire. No thema or coordinating ideas are elucidated to integrate the material in an organized manner. Rather, the reader is presented with a very wide spectrum of paintings, drawings, cartoons and photographs, including inexplicable ones of actors and of a bride and groom on a wedding cake. About the only rationale evident for the material included was that a male or female or both, was the subject. (I felt that the author included whatever material he already had available or left over from the previous volumes in the Art and Society series.) While readers may enjoy viewing the fairly high quality of the objects illustrated and reading the not always relevant accompanying text in the book, they probably will not end up more informed than they already were as to the impact of culture on sexuality. Visual Aesthetics. J. J. de Lucio-Meyer. Lund Humphries, London, 1973. 240 pp.. illus. Cloth, f4.25, paperback, f2.95. Aesthetics. Harold Osborne, ed. Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1972. 186 pp. f0.75. Reviewed by: Albert Garrett** Lucio-Meyer claims an essentially down-to-earth, nonmystical approach to bridge the assumed gap between what he describes as the orthodox method of teaching art appreciation and the modern approach to design theory, which he says is predominantly visual. The author has written his book for an educated and enquiring public and informs the reader: ‘In the course of compiling this thesis, several hundred original documents and publications were consulted.’ Such documents are not evident in the text or in the list for further reading. The list is an art book tree with no branches. Ostwald has to rest content with a colour manufacturer’s 1931 publication. In the text the author is asking educated readers to consider design principles in drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture , television and cinema. A tall order for the text. In the section on colour (p. 88) one is informed that red is a short wave hue. The educated public will know it as a long wave falling between 6,100 to 7,000 A. On page 8 the reader is asked to consider ‘colour engineering’. But by what stretch of the imagination can this subject be even remotely connected with aesthetics, visual or otherwise ? It is the application of colorimetry to the design and use of colour measuring instruments. One finds on page 218: ‘Architecture seems to have a corresponding parallel to letter forms.’ On reading such superficial statements, The Royal Institute of British Architects cannot be blamed for extricating their schools from the control of schools of art. To find Ostwald from the index the reader must turn to page 91. This should be easy but, first, page 88 has to be found, then one must proceed to page 92 and finally turn back one page. The missing page number positions are usurped by captions in a profusion of white space. This is sophisticated design bunkum serving no useful purpose. An irritating book. Aesthetics is one of a paperback series from the ‘Oxford Readings in Philosophy’. The book comprises a collection of ten academic papers dealing with philosophical aesthetics . Seven of the contributors are university professors of *Princeton Associates for Human Resources, Inc., 575 Ewing St., Princeton, N.J. 08540, U S A . **loSunningdale Ave., Eastcote, Ruislip, Middx. England. philosophy. The papers span a period of approximately forty years and demonstrate what has been happening in this field of study. They focus attention on philosophers who, like the scientists, must continually sharpen their tools in order to improve their techniques for meaningfully pursuing philosophical analysis...

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