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Books 275 defines not only as the result of an individuality (aspirations and ideas of the author) but of the whole sociocultural complex of the epoch that demands and models the product, imposing its taste by means of the pressures of acceptation and rejection. In ‘On the Artist’s Viewpoint’, Ortega makes a paradoxical statementin the first paragraph that isinacceptable. How can he affirm, without blushing, that philosophy and art are ‘the two most distant fields of culture’? Is not art the expression of the world by man’s thought and feelings objectified by his action? Is not philosophy the theory assembled by thought and based on the reflection of this same world in the mirror of human feelings? How can they be considered distant if they are two faces of the same coin? The articles included in this volume are: Three Bacchanalian Pictures (1911); On Realism in Painting (1912); On the Artist’s Viewpoint (1924); The Dehumanization of Art (1925); Introduction to Velazquez (1943); Goya (1950); Fragments (on Goya from various late essays on art); Appendix (a short essay on ‘The Spinners’ from Introduction to Velazquez, 1954). There are 16 black and white illustrations, each of works by Velazquez and Goya (including details) and one each by Picasso, Klee, Pollock, Rubens, Poussin, Titian and Caravaggio. Critique of Modern Art. Frederick Solomon. Nathaniel Hawthorne College Press, Nashua, New Hampshire, 1970. 222 pp., illus. $9.95. Reviewed by Alan C. Birnholz* Bad books need to be reviewedjust as much as good onesand this book is a very bad book indeed. As I understand the author’s point, the defining characteristic of modern art is ‘the negation, the conscious rejection of the natural, the purposeful refraining from the naturalistic, a Nonnaturalism which is enjoyed as such, an aim in itself‘. But, since ‘the quality of the work is measured by its emotional strength’, there is a ‘limit to which Nonnaturalism may go. Forms which show no organic structure resist empathy as well as perception, and are outside the realm of art.’ Art’s primary reason for being is to communicate but ‘the contents of non-objective painting remain secluded in the artist’s soul’. ‘We must conclude that there is no bridge between an abstract piece of art and the human mind or soul. It cannot be understood , and might touch us only in a faint and vague mode.’ Although I disagree with Solomon’s arguments, I accept the fact that a good case could be made for them. My objections to this Critique of Modern Art rest instead on how incompetently Solomon makes that case. It is not hard to recognize that we are dealing here with a highly watered-down version of Worringer’s Abstraction arid Empathy now turned inside-out. That is, if Worringer provided one of the principal arguments in support of the Gegeristandslosigkeit that was soon to flourish among avant-garde figures in Europe, Solomon uses the concept of a fundamental divorce between society and abstraction as a stick to beat over the head most of the art produced within the last 60 years. The trouble is that he wields that stick in a terribly sloppy fashion. It is annoying to read that Constable ‘throws all conventions overboard’ and Kandinsky was the ‘originator’ of modern art. Then there are ridiculous comparisons; Macke, we are told, ‘like Masaccio died in his 28th year’. Solomon weights what evidence he has in the most biased fashion, He dislikes Pechstein and so Pechstein is represented by a particularly banal work. Most important, Critiqire of Moderti Art is shot through with insignificant or trivial remarks that effectivelydestroy the book’s substance. In short, this is a very poor echo of the polemics against abstraction from the first decades of this century. The book deserves to be ignored. *Dept. of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01060, U S A . Modern European Art. Alan Bowness. Thames & Hudson, London, 1972. 224 pp., illus. Cloth, 22.50; paper, 21.50. Reviewed by Clive Phillpot** This book is the seventh volume in a series of eight devoted to a history of Western art, however, it has been written as a completely self-contained work. The starting point...

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