Feminine Beauty by Kenneth Clark (review)

68 H00k.S elaborated by the arts educators. They welcomed the emphasi\ on sensitive observing. awareness of context, and qualitativejudgments 01 teachers; these are all said to be characteristicsof the arts. Hanshumaker draws a parallel between art criticism and critiques of good teaching. Unfortunately, this line of thought also leads to talk about the teacher a\ artist, even the researcher as artist. which, while interesting. become\ vague and unhelpful. There is a tendency to talk of teacher style. \aluc system. o r even of psychological and philosophical connections: talk which may over-generalize the units of analysis as much as previous research over-specified them. The art education specialist and teachers occupy less space in the book. their articles vary considerabl!, but they are no strangers to the frustrating business of trhing to improve teaching in their field. This conference and resulting book will have been worthwhile if i t helps produce further discussion and research which would not otherwise have taken place. For that to happen on any scale will require a change of values in some part of our society. and. given the current conservative climate affecting schools, this is unlikely. A Judgment of Art: Fact and Fiction. Frederic laubes. North Light Publishers. Westport. Conn.. 1981. 143 pp.. illus. E12.70. ISBN: 089134 -0386-6. Reviewed by F. David Martin' Recognixd painter. author of a number of excellent works on painting materials and techniques. Frederic Taubes attempts in this book to reinforce the distinction between arbitrary personal preferences and serious objective judgments about the visual arts, especially paintings. This is made possible. he claims, by grounding the basic criteria of criticism in fundamental aesthetic principles. IJnfortunately. unlike his mentor Bernard Berenson. Taubes is confused about the distinctions between aesthetics and criticism. Aesthetics. among other things. involves the systematicexamination of the presuppositions that underlie the description, interpretation and evaluation of works of art. In this respect. the aesthetician is a meta-critic. The aesthetician trie\ t o determine whether the presuppositions underlying the work ofthe critic are valid o r invalid. Taubes. however, simply proclaims his critical principles-as if they were axioms-without any systematic defense Some of his critical principles are immutable. Taube\ maintain\. whereas others retain their validity only within a hi\ttrrical frame o f reference. Plausible enough, but how does one distinguish the immutable from the mutable? We are not informed. At first. the immutable principles for judging the value of a painting are stated as: composition. paint quality. color. imagination and originality (p 16). Within two pages. however. a shift occurs even with thew immutable\: 'skill in the use of the medium' apparently is sustained for paint qualit! and color. and 'good taste in the choice of subject matter' is added (p. 18). Sculpture and architecture are sketchily discussed later. and presumably the same principles are still being used. But if so. surel! sculpture and architecture require somewhat different immutable principles. The reader by now is completely confused In search ol clarification we return to the first chapter and there. perhaps. we find ii truly immutable principle: 'What is it. then. that makes a particular work of art great'? A simple. incontrovertible answer is, the amount of talent invested in it.' How are we to judge that? 'The crux of ever! judgment is the acceptance of a paradigm of excellence' (p. 15). And how d o we select these paradigms'? Taubes does not tell. but gives us his selections as if they were incontestable. What follows is a hodge-podge of proclamations of evaluative criticism, historically oriented for the most part. 1.he ninety-three illustrations are excellent. the discussion of them illuminated b ! occasional flashes of insight. The writing is clear and snmetimes felicitous. But the organization of the material is hapha7ard. the work\ discussed-none with any sustained analysis-chosen to illustrate Taubes' taste. And what taste! Ckzanne's color is pallid (p. 12). 'Picasso's venture into the realm of African art produced but inept pastiches o f t h e originals' (p. 63).Greek sculpture lacks vitality (p. 6X) and Roman sculpture is much more imaginative (p. 71). Giotto's art declined when he left the shelter of the...