Leonardo

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries by Meyer SchapiroReview by: John F. MoffitLeonardo, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Spring, 1981), p. 163Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1574433 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 00:08

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLeonardo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.82 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 00:08:44 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Meaning of Still-Life, is I believe worthy of analysis here to convey to readers something of Schapiro's interpretive deduc- tions as well as their usefulness for future investigations. Schapiro relates Cdzanne's youthful love of classical poetry to a mental image that he may have derived from Vergil's Eclogues (II, 34, 67-71) ('...if a girl be seduced with ten apples, happy is he who can so cheaply buy love with apples'). He then relates this to the basket of apples once given by Cezanne to the boon-companion of his youth, Emile Zola, thence suggesting by inference that the painter's fascination with the fruit in his later still-life represents an unconscious reminiscence of 'the painful rupture of his long friendship with Zola' after 1886. Schapiro's larger conclusion is that 'the central place given to apples as a theme of love invites a question about the emotional ground of his frequent painting of apples'.

Whether one agrees with this view or not, I believe this is the sort of analysis that must be applied to figurative artworks from Cezanne onwards. Whatever the motifs, adds Schapiro, 'the assemblage of random images in 20th-century art is the cast, real and symbolic, of an interior drama'. In effect, in the artworks of the 19th and 20th centuries, following the rejec- tion by painters of the communally understood symbolic values assigned to specific motifs in Renaissance and Baroque art, 'the objects chosen ... belong to specific fields of value: the private, the domestic, the gustatory, the convivial, the artistic, the vocation and the avocation, the decorative, and- less often-in a negative mood, objects offered to meditation as symbols of vanity, mementos of the ephemeral and death'. I believe these are the sort of points those concerned with contemporary nontraditional painting must contend.

For me, the most important item in the book is his pioneering investigation entitled Courbet and Popular Imag- ery: An Essay on Realism and Naivete (1941). In it he investigates the way in which Courbet consciously drew upon the printed, mass-produced, popular art of the French folk illustrators by transforming it by a kind of ideological alchemy into fine art. The identification of this source material used by Courbet has enabled Schapiro, as well as another historian following his methodology, Linda Nochlin, to propose the highly likely meaning of such of his paintings as 'Burial at Ornans' and 'Bonjour M. Courbet'. The source of 'The Studio of the Painter' (1855), the most ambitious of Courbet's realistic Salon 'machines', as he called such paintings, has yet to be proposed, and I intend to investigate the matter myself.

The Immortal Eight: American Painting from Eakins to the Armory Show, 1870-1913. Bennard B. Perlman. Van Nos- trand Reinhold, Wokingham, England, 1979. 224 pp., illus. ?14.20. Reviewed by David Carrier*

Gossip frequently plays an important role in writing about art. To learn from Vasari about Michelangelo's temper or from Baudelaire about Delacroix's misogyny helps us understand their art. This book, unfortunately, contains little more than gossip.

The 'immortal eight' revolted against the late 19th-century system of academic art teaching and juried exhibitions in the U.S.A., and by 1908 established their reputation with a successful group show. Perlman tells many interesting things: what art schools of the time were like; that one of these artists worked as a newspaper illustrator; that Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney purchased the work of these figures. But he offers no framework in which these details can be placed. Instead he tirelessly describes studio pranks, spaghetti fights and the life styles of these men.

Though the art of these painters is strikingly individual, no explanation seriously discussing these differences is provided. Nothing clear is said about the art market of the period or how these rebel figures were able, apparently, to achieve success relatively easily and quickly. What Perlman says, 'Revolt at this time was not limited to the art world, for there were many

Meaning of Still-Life, is I believe worthy of analysis here to convey to readers something of Schapiro's interpretive deduc- tions as well as their usefulness for future investigations. Schapiro relates Cdzanne's youthful love of classical poetry to a mental image that he may have derived from Vergil's Eclogues (II, 34, 67-71) ('...if a girl be seduced with ten apples, happy is he who can so cheaply buy love with apples'). He then relates this to the basket of apples once given by Cezanne to the boon-companion of his youth, Emile Zola, thence suggesting by inference that the painter's fascination with the fruit in his later still-life represents an unconscious reminiscence of 'the painful rupture of his long friendship with Zola' after 1886. Schapiro's larger conclusion is that 'the central place given to apples as a theme of love invites a question about the emotional ground of his frequent painting of apples'.

