Goncharova: Stage Designs and Paintings by Mary Chamot (review)

Books 75 incongruity, for example, between the advanced technology of a Murphy radio chassis of 1938 and the traditional woodcrafting employed to build its veneered cabinet. One notable error: The author datesand describes Raymond Loewy’s design for the streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad Engine #3768 but provides instead a photograph of the much larger and more powerful SI built by the PRR two years later. Although the shrouds are similar in appearance and in their aerodynamic qualities,the S-1 was designedalla prima as a total concept whereas #3768 was an existing K-4 Pacific to which sheet metal was added to hide the clutter and to form a smooth airform. (It was removed within 10 years.) Here Bayley might have reversed his Murphy radio argument: The engine’s conventional steam mechanisms lagged far behind its air-age outer casing. As this is a personal selection, some readers might wish to take exceptions here and there. I would prefer Henry Dreyfuss’s New York Central 20th Century Limited to Loewy’s PRR designs, though it came later and may have been less influential. Because Dreyfuss balanced hard-edged geometry with organic forms in the superstructure, it is well matched to the exposed running gear below. At the same time the driving wheels, steam chest and other machinery were simplified to further coordinate the design. Finally, Dreyfuss minimized the lower shrouding and hence the number of access panels. Old photos show these panels missing on many PRR engines, the revenge, no doubt, of the maintenance crews. I would alsosubstituteany of the classic Hallicrafter short-wave radio designs for the 1959Telefunken TV set. The latter isonly a mock-up and it seems unlikely that it could have influenced other designers. Moreover, it is an ugly bloated form that perches on a spindly tripod with laundrycart wheels. In all, the book‘s virtues qualify it as required reading in a course in Twentieth Century Design. That is the use to which 1 am putting it because of its thoughtful essays,excellentphotography and layout and a series of useful biographies. If Bayley is right in claiming that industrial design is the art of the 20th century, then we are all collectors. But we must stop thinking of these art objects as growing more obsolete with each new model year and build more museums to house them. Until then, In Good Shape will serveas a commendablecatalogue to that yetto -be-assembled collection. Concharova: Stage Designs and Paintings. Mary Chamot. Oresko Books, London, 1979. 104 pp.. illus. €8.95. ISBN: 0905-368525. Reviewed by Anthony Parton’ This is Mary Chamot’s second book on the Russian artist Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962) (her first was the French monograph Goncharova, Paris, 1972). Chamot, a distinguished art historian and Russian scholar, is the acknowledged authority on Goncharova, and was a personal friend of the artist during her later years. The introduction gives an authorative over-all view of the Russian cultural scene and presents the most detailed account to date of Goncharova’s life and art. The author dwells particularly upon Goncharova’s collaboration with Larionov between 1907and 1914,and describes the progression of bold formal experiments in Goncharova’s paintings culminating in the rayonist anticipation of abstract art, as well as the various exhibitions that she and Larionov organised. (On pp. 10 and 12 there are misprints in the Russian for the Knave of Diamonds which should read Bubnovy Valet. not Bululvy. And the Donkey’s Tail, Osliny Khvost, not Khvasr.) Study is also made of Goncharova’s lithographs for the poetry of Khlebnikov and Khruchenykh and of the close connection between Futurism in literature and in the visual arts. The author clearly defines Goncharova’s artistic position amidst the futurist hubbub of this complex period in the history of Russian art. At the same time, through well-chosen illustration and apt comment, she shows the important influence of the icon, the shopsign and the popular print (lubok)on her subject’s art. Chamot recounts Goncharova’s meeting with Fokine and Diaghilev during 1914 and discusses her subsequent costume and stage designs for the Ballets Russes. Special consideration is given to her designs for ‘Le Coq d’Or’ (1914...