Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective ed. by William Rubin (review)

12 H o0k.S Of course. in hi\ move back to a more figuratike esthetic. i‘ernigol repeated the reversal of many Constructivists. Rodchenko and Tatlin among them. Still. in spite of his artistic diverzity. Cernigoj remains a pioneer of Constructivism, and his works from the 1920s. as Krerir emphasi~es.embody the finest traditions of the Russian avant-garde and the Bauhaus. Although clearly indebted t o Moholq-Nagy and. in turn. to 1.issiti.kk and 7-atlin. partkularly in his concept of the architectonic painting and the relief. Cernigoj looked upon geometric abstraction as a total worldvieu and applied his idiosyncratic systems t o many fields of endeavour-interior design, architecture. stage design. typography and photography. Incidentally. in his photographic experiments of the early 1930s. such as his ground-level perspective o f Manlio Malabotta ( 1933). Cernigoj was surely indebted to Rodchenko. although this particular connection is not discussed. The almost 100 illustrations of i‘ernigoj’s work\ in the illustrati\c section of the book provide 11s with a solid visual impression of hi\ artistic vision. But the section is ill-organiied and self-defeating, lor the simple reason that not a single reproduction is dated or titled (the major tefect of the book). Even so. acquaintance with the accomplishments of Cernigoj makes 11\ even more aware o f the great avant-garde legacy in Eastern Europe that still awaits rediscovery and reexamination. Moreover. such illuminating studies compel us to change our traditional identifications of particular movements with particular countries and t o formulate a whole \erie\ of new national categorie.;-\uch as Ci.ech C‘ubism. Hungarian Expressionism. Ukrainian Futurism. and now, thanks in part to thi\ book. Slovenian Constructi\i\m. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. William Rubin. ed.. -I hames & Hudson. London. 19x0 463 pp.. illus. Paper. $9.95. ISBN: 0-500-27194-1 Reviewed by Madhoor Kapur’ 1his is a catalogue to the exhibition which commemor;ited the artist’\ birth centenary and the fiftieth anniversary of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. William Rubin’s visits to Picasso in the 1970s were the genesis of the idea for such a retrospective. which the arti\t la\oured. In Pact. this was the third of the exhibitions to mark the artist’s birth centenary. An exhibition at the Grand Palais. Paris. in 1979 displa!ed uorks in ‘a ram \tale’. their selection not having been presented and analysed in a developed fashion. and an exhibition in Minneapoli\. Minn.. U.S.A.. in 1980. which was ‘a collector’s choice’. c\cluded documentation and reference o r supporting works. The New York retrospective was unique not merely because i t \ magnitude was unprecedented. but because i t appears that i t can never have an equivalent in the future: ‘Ciuernica’ was soon to return t o Spain. and a major part of displayed works will become housed i n the future M u s k Picasso in Paris. for which. incidentally. this shou wrvcd as a rehearsal. The predominantly \i\ual book can he flipped at random. revealing Picasso‘s multiplicit! of styles. variety of themes and playtiil inventivene\s with a directness that does not over\hadow the mysteriousnes of his genius. and. in this eloquent homage paid t o Picasso. the honioge that the artist consistently paid t o his times emerge\ with single-minded clarity. The book is both a startling document o f a triumph o f the individual and of the achicvemciit. dedication and cooperation oIthe collective: a herculean task that gace us agargantuan feast. A convenient. rather than a sumptuous coffee-table book lormat has been chosen. and. among the many available Picasso books. this one is a must. being perhaps the most complete album. It reproduces over 900 artworks. every painting. sculpture. graphic and ceramic in the show. some of which would be new to those already well acq~iainted wtth the artist’s work. A lucid. laconic biographical text by Jane Fltiegel. \iipplemented occasionally with documentary photographs. accompanies the chronologicall? ordered visuals and is a useful reference lor scholar and lakman alike The sixteen \ections. ranging from 1881-1899 t o 1954- 1973. \pan Picasso’s...