Whether one agrees with this view or not, I believe this is the sort of analysis that must be applied to figurative artworks from Cezanne onwards. Whatever the motifs, adds Schapiro, 'the assemblage of random images in 20th-century art is the cast, real and symbolic, of an interior drama'. In effect, in the artworks of the 19th and 20th centuries, following the rejec- tion by painters of the communally understood symbolic values assigned to specific motifs in Renaissance and Baroque art, 'the objects chosen ... belong to specific fields of value: the private, the domestic, the gustatory, the convivial, the artistic, the vocation and the avocation, the decorative, and- less often-in a negative mood, objects offered to meditation as symbols of vanity, mementos of the ephemeral and death'. I believe these are the sort of points those concerned with contemporary nontraditional painting must contend.

For me, the most important item in the book is his pioneering investigation entitled Courbet and Popular Imag- ery: An Essay on Realism and Naivete (1941). In it he investigates the way in which Courbet consciously drew upon the printed, mass-produced, popular art of the French folk illustrators by transforming it by a kind of ideological alchemy into fine art. The identification of this source material used by Courbet has enabled Schapiro, as well as another historian following his methodology, Linda Nochlin, to propose the highly likely meaning of such of his paintings as 'Burial at Ornans' and 'Bonjour M. Courbet'. The source of 'The Studio of the Painter' (1855), the most ambitious of Courbet's realistic Salon 'machines', as he called such paintings, has yet to be proposed, and I intend to investigate the matter myself.

The Immortal Eight: American Painting from Eakins to the Armory Show, 1870-1913. Bennard B. Perlman. Van Nos- trand Reinhold, Wokingham, England, 1979. 224 pp., illus. ?14.20. Reviewed by David Carrier*

Gossip frequently plays an important role in writing about art. To learn from Vasari about Michelangelo's temper or from Baudelaire about Delacroix's misogyny helps us understand their art. This book, unfortunately, contains little more than gossip.

The 'immortal eight' revolted against the late 19th-century system of academic art teaching and juried exhibitions in the U.S.A., and by 1908 established their reputation with a successful group show. Perlman tells many interesting things: what art schools of the time were like; that one of these artists worked as a newspaper illustrator; that Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney purchased the work of these figures. But he offers no framework in which these details can be placed. Instead he tirelessly describes studio pranks, spaghetti fights and the life styles of these men.

Though the art of these painters is strikingly individual, no explanation seriously discussing these differences is provided. Nothing clear is said about the art market of the period or how these rebel figures were able, apparently, to achieve success relatively easily and quickly. What Perlman says, 'Revolt at this time was not limited to the art world, for there were many

Meaning of Still-Life, is I believe worthy of analysis here to convey to readers something of Schapiro's interpretive deduc- tions as well as their usefulness for future investigations. Schapiro relates Cdzanne's youthful love of classical poetry to a mental image that he may have derived from Vergil's Eclogues (II, 34, 67-71) ('...if a girl be seduced with ten apples, happy is he who can so cheaply buy love with apples'). He then relates this to the basket of apples once given by Cezanne to the boon-companion of his youth, Emile Zola, thence suggesting by inference that the painter's fascination with the fruit in his later still-life represents an unconscious reminiscence of 'the painful rupture of his long friendship with Zola' after 1886. Schapiro's larger conclusion is that 'the central place given to apples as a theme of love invites a question about the emotional ground of his frequent painting of apples'.

Whether one agrees with this view or not, I believe this is the sort of analysis that must be applied to figurative artworks from Cezanne onwards. Whatever the motifs, adds Schapiro, 'the assemblage of random images in 20th-century art is the cast, real and symbolic, of an interior drama'. In effect, in the artworks of the 19th and 20th centuries, following the rejec- tion by painters of the communally understood symbolic values assigned to specific motifs in Renaissance and Baroque art, 'the objects chosen ... belong to specific fields of value: the private, the domestic, the gustatory, the convivial, the artistic, the vocation and the avocation, the decorative, and- less often-in a negative mood, objects offered to meditation as symbols of vanity, mementos of the ephemeral and death'. I believe these are the sort of points those concerned with contemporary nontraditional painting must contend.

