Books Received

UNKNOWN IMPRESSIONISTS by Kathleen Adler. Phaidon Press, Oxford , U.K., 1988. 128pp., illus.Trade 530.00.ISBN: 0-71482452-6. The author skillfully investigatesthe nature, understanding and meaning of Impressionismby considering the work of those painters who exhibited in at least one of the ‘Impressionist’ group shows held between 1874and 1886,yet whose names and art were not subsequentlyelevated to the pantheon of the great. This method yields many insightsand not a few surprises . The work is to bedoubly appreciated for the lucid text, combining careful research with ease of expres sion, and for the opportunity to experience, in excellent color reproductions , lesser-known (and some ‘unknown ’)works of Impressionistart. THETRIUMPH OF MIRROROF VULGARITY. ROCK MUSIC IN THE ROMANTICISM by Robert Pattison. Oxford University Press, New York, NY,U.S.A., 1987. 294 pp., illus. Trade, $19.95, 517.50. ISBN:0-145038762. In this valuable book the author argues cogently for an understanding of what constitutes Rock music and how its evident vulgarity is mirrored in nineteenthcenturyRomanticism. The myths of Rock are closely examined , both as present manifestations of nineteenthcentury models and as phenomena fulfillingcontemporary vulgar needs. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the vulgarizationof culture. Yet it is not a proselytizing tract, although its polemic is clear: as part ofthe democratic processes, refinement will alwaystend towards greater and greater vulgarity. THE OXFORD COMPANION TO TWENTIETH CENTURY ART Harold Osborne, ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 1988.656 pp., illus. Paper, 212.95. ISBN: 0-14 2820761. ART TODAY by Edward LucieSmith. Phaidon Press, Oxford, U.K., 1986.516pp., illus.Trade, 525.00.ISBN: 0-7148 23252. THENEW IMAGE: PAINTING IN THE 1980s by Tony Godfrey. Phaidon Press, Oxford , U.K., 1986. 160pp., illus.Trade f19.95. ISBN: 0-7148-2403-8. Now availablein paperback, The Oxford Companion has established itself as the leading one-volumereference work on twentiethcentury art. Painstaking and skillful editing, while avoidingthejumbled yet bland presentation characteristic of many multiauthoredworks , has allowed each of the many contributors an individual voice. The cross-referencingis thorough and the whole work seems imbued with a drive to inform and educate. The eight plate sections, many in color, are further evidence of meticulous pedagogic concern. All teachers, practitioners, researchers, ‘users’and loversof modem art will find this book essential. B y contrast, Art Today presents one writer’sview of twentieth-centuryart. From the birth of modernism, which LucieSmith dates from the Paris Salon d’Automne of 1905 (the first public appearance of the Fauves), up to the threshold of the 1980s,the clear text and magnificent full color reproductions deftlylead one through the many schoolsand movements . This is essentiallya survey of Eu?.opeanart-other parts of the world (such as the United States) are discussed only in so far as they have influenced art in Europe (and W e s t a Europe, at that) or have initiated movements taken up by European artists. in painting and the artists’willingness , even eagerness, to ‘re-invent’ technique and master the difficulties of fine draughtsmanship are given compelling shape in TheNew Imp. This is neither a compendium nor a survey, but rather an introduction to the trends and directions the author conjectures painting will take in the future. With the present-day return to classicism, particularlyin architecture and music, it will be interesting to see if painting too is to follow this road in rediscoveringits importance and restating its confidence in the midst of a decayingsociety. The recent resurgence of interest TheAmeriaanDesignAdventure ArthurJ. Pulos. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1988. 418 DD.. illus.Trade. $50.00. ISBN: 0-262-16106-0. TheBnrsh and the G m a p a s s : TheInterfaoeL+zmics cfArt and Science. Paul Z. Hard. University Press of America,Lanham, MD, I .. L 1 . U.S.A., 1988.376 pp., illus. Paper, $17.75; trade, $29.50. A*tT* ISBN: 0-8191-68483. Edward LucieSmith. Phaidon Press Ltd., Oxford, U.K., 1986.516 pp., illus.Cloth, f25.00. ISBN: 0-71482325-2. Dr. Ameisenhuufen’s Fauna .. Joan Fontcube& and Pere Formiguera. European Photography , Gttingen, West Germany, 1988.84 pp., illus. Paper, DM 38. ISBN: 3923283164 BildgebendeFotogmfie GotfriedJSger. Dumont, Kdn, West Germany, 1988.333...