Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms by William J. Curtis (review)

expedient substitutes for the original works of art and the personal encounter with the expert art historian, the Open University provides studentswith a list of galleriesand museums wherethey can see original paintings and sculptures, and three audio cassettes with the voices of the authors of the text enlarging on what they have written. Themethodadopted iswhollyhistorical, referring to historical developments and situations. It is hoped that the guidance provided in this manner will lead the student to arrive at judgements that give pleasure to encounters with art objects, Besides the textbook, Looking into Paintings, the package contains the three audio cassettes containing six separate programmes, and 20postcard illustrations for use with the cassettes. The gallery visiting card included in the package is a pocket aide-memoire to thequestions one should ask when confronting a painting, sculpture or other artefact. In the book, which has over 160 illustrations (45 in colour), there are three main sections, each dealing with a particular genre of painting: thefirst, on narrative paintings, was written by Norbet Lynton, professor of the history of art at SussexUniversity; the second, on portraits, is the work of Alistair Smith, keeper of education and exhibitions at the National Gallery; and the third, on landscapes and still life,was written by Robert Cummings, Director of the Christie’s fine arts course. Diane Collinson of the Open University has contributed a final section, “Philosophy Looks at Painting”, which discusses questions that anyone interested in art would like answered. Does art matter? Why do we do it? What is involved in enjoying art? and so on. Along with purposeful visitsto galleriesand museums this section undoubtedly will help the student in the development of a personal philosophy of art. This package, reinforced by published supplementary texts, should provide the basisforsound advancement inparticular areas of visual education. The writing, besides being informed, clear and encouraging , does elicit participatory responses, a characteristic of the best instruction. The course must be of immense value to students who are studying the history of art and those seeking personal development in this field. As the two main contributorswrite in the introduction,“We do not set out to persuade you of the superiority of one kind or period of art over another or of oneartist overanother. We areconcerned rather to display a method and an attitude that will lead to closer intimacy with art and also to true discrimination.” M.C. ESCHER ART AND SCIENCE H.S.M. Coxeter et al., eds. Elsevier (North Holland),P.O. Box 1991, IOOOBZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1986.400 pp., illus. Trade, $50.00. ISBN: 0-444-70011-0. Reviewed by Roger F. Malina, 95 Hiller Drive, Oakland, CA 94618, U.S.A. This book is the proceedings of the interdisciplinary congress devoted to the Dutch artist Maurits Cornelius Escher held in Rome in March 1985. The conference was a truly interdisciplinary one with sections on “Escher and Symmetry”, “Escher, Mathematics and Visual Perception”, “Escher, Cinema and Computer Graphics”, “Escher and the Physical World” and “Escher and the Humanities”. The authorsincludeH.S.M. Coxeter, R.L. Gregory, R. Penrose, M.L. Teuber, A.L. Loeb, M. Emmer and 29 others. A set of excellent color plates illustrates both Escher’s work and work inspired by his ideas. The work of Escher has become in recent years one of the best examples of contemporarysynthesisof artandscience. Although, according to his son, George Escher, Escher in general worked alone without colleagues with whom he could discuss his ongoing work, his ideas on problems in visual ambiguity and on geometry and topology have found a wide resonance among working artists and scientists. The work of Escher joins that of Mandelbrot with fractals, as well as contemporary work in crystallography by Penrose, as some of the liveliest areas of interaction of art and science. The rapid advance of computer graphics has allowed many of these ideas to become primary elementsingenerativeapproaches for computer art and video art. Although Escher’s work is important in the history of twentieth-century graphic art and prints, it playsa much smaller role in thelargerdevelopmentof contemporary visual art. His influenceon contemporary artists has been fairlyrestricted, especially at a time when many artists have been exploring radically...