Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde 1910–1925 by Dickran Tashjian (review)

Books 77 collected under the label of Art Deco is considerable, with influences such as Matisse, on one hand. and the machineimagery of Futurism, on the other. But even books designed for a general audience should meet certain standards of content, and I have reservations that would apply to many such books at present on the market. Delhaye has written a reasonable text, with short biographic passages on someof the artistsand some useful references to areas outside his specialization, such as the German cinema. He has alsoprovided a brief index. But he defines Art Deco only through a cumulative description, and has only a brief conclusion in which he asserts, rather than argues, the homogeneity of the movement. Whilst he deals with the:role of the poster artist, one is not left with any feeling of a historical necessityin the formation of the movement, nor any clear argument for its unity. Arwas has also written a text, but does not provide an index, which is a major criticism in any book. Whilst he does enter the question ofwhat Art Deco is, and traces somehistory back to the turn of the century, the text is still inadequate to explain why the artefacts illustated look the way they do or were done at the time they were. The reason may be that his text is aimed at collectors rather than persons generally interested. In his conclusion, he says that the ‘gap of years’ allows one to look at the objects ‘untainted by such associations’ as an understanding of their historical context might give one. This is, I feel, a danserous attitude. The general reader is unlikely to be a collector of expensive objects and should be given credit for enough intelligence to understand art rather than see it only in terms of appearances. The aim should be understanding through seeing art in context, not a mere formal description. Neither of these books gives suggestions for further reading, which enhances my main criticism. The concept of reasonably priced and well illustrated art books is admirable. But the texts should be worthy of the works illustrated and ofits readers. With regard to these books, I have reservations. Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde 1910-1925. Dickran Tashjian. Wesleyan Univ. Press, Middletown. Conn.. 1975. 283 pp. illus. $20.00. Reviewed by blalcolm Miles* Tashjian’s book is not only ; I useful contribution in an area that has for long been neglected, but alsoone that, for English readers especially, comes at an appropriate time, in view of the recent exhibitions in London of early 20th-century painting ‘in the U.S.A. It is important, now that the New York School of Abstract Expressionism appears to have lost much of its international prestige, that the earlier works be researched. They have, as one learns from this book, rich rewards to offer, both in visual and verbal art. The propaganda of theNew York Museum of Modern Art effectively eclipsed these works during the political Cold War. But I believe that a revival of interest in them may now be expected. The term Skyscraper Primitives is, at first sight, an odd choice in a title. It was first used by Gorham Munson in 1924, and it introduces one to the major problem inherent in the material included in this book: that Dada in the U.S.A. is not the same as in Europe. Disgust, asTzara said, was at the sourceof European Dada. The immediacy of not only the trenches of World War I but also the fossilised class structure of European bourgeois society wcrc not litctorsdirectly applicable to thcsituation in the U.S.A., and, consequently, a new definition of Dada is required. The one chosen by Tashjian includes the concern of a group of artists with advanced technology and with the excitement of urban and of industrial life-with the ‘machine age’. This may stretch the term Dada to a point where it is no longer useful. There is nothing very subversive. for example. in the work of Charles Sheeler. But it would he ungrateful ~ocriticisc the hook too strongly in this respect; limits for kinds ofart itre dillicult to determine, and the inclusion...