Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings. A Catalogue Raisonne by Diane Upright (review)

Current Literature Edited by Elizabeth Crumley I. Book Reviews Book Review Panel: Rudolf Arnheim, John E. Bowlt, Donald Brook, Robert Dixon, Elmer Duncan, Vic Gray, Peter Lloyd Jones, Sean ODriscoll, Sheila Pinkel, Harry Rand, Lord Eric Roll, Allan Shields, Vladimir Tamari, David Topper, Leon Tsao, M. Tsao, Steve Wilson, Lin Xiaoping. Painting, Language, and Modernity. Michael Phillipson. Routledge & Kegan Paul, U.K., 1985.211 pp. Cloth, €20.00. ISBN: 0-7102-0480-9. Reviewed by Reginald Gadney, 35A Holland Park, London WI, U.K. What is the relationship between the theory and practice of modern art? Michael Phillipson has attempted to answer the question in this unusual study. His style and thinking are at turns infuriatingly complex, witty and frequently eccentric. He arrivesat an answer after something of a struggle: namely (if I have not misunderstood the labyrinthine jokes and multitudinous references) that the painter ‘celebrates’ both theory and practice simultaneously. This act of ‘celebration’ embraces the ‘tradition’ of questioning what he or she ‘thinks’, sees and feels: theory and practice are in partnership, and the authentic modern painting is thus one that affirms renewal. None of this is especially novel. However, Phillipson’s exuberant declarations are infectiously optimistic: painting, he persuades us, is alive and in rather good health. But Phillipson employs an unusual style of commentary. He frames the heavy machinery of his discussions with quasi-fictitious playscripts, peopled by characters as diverse as Picasso, Pollock, Marcuse and Matta. They all talk or each other; never with each other. They pointificate like opinionated tutors of art and nervous students who have been institutionalized for too long. Alas, we are afforded no relief in the main discussions, so many of which are founded upon the more obscure theorizings of phenomenological, poststructuralist writers. All of these are ranged in support of the author’s thesis. The reader may suspect a tone of special pleading and feel reluctant to accept the air of seminar discussion in which teacher (Phillipson is a teacher of both art and sociology) agrees with student. Some may be inclined to shrink away from what seems acceptable to those who distribute awards, honours, degrees and certificates to art studentsdubious rewards for effectiveperformance in the academic forum. Indeed, one is sorely tempted to mutter ‘So what?’ like one of the author’s playscript characters. Yet Phillipson redeems himself with his provocative sense of mischief, which even so almost gets the better of him at the end. Here the doyen of Britain’s Academic Professors of Paintings is sharply cut off in imaginary mid-reflection upon Darwin. Even this eccentric ending cannot detract from the force of the author’s belief that the balance of modern theory and painting yields an authentic art for the twentieth century. If Phillipson is right, then the crisis of art foreseen by so many during the past few decades may well be over. If he is wrong then it will be a pity that so much exuberance has been wasted. Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings. A Catalogue Raisonne. Diane Upright. Abrams, 1985. 264 pp., illus. Cloth, $100.00. Reviewed by Harry Rand, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, U.S.A. Although pursued with intense solemnity, the study of Morris Louis’s art to date has been largely unproductive. Sometimes goodwilled, it has been more often the result of turf scuffles among critics and and different coteries. Earnest research takes a giant leap forward with Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings. Because the technical innovation of his painting was crucial, was transitional, heretofore Morris Louis’s art has been enlisted under the banner of any number of modern art’s interpreters. Pursuing implications (inherent in Jackson Pollock’s art, among others), Louis was one of the better-known artists who loosened Modernist painting’s fundamental dependence on images that could ultimately be traced to extra-pictorial reference. Louis’s work mediates between the historical moment of the Abstract Expressionist ethos and the later minimalist (‘color field’) painting style largely concerned with the physical properties of painting in dialogue with the unique properties of the painting support. The very form of this pivotal artist’s career is a matter of some urgent...