For me, the most important item in the book is his pioneering investigation entitled Courbet and Popular Imag- ery: An Essay on Realism and Naivete (1941). In it he investigates the way in which Courbet consciously drew upon the printed, mass-produced, popular art of the French folk illustrators by transforming it by a kind of ideological alchemy into fine art. The identification of this source material used by Courbet has enabled Schapiro, as well as another historian following his methodology, Linda Nochlin, to propose the highly likely meaning of such of his paintings as 'Burial at Ornans' and 'Bonjour M. Courbet'. The source of 'The Studio of the Painter' (1855), the most ambitious of Courbet's realistic Salon 'machines', as he called such paintings, has yet to be proposed, and I intend to investigate the matter myself.

The Immortal Eight: American Painting from Eakins to the Armory Show, 1870-1913. Bennard B. Perlman. Van Nos- trand Reinhold, Wokingham, England, 1979. 224 pp., illus. ?14.20. Reviewed by David Carrier*

Gossip frequently plays an important role in writing about art. To learn from Vasari about Michelangelo's temper or from Baudelaire about Delacroix's misogyny helps us understand their art. This book, unfortunately, contains little more than gossip.

The 'immortal eight' revolted against the late 19th-century system of academic art teaching and juried exhibitions in the U.S.A., and by 1908 established their reputation with a successful group show. Perlman tells many interesting things: what art schools of the time were like; that one of these artists worked as a newspaper illustrator; that Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney purchased the work of these figures. But he offers no framework in which these details can be placed. Instead he tirelessly describes studio pranks, spaghetti fights and the life styles of these men.

Though the art of these painters is strikingly individual, no explanation seriously discussing these differences is provided. Nothing clear is said about the art market of the period or how these rebel figures were able, apparently, to achieve success relatively easily and quickly. What Perlman says, 'Revolt at this time was not limited to the art world, for there were many

Hungarian Folk Art. Tamas Hofer and Edit Fel. Maria Kresz and Bertha Gaster, trans. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1979. 638 pp., illus. ?12.50. Reviewed by Lynn Kari Petrich*

This is a large book containing many illustrations of varied examples of its subject-it is unfortunate that more of them were not printed in color, since some black-and-white repro- ductions of, for instance, intricate embroidery and carvings cannot be seen clearly. The book provides valuable informa- tion on Hungarian folk art. This art gradually declined with the industrialization of the country and vanished about a generation ago. Contemporary Hungarian artistic expression is, however, rooted in the folkloric traditions.

The authors emphasize heavily visual documentation of the art rather than its sociological signification; some readers may wish for more of the latter. In peasant art of different countries form was generally functional, with decoration, often iconic, added. Extensive variations upon several themes (found on religious artifacts, domestic items, herdsmen's accessories, pottery, and costumes and textiles) have been provided that show characteristics of the mode of life of the Hungarian peasantry.

It is interesting to note, for instance, the decorative style that grew out of the herdsman's need for a warm, weather- impermeable outer garment. The ornamental embroidery of the cifrasziir (heavy woolen coat) was also transposed onto wood carvings and domestic textiles. The wearing of the coats was discouraged by the government as early as 1810, since, according to the authors, it exemplified a possible threatening self-awareness on the part of the peasants. Nevertheless, the fashion spread also to the country nobility and even courtiers' garments in the Habsburg empire show the influence of the peasant-style embroidered and appliqued decoration on the coats.

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. Meyer Schapiro. Chatto and Windus, London, 1978. 227 pp., illus. ?16.50 (also George Braziller, New York, 1979. 308 pp., illus. $20.00). Reviewed by John F. Moffit**

This is the second selection of previously published essays by Schapiro, whose most important contributions to scholarship have been focused upon Medieval art, particularly sculpture. (The first selection by the same publisher was entitled Romanesque Art and appeared in 1976.) Schapiro is one of the few scholars who have dared to analyze artworks of widely disparate and chronologically distinct periods. The essays deal with Cdzanne (a three-part study), Courbet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Picasso, Chagall, the Armory Show, Arshile Gorky, Mondrian and 'abstract art' in general (also in three parts).

