Readings in Glass History ed. by Anita Engle (review)

Books 167 to his belief that beauty of music is a perception of primary sounds of nature, balanced by the excitement of city noises. The futurists also developed the idea of a disposablecity. They advocated the construction of buildings that would last for only one generation. Let the next generation decide in what kind of houses and cities they wanted to live! The authors, however, do not ask the question how it would be possiblefor onegeneration to even construct the grandiose buildings for which plans are reproduced in their book. The authors clearly document that Futurism as a revolutionary art movement played a role in the art of the Russian Revolution and in the coming of Fascism to Italy. The Russian constructivists partly adopted the futurist idea of depicting speed, and the decorations of the early May Day parades in Moscowareeloquent proof of their indebtedness to the futurists. The authors note that the futurists were anxious to win the approval of Paris, that ‘theyrushed into Cubism, and in sodoing discarded much that, though still tentative and raw, was original and rich in possibilities’. Although to a certain degree the futurists accepted the dislocations, simultaneous representations and prismatizations of Cubism, they infused them with their idea of dynamism. It is well known that when Boccioni arrived in Paris as a rival of the cubists, the cubists as well as the then leadingartcritics rejectedhim. In spiteof this rejection, however, the Orphic Cubism of Delauney was clearly influenced by the ‘lines of force’ of Futurism and the paintings of Duchamp, in which he depicted motion, asin, forexample, ‘Nude Descending a Staircase’, were also influenced by futurist ideas. Many basic facts are brought together and illustrated in the book. A list of well-balanced sources and further reading suggestions are its additional merit. I recommend the book to those interested in the history of Futurism. Modern Australian Painting, 197tL1975. Kym Bonython and Elwyn Lynn. Rigby,Adelaide, South Australia, 1976.87~~. illus. $12.95. Reviewed by Sasha Grishin* The book sets out to be an uncritical anthology of Australian painting in the 1970s,showing both the uniquenessin the work of severalAustralian painters aswell asthe dull plagiarism of recent trends abroad by the majority of the painters included in this selection. As is inevitable for a book o f this type, it is unlikely that one will have complete agreement with the choice of artists or of the works chosen for reproduction. Bonython, responsible for the selection, is an Adelaide collector and commercial art dealer. Concerning the selection, the word ‘painting’ is interpreted in a rather narrow, traditional senseas regards media, and of the 114 artists included in the book, none of the emerging Australian feminists is represented. So although, in a sense, this anthology gives one a good impression of what the trendy, accepted artists were doing largelyin Adelaide, Sydneyand Melbourne in the early 1970’s,it entirely ignores the work of the traditional realist painters and largely excludes the work of the more adventurous, young painters. Each painter is allocated one colour reproduction, of different sizesbut generallyof a consistently goodquality, and in the Appendix a rather short biographical blurb. These blurbs tend to beabout 50words long and are a little too laconic to be of much use, and for further information onewould have to consult a more comprehensive text like the new edition of Alan McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Arr. The book is prefaced by a rather lucid Introduction by Elwyn Lynn, a distinguished Australian art critic and painter, here writing as a defender of contemporary Australian painting. Although both Lynn and Bonython illustrate and comment on the wide diversity in Australian painting and, to use Lynn’s phrase, prove that Australian painting is not as yet ready for the articulate morticians who will both dig the grave and read a persuasive burial service,the scenethat emergesis a gloomy one. The painters of the generation of Australian painters that have *Australian National University, Fine Art, P.O. Box 4, Canberra A.C.T., Australia 2600. received recognition abroad, such as Nolan, Arthur Boyd, John Brack and Fred Williams,are now in their 50s and 60s. With the exception of Senbergsand Whiteley, both aged...