Archipenko: The Sculpture and Graphic Art by Donald H. Karshan (review)

252 Books whether the question as to ‘a sociology of art has a harmful influence upon our imagination and aesthetic pleasure in destroying the mystery of a work’. Understandably, she determines that it does not. The pictures are adequate as illustrations. though they are making no pretence to match the photographic brilliance of an Elisofon. The bibliography, almost entirely European, is now dated but is substantial. As a helpful work of reference, this book remains valuable. In each section, substantial advances will make the specialist remark upon the inadequacies of this survey but, in the line of the other general studies by Leuzinger and Laude, this remains informative and honest. It also has the significant grace of being very modestly priced. Britain Observed: The Landscape through Artists’ Eyes. Geoffrey Grigson. Phaidon. London. 1975.208pp., illus. f9.95. Reviewed by Reginald Gadney* The author examines the representations of the English landscape by 68 painters from the 17thto the 18th century. using numerous and effective illustrations. He leans heavily on the statements of the artists themselves to provide commentaries upon the works. These are prefaced by an original essay entitled The Question of Landscape, which is both informative and querulous. He argues. with the conviction of an authority on English landscape. that painters ‘usually respond most of all to scenes in which their consciousness or their vision was I‘ormed‘ (Constableand Pissarro, in particular). There is certainly a case for saying that the enjoyment of landscape begins with ‘landscape in fact’. in other words, with one’s first-hand experience of landscape before seeing an artist’s representation of it. But whether, as Grigson suggests, ‘the now rather too fashionable study of the history of art’ really does obstruct the appeal of landscape paintings is a point he prefers not to dwell upon. If the study of art history was unfashionable, matters would presumably be no different. In any event, he is the subtle exception to his own rule in that he has most carefully studied the history of landscape painting and has produced a very expensive book to prove it. He reviews the idea of ideal landscape, then the more realistic approach to nature through painting, and thereafter the work of those he calls ‘freaks’ (the individualists, Constable, Turner, Keene and Agasse, with other lesser known painters of the English landscape); the impressionists who painted in England, notably Monet and Pissarro; and the few contemporary painters who have found something of an original approach to the subject, notably Burra. Nicholson and Pasmore. (Sutherland. whose landscape painting is surely as interesting as that of Ravilious. is ignored.) This is a well-designed and attractive book. but its price will probably mean that few artists and studentswill be able to afford it. Perhaps it was intended for the library shelves of the fashionable students of art history for whom the author entertains so powerful an aversion, Art-Action and Participation. Frank Popper. Studio Vista, London, 1975. 296 pp.. illus. f9.50. Reviewed by Reginald Gadney* The purpose of this book is to declare ’a new art, a truly democratic art’. This ‘new art’. art made by ’all’ the people and for ‘all‘ the people. is not an unworthy ideal, but it is simply impractical. Moreover. contrary to the author’s assertion, it is very doubtful that the foundations of this ‘new art’ have actually been laid. If he is right, then one is entitled to ask-are the people aware of their momentous achievement‘? There is little to support the claim that the people are aware of their participation as spectators. or of art’s intercourse with architecture or of ‘the scientific basis of art itself‘. Few would agree with the author that what he calls ’ ”non-solid” plastic materials’ havecontributed, with the three awarenessesabove, to *Glebe House. Wendy. Royston, Herts. SG8 OHJ. England ‘the disappearance of the “object in art” ’, that is, of the more traditional forms of painting and sculpture. In any case, Popper finds himself somewhat compromised, for he acknowledges the ‘special services’ rendered to him by an astute international dealer in art objects, Denise Rene. Her most conspicuously successful trading in these ‘disappearing’ objects suggests that her customers will...