Jasper Johns by Michael Crichton (review)

Books 169 Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination. Arturo Schwarz. Rizzoli, New York, 1977. 384 pp.. illus. $35.00. Reviewed by Peter Fingesten* This definitivebook, written with the help of the artist, givesone a closely written overview of all the phases of the work of Man Ray who, in the words of the author, wasamongthe few dadaists to remain faithful throughout his life to the original premises of Dadaism. Man Ray was a most versatileand cleverartist. He did not achieve the status of those great surrealists of the first generation whom he emulated and traces of whose work can easily be detected in Man Ray’s efforts, yet several of his works becamevery famous. Among his seminal piecesare ‘TheEnigma of Isadore Ducasse’ (1920) (a wrapped sewing machine), the ‘Cadeau’ (1921) (a clothes iron with nails attached), the ‘Indestructible Object’(1923) (a metronome with a reproduction of an eye pinned to it) and the extraordinarily beautiful ‘Le Violin d’hgres’ (1924) (photograph of the rear view of a female nude with simulated violin f holes upon her back). Man Ray did not care for artistic refinements or technical excellencebut wanted his works to amuse, bewilder, annoy or to inspire reflection. In 1966 he entitled the accompanying text of his retrospective exhibition in the Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art, I Have Never Painted a Recent Picture, to imply that the essenceof art istimeless.A work ofart ofanyperiod is, ofcourse, contemporary when Seenand experiencedby a beholder. He was anti-historical. He cared only to realize himself in art. He proclaimed: ‘There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.There aresimplydifferent waysofdoing it.’ ‘I paint what cannot be photographed, and I photograph what I do not wish to paint.’ The author displays in this book considerable knowledge of Jungian concepts, particularly alchemy. He applied these premises to some of Man Ray’s works in analysis of their conceptual origin as rising from the collective unconscious. He admits that the artist himselfdid not understand anything about alchemy and that he ‘hit’independently upon certain archetypal patterns. In other words, an artist does not have to know intellectually the deeper sources of his inspiration, since he does not function as critic but as maker. Dadaists and Surrealists do however utilize the most private and intimate suggestions of the psyche, thus Schwarz is justified in drawing attention to them. They neither intrude nor obscure the primary aim of the discussion at hand. I welcome and recommend this very detailed, brilliantly organized and beautifully illustrated book about the only master of the genre who was of U S A . origin. Joan Miro: Catalan Notebooks. Gaetan Picon. Trans. from French by Dinah Harrison. Rizzoli, New York, 1977. 157 pp., illus. $28.00. Reviewed by Nicholas Orsini ** This book, a homage to Joan Miro, presents a series of heretofore unpublished sketchbooks and notebooks of drawings and written idea-notations on paintings, working processes and media, with philosophical asides.Thecore of the book isdevoted to a seriesof drawings from the sketchbook of 193O-ane of the few instances of drawingasa final form in Miro’swork. Twentyseven drawings are reproduced actual size. Based on figuresthat develop into a ‘fabulous alphabet invented to transcribe the simplest things in the world’, they document his process of invention from reality to symbolic representation. Thesedrawings are followedby a ‘conversation’with the artist in which his working plans and ideas for specific paintings are discussed. I found this to be the most interesting and useful portion of the book: the playful character of Miro’s shapes and the emphasis on the formal organization in his work are here revealed as only a superficialunderstanding of his intentions, as they detail specificmeanings that shape simplifications have for him. It is clear that his works are not simple abstracted arrangements, but the recreation, by means of signs, of deeply felt experiences in the phenomenological world. This is made strikingly clear in the description of elements in his Catalan *145, East 26th Street, Apt. C. New York. NY 10010,U.S.A. **50, Barbara Lane, Hamden, CT 06518, U.S.A. landscape of 1923-24, ‘The Hunter’, and in the experiencesthat led to his...