Books Received

172 Books The Yearbook presents accounts of major exhibitions of painting, sculpture, graphics, artists’ cinema films and photography . An index is provided of exhibitions in England in 1976 for which announcements had been made in the journal Arts Review. Directories of public and commercial galleries and museums are presented, each with a brief description of the type of artworks exhibited. Similar directories are given for commercial galleries in other parts of Britain; craft galleries; publishers of prints, dealers and studios; art societies and organizations; art magazines, newspaper art critics and regional art associations. Articles are included devoted to art patronage, the Arts Council of Great Britain, art books and catalogues published in 1976, museums services, picture presentation (framing, hanging, lighting), artists’ commercial and handmade papers, art auctions and insurance claims. ContemporaryArtists.Colin Naylor and Genesis P-Orridge, eds. St. James Press, London, 1977.1077 pp., illus. f25. This isa referencebook that givesdetailed information onabout 1300 internationally-known artists. An entry for an artist typically includes a biographical summary, listings of individual and selectedgroup exhibitions of the artist’s work, collections in which works are held, publications by or about the artist, a statement on the artist’s work and, in many cases, a photograph of a work by the artist. The selection of the artists included in the book was based on the recommendations of 20 advisors representing 14 different countries. Deceasedartists are included whose work isdeemed to exert a continuing influence on current art activity but whose death did not occur prior to 1930. TheOxfordCompanionto the Decorative Arts. Harold Osborne, ed. Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1975.865pp.. Illus,f10.50.The Penguin Dictionary 01DecorativeArts. John Fleming and Hugh Honour. Allen Lane, London, 1977.896 pp., illus. f9.50. The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts (OCDA)has been prepared asa sister-volumeto TheOxford Companion to Art; the latter devoted to the finearts[cf.Books, Leonardo 4,189(1971)], the former to ‘those arts which are made to serve a practical purpose but are nevertheless prized for the quality of their workmanship and the beauty of their appearance’. OCDA includes‘majorcrafts whoseorigin goesback to prehistoric times such as leather-working, ceramics, textiles, costume, woodworking , .. .; crafts which have arisen since the dawn of history such as bell-founding, paper-making, clock-making, typography , landscape gardening, photography; and specialized or luxury crafts such as arms and amour, enamels, lacquer, jewellery, toys, lace-making and embroidery’. In addition to the main articles on crafts and on techniques and materials, there areshort biographical accountsofcraftsmen and short entries on schools and styles. Like its sister-volume, OCDA is a handbook, not a detailed encyclopedia, whose purpose is ‘to giveintroductory surveysover a very widefield’. A team of 76 contributors supplied the entries to this book. The book closes with a bibliography of 940 items. The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts (PDDA) was planned by its authors as a sister-volume to the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, which they had written in collaboration with Nikolaus Pevsner. PDDA is concerned with ‘furniture and furnishings4.e. movable objects other than paintings and sculpture-in Europe from the Middle Ages onwards and in North America from the Colonial Period to the present day’. Also included are ‘accounts of craftsmen and types of objects that have played a part in the development of the decorative arts in the West, e.g. Chineseand Japanese ceramics’. Excluded are ‘articles of personal adornment, musical instruments , scientific instruments, clocks (but not their cases), manuscripts and printed books (but not their bindings)’. ‘There are four types of entry in the dictionary: definitions of stylisticand technical terms; accounts of materials and processes of working and embellishing them; biographies of leading craftsmen and designers;and brief histories of the more notable factories in which objects for household use and decoration have been made.’ Very brief bibliographies are to be found at the end of entries. PDDA ends with tabulated illustrations of ceramic marks, hallmarks on silver and makers’ marks on silver and pewter. RILA (Repertoire International de la Litterature de I’Art; InternationalRepertory 01 the Literature01Art). Vol. 2,No. 1, 1976.Michael Rinehart, ed. Courtaurd Institute of Art, London. 273 pp. Paper. Subscription rates for individuals, students and...