Books Received

170 Books a discourse familiar enough to those in the human sciences but perplexing to non-initiates. This problem is also present in Kenneth Beittei's paper dealing with qualitative description of the qualitative. His dense discussion of the interface between artist, artwork, meaning, interpretation, etc. is based on a structuralist-existential model. Fortunately, David McKay's response accentuates some of Beittel's key points, enabling readers to return to the latter for further insight. The book's provocative content and modest price make it a worthwhile addition to the library of any art educator, especially to one interested in the way sophisticated notions drawn from the human sciences can illuminate visual arts understanding . However, it does not constitute a definitive text, but rather a useful resource. Many formulations in it are provisional , and they can profitably be reworked and extended. Arts Education and Back to Basics. Stephen M. Dobbs, ed. National Art Education Association, Reston, VA, U.S.A., 1979. 216 pp., illus. Reviewed by Jan Valtr* The relationship of arts education in the state schools in the U.S.A. to the current Back to Basics movement is examined in a series of 15 essays. The editor briefly presents the history of the issue of arts education and its position in a school curriculum from the days of Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century to the present-day public disenchantment with what Dobbs calls 'inflated education'. He states that 'American education has pursued a policy of overstatement about its role and substance' and, that arts education was no exception. Statements such as '[Teachers of art] can show men how to attain liberation from distraction in a vision of the immediate, how to lift their heads above the flux and enjoy union with the eternal, how to achieve bliss of beauty, the rapture of fulfillment , the ecstasy of love' are examples of some of the rhetorical promises that are as difficult to demonstrate as they are to accept by practical-minded school boards and tax payers. The authors understand the role of arts education and its contribution to basic education differently, but they seem to agree on two major points. There is an urgent need to redefine what Basic Education is or ought to be and what arts education is or ought to be. Unless this need is met, the Back to Basics Movement threatens to eliminate all but those 'solid subjects' considered basic in the 18th century. But in today's complex society are there not other subjects that are equally valid? I believe that art educators must take a hard critical look at their subject: its content and teaching methodology and the preparation of art teachers. The defense of arts education as a vital discipline cannot rely on justifications such as 'If you don't understand its importance, I can't explain it to you'. School boards and tax payers will not accept a subject whose value cannot be explained clearly. *739Santa Fe, Albany, CA 94706, U.S.A. The authors of the essays are in favor of retaining the arts in the basic curriculum and are optimistic that they will be retained. However, they point out where present-day arts education has failed to demonstrate clearly its 'basicness' to learning. Though this book may provide painful reading for some art teachers, the fact that respected art educators have presented the results of their 'soul searching' may convey the sense of urgency for the need for change in arts education, if the subject is to survive in the primary and secondary schools in the U.S.A. American Drawing: A Guide to Information Sources. Lamia Doumato, ed. Gale Research, Detroit, 1979. 246 pp. $24.00. This book is an annotated bibliography including general reference sources (bibliographies and indexes, dictionaries and encyclopedias, and directories and biographical dictionaries ); histories and surveys and general works; technical handbooks on drawing; works on 19th- and 20th-century drawing; works about individual USAmerican artists and works, illustrated by them. The works include monographs, exhibition catalogues, periodical articles. The USAmerican artists worked either in the U.S.A. or abroad from 1890 to the present. In two subsequent chapters, lists of works on illustration...