Characteristic of Schapiro's method is an incisive analysis of the structural composition of artworks in order to uncover the layers of their hidden meaning. I think it is apparent that his critical stance had been shaped in the 1930s by Marxist philosophy, perhaps the period of his most important re- search. As he observed in his discussion of Style (p. 133), 'the great interest of the Marxist approach lies not only in the attempt to interpret the historically changing relations of art and economic life in the light of a general theory of society, but also in the weight given to the differences and conflicts within the social group [affecting] outlook, religion, morality, and philosophy'. Indeed, Schapiro's is an interpretive art history.

About half of the essays deal with the 19th century, and these I found generally superior to those that are concerned with artworks of the early 20th century. Particularly, I found the series of apologia dealing with 'abstract' (nonfigurative) painting overly long and, by now, somewhat unnecessary (although I was enthralled by his comments on Gorky).

The first item, The Apples of Cdzanne: An Essay on the

*1432 Southwest 170th St., Seattle, WA 98166, U.S.A.

Hungarian Folk Art. Tamas Hofer and Edit Fel. Maria Kresz and Bertha Gaster, trans. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1979. 638 pp., illus. ?12.50. Reviewed by Lynn Kari Petrich*

This is a large book containing many illustrations of varied examples of its subject-it is unfortunate that more of them were not printed in color, since some black-and-white repro- ductions of, for instance, intricate embroidery and carvings cannot be seen clearly. The book provides valuable informa- tion on Hungarian folk art. This art gradually declined with the industrialization of the country and vanished about a generation ago. Contemporary Hungarian artistic expression is, however, rooted in the folkloric traditions.

The authors emphasize heavily visual documentation of the art rather than its sociological signification; some readers may wish for more of the latter. In peasant art of different countries form was generally functional, with decoration, often iconic, added. Extensive variations upon several themes (found on religious artifacts, domestic items, herdsmen's accessories, pottery, and costumes and textiles) have been provided that show characteristics of the mode of life of the Hungarian peasantry.

It is interesting to note, for instance, the decorative style that grew out of the herdsman's need for a warm, weather- impermeable outer garment. The ornamental embroidery of the cifrasziir (heavy woolen coat) was also transposed onto wood carvings and domestic textiles. The wearing of the coats was discouraged by the government as early as 1810, since, according to the authors, it exemplified a possible threatening self-awareness on the part of the peasants. Nevertheless, the fashion spread also to the country nobility and even courtiers' garments in the Habsburg empire show the influence of the peasant-style embroidered and appliqued decoration on the coats.

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. Meyer Schapiro. Chatto and Windus, London, 1978. 227 pp., illus. ?16.50 (also George Braziller, New York, 1979. 308 pp., illus. $20.00). Reviewed by John F. Moffit**

This is the second selection of previously published essays by Schapiro, whose most important contributions to scholarship have been focused upon Medieval art, particularly sculpture. (The first selection by the same publisher was entitled Romanesque Art and appeared in 1976.) Schapiro is one of the few scholars who have dared to analyze artworks of widely disparate and chronologically distinct periods. The essays deal with Cdzanne (a three-part study), Courbet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Picasso, Chagall, the Armory Show, Arshile Gorky, Mondrian and 'abstract art' in general (also in three parts).

Characteristic of Schapiro's method is an incisive analysis of the structural composition of artworks in order to uncover the layers of their hidden meaning. I think it is apparent that his critical stance had been shaped in the 1930s by Marxist philosophy, perhaps the period of his most important re- search. As he observed in his discussion of Style (p. 133), 'the great interest of the Marxist approach lies not only in the attempt to interpret the historically changing relations of art and economic life in the light of a general theory of society, but also in the weight given to the differences and conflicts within the social group [affecting] outlook, religion, morality, and philosophy'. Indeed, Schapiro's is an interpretive art history.

About half of the essays deal with the 19th century, and these I found generally superior to those that are concerned with artworks of the early 20th century. Particularly, I found the series of apologia dealing with 'abstract' (nonfigurative) painting overly long and, by now, somewhat unnecessary (although I was enthralled by his comments on Gorky).

The first item, The Apples of Cdzanne: An Essay on the

*1432 Southwest 170th St., Seattle, WA 98166, U.S.A.

Hungarian Folk Art. Tamas Hofer and Edit Fel. Maria Kresz and Bertha Gaster, trans. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1979. 638 pp., illus. ?12.50. Reviewed by Lynn Kari Petrich*

This is a large book containing many illustrations of varied examples of its subject-it is unfortunate that more of them were not printed in color, since some black-and-white repro- ductions of, for instance, intricate embroidery and carvings cannot be seen clearly. The book provides valuable informa- tion on Hungarian folk art. This art gradually declined with the industrialization of the country and vanished about a generation ago. Contemporary Hungarian artistic expression is, however, rooted in the folkloric traditions.

The authors emphasize heavily visual documentation of the art rather than its sociological signification; some readers may wish for more of the latter. In peasant art of different countries form was generally functional, with decoration, often iconic, added. Extensive variations upon several themes (found on religious artifacts, domestic items, herdsmen's accessories, pottery, and costumes and textiles) have been provided that show characteristics of the mode of life of the Hungarian peasantry.

It is interesting to note, for instance, the decorative style that grew out of the herdsman's need for a warm, weather- impermeable outer garment. The ornamental embroidery of the cifrasziir (heavy woolen coat) was also transposed onto wood carvings and domestic textiles. The wearing of the coats was discouraged by the government as early as 1810, since, according to the authors, it exemplified a possible threatening self-awareness on the part of the peasants. Nevertheless, the fashion spread also to the country nobility and even courtiers' garments in the Habsburg empire show the influence of the peasant-style embroidered and appliqued decoration on the coats.

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. Meyer Schapiro. Chatto and Windus, London, 1978. 227 pp., illus. ?16.50 (also George Braziller, New York, 1979. 308 pp., illus. $20.00). Reviewed by John F. Moffit**

This is the second selection of previously published essays by Schapiro, whose most important contributions to scholarship have been focused upon Medieval art, particularly sculpture. (The first selection by the same publisher was entitled Romanesque Art and appeared in 1976.) Schapiro is one of the few scholars who have dared to analyze artworks of widely disparate and chronologically distinct periods. The essays deal with Cdzanne (a three-part study), Courbet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Picasso, Chagall, the Armory Show, Arshile Gorky, Mondrian and 'abstract art' in general (also in three parts).

Characteristic of Schapiro's method is an incisive analysis of the structural composition of artworks in order to uncover the layers of their hidden meaning. I think it is apparent that his critical stance had been shaped in the 1930s by Marxist philosophy, perhaps the period of his most important re- search. As he observed in his discussion of Style (p. 133), 'the great interest of the Marxist approach lies not only in the attempt to interpret the historically changing relations of art and economic life in the light of a general theory of society, but also in the weight given to the differences and conflicts within the social group [affecting] outlook, religion, morality, and philosophy'. Indeed, Schapiro's is an interpretive art history.

About half of the essays deal with the 19th century, and these I found generally superior to those that are concerned with artworks of the early 20th century. Particularly, I found the series of apologia dealing with 'abstract' (nonfigurative) painting overly long and, by now, somewhat unnecessary (although I was enthralled by his comments on Gorky).

The first item, The Apples of Cdzanne: An Essay on the

*1432 Southwest 170th St., Seattle, WA 98166, U.S.A.

**Dept. of Art, New Mexico State University, Box 3572, Las Cruces, NM 88003, U.S.A. **Dept. of Art, New Mexico State University, Box 3572, Las Cruces, NM 88003, U.S.A. **Dept. of Art, New Mexico State University, Box 3572, Las Cruces, NM 88003, U.S.A.

*Dept. of History and Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon Uni- versity, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A.

*Dept. of History and Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon Uni- versity, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A.

*Dept. of History and Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon Uni- versity, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A.

Books Books Books 163 163 163

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.82 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 00:08:44 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions