LEONARDO REVIEWS

Leonardo Digital Reviews has flourished this Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Ballast Quar- Avant-Garde (1986) and The Optical Un- year, covering a wide range of materials and terly Review, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA conscious (1992), Rosalind Krauss has generating high-grade debates on- and off- 52224-9767 U.S.A. E-mail: shown how dadaism and surrealism es- line. The achievements of this section of . tablished a tradition of the “horizontal Leonardo are due entirely to the efforts of and low,” or of “informe” (Georges the panel and the editorial team. It is, then, This is an illustrated account of the Bataille’s concept, meaning “crude” or always a pleasure to be able to publicly tragic life of Audrey Munson (1891– “unformed”). She opposes this to the thank those involved. First, to the contribut- 1996), who modeled for leading Ameri- formal, vertical grid of Renaissance per- ing panelists who maintain the flow of re- can sculptors (e.g. Daniel Chester spective, which was inherited by gestalt views, sometimes under severe time con- French, A. Sterling Calder and Sherry psychology and incorporated into the straints, and also those occasional Fry) in the so-called “guilded age” of formalist aesthetics of modernism. The contributors who have responded to specific art. She posed for both the “head” and title of Krauss’s new book, Bachelors, sig- requests that often involve reading or review- “tail” of the 1916 U.S. dime (the “mer- nifies a continuation of this discussion. ing in a second language, thank you. Publi- cury dime”); as well as for statues that Here, Krauss deals with the art of nine cation of their work would not, however, be stand at the front of the New York Pub- female artists from the 1920s to the possible without the energy and commitment lic Library and the Brooklyn Museum 1980s, from Claude Cahun to Louise of the editorial team: Kasey Rios Asberry, of Art, on the fountain outside of the Lawler. But the really important “bach- who makes sure the reviews appear on the Plaza Hotel, in the pediments at the en- elors” in this book are, at least implic- world wide web, and Pamela Grant-Ryan, trance to the Frick Collection, and (as itly, the nine forms attached to the who ensures that as much of our work as the figure of Evangeline) at the “bachelor machine” in Marcel possible appears in the journal Leonardo. Longfellow Memorial in Massachusetts. Duchamp’s “La mariée mise à nu par ses We would also like to thank Ron Nachmann When the beaux arts tradition in sculp- célibataires, même” (The Bride Stripped Bare for his contribution in the past and Craig ture was quashed by the rise of modern- by Bachelors, Even [The Large Glass], Harris, who provides links between ism, Munson tried to survive by per- 1915–1923). In her writings, Krauss of- Leonardo Electronic Almanac and Leonardo forming in films about artists’ models, ten links Duchamp’s bachelor machine Digital Reviews. Thank you all—it’s back- resulting in a great scandal due to her to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s stage work, but greatly appreciated. appearing onscreen totally nude. In description of the body as a closed and 1919, when rumored to have been in- yet dispersed system of desiring ma- Michael Punt volved in the murder of her landlord’s chines. In Deleuze and Guattari’s Editor-in-Chief wife (she was not), she collapsed emo- theory, the desiring machines produce Leonardo Digital Reviews tionally (described back then as “men- the desires, and yet they are the desires; tal blight”), was ostracized as “Crazy the machines belong to the body’s or- Audrey,” and, after a failed quest for a gans, and yet they are the organs. The husband, attempted suicide. At age 39, urge for satisfaction of desires is, in the BOOKS she was committed to an asylum, where closed system, exactly the energy that she remained in obscurity until her re- makes the machines produce desire, cent death at age 105. This book is a be- “that makes them run.” lated but sincere attempt to restore her Krauss also discusses the concept of AMERICAN VENUS: dignity. the “body without organs,” a picture of THE EXTRAORDINARY (Reprinted by permission from Bal- the ego or collective that is supposed to LIFE OF AUDREY MUNSON, last Quarterly Review, Vol. 15, No. 2, Win- have organs and desires while still itself MODEL AND MUSE ter 1999–2000.) by Diane Rozas and Anita Bourne Gottehrer. Balcony Press, Los Angeles, BACHELORS Reviews Panel: Fred Allan Andersson, Wilfred CA, U.S.A., 1999. Distributed by Arnold, Kasey Asberry, Roy R. Behrens, Andreas by Rosalind E. Krauss. MIT Press, Cam- Broeckmann, Annick Bureaud, Robert Coburn, Princeton Architectural Press, New bridge, MA, U.S.A., 1999. 222 pp., illus. Nicolas Collins, Sean Cubitt, Bulat M. Galeyev, York, NY. 144 pp. $27.95. ISBN: Cloth, $29.95. ISBN: 0-262-11239-6. George Gessert, Thom Gillespie, Molly Hankwitz, 1-890449-04-0. Istvan Hargittai, Josepha Haveman, Paul Hertz, Richard Kade, Douglas Kahn, Curtis Karnow, Reviewed by Fred Andersson, Ulvsbygatan Rahma Khazam, Mike Leggett, Axel Mulder, LEONARDO DIGITAL REVIEWS 29, 6 tr. 654 64, Karlstad, Sweden. E-mail: Kevin Murray, Frieder Nake, Christiane Paul, Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt . Robert Pepperell, Cliff Pickover, Henry See, Edward Shanken, Rhonda Shearer, George K. Shortess, Coordinating Editor: Kasey Rios Asberry Yvonne Spielmann, David Topper, René van Peer, Reviews Coordinator: Bryony Dalefield In previous essays, most of them col- Ron Wakkary, Stephen Wilson. lected in her books The Originality of the

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2000.33.4.329?mobileUi=0 by guest on 24 September 2021 being situated on a higher level. Krauss us think about the circle as a symbol of Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Ballast Quar- has described the body without organs the self, the universe, the totality that terly Review, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA as analogous to the idea of the picture- Rudolf Arnheim writes about in his Vi- 52224-9767 U.S.A. E-mail: plane as a homogenous totality, a verti- sual Thinking, in which he makes refer- . cal and abstracted reflection of the ence to Galileo Galilei’s cosmology. spectator’s self. By contrast, the art that Galilei, stuck with traditional thinking, Every day, more and more university Krauss relates to the concept of was not able to accept Kepler’s finding students are choosing some area of de- informe often involves a multitude of that the planets move in ellipses. Ac- sign as a career field. This guidebook is dispersed organs, or “part-objects.” The cording to everyday visual perception, divided into four major information part-objects, explicitly related to sexual “my self” is always the center of a circu- sections: Design Specialties, Design desires, replace the abstract, homog- lar world. Reductionism makes things Businesses, Design Options and Design enous totality. symmetric and easy to grasp, turning Education, followed by a resource In Bachelors, the concepts of part-ob- the ellipse into a circle. In the Large guide, which consists of the names and jects and informe prove to be helpful as Glass, the structural opposition of part- addresses of design-related organiza- means of defining and analyzing the objects (i.e. the bachelors) versus pic- tions and publications. Interwoven with work of artists as dissimilar as Cindy ture-plane (the Large Glass) implies the these sections are portions of interviews Sherman, Agnes Martin, Louise Bour- plastic opposition between organic with about 90 design professionals on geois and Sherrie Levine. But I think roundness (bachelors) and inorganic such subjects as “How I Became a that the problems of Krauss’s structural- angularity (glass). In semiotic terms, Graphic Designer”; “Advice to Design- ist (or poststructuralist) approach be- the general opposition of roundness ers”; “On Personal Style”; “Major Influ- come apparent when she neglects cer- versus angularity is a form, while the ences”; and “The Future of Graphic De- tain topics which, from her point of various variants of roundness (inter- sign.” Other informative features view, may seem irrelevant. I would ar- preted as circles or ellipses) form a sub- include “How Many Graphic Designers gue that her critique of formalism’s re- stance. By making the bachelors circular Are There?”, “What Do They Earn?” ductionism involves a certain blindness or nearly circular, Levine emphasizes and “The Optimum Portfolio.” For the when it comes to the reductionism of the generality of the form. What she re- curious but uninformed, this is very her own textual model. In this context I ally shows is the circular, self-contained likely the best introduction available. would like to discuss her text, in Bach- autism (and eroticism?) of nine part- (Reprinted by permission from Bal- elors, about Sherrie Levine’s three-di- objects that are also bodies without or- last Quarterly Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, Au- mensional version of the bachelors in gans. But when Krauss writes, in her tumn 1999.) Duchamp’s Large Glass. In Levine’s text about Levine, that “to cast the work (from 1989), the nine three-di- bachelors in glass, and then to frost the THE COPYRIGHT BOOK: mensional bachelors are cast in glass glass, is therefore to add nothing, to and displayed in nine showcases. The create nothing” (p. 182), this is obvi- A PRACTICAL GUIDE proportions of the showcases are simi- ously not true. Levine has added and by William S. Strong. MIT Press, Cam- lar to those of the Large Glass (the base chosen a certain plastic content. By bridge, MA, U.S.A., 5th Ed., 1999. 376 being approximately three-fifths the comparison: what would elliptical Bach- pp., ISBN: 0-262-1941-98. height), and so the cases could be re- elors have looked like? Levine’s work garded as three-dimensional versions of surely belongs to the realm of appro- Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold, Univer- the Large Glass. Now, Krauss readily ac- priative art—art that negates the mod- sity of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, cepts that the sections of Levine’s bach- ernist notion of creative individuality by KS, 66160-7421, U.S.A. E-mail: elors are circular (or nearly circular), being largely confined to the reproduc- . because she does not even mention this tion and re-creation of pre-existing im- fact. But why? Where, in the Large ages and forms as ready-mades. But the Any book that has worked its way Glass, do we find the visual and geo- example of Levine’s Bachelors may through five editions (in this case, be- metrical evidence that the bachelors demonstrate that an act of appropria- ginning in 1981) promises to keep up are representations of three-dimen- tion could also be an act of interpreta- with changes in the law and must surely sional forms with circular sections? tion—to turn something into one’s represent the author’s intentions in a According to the Swedish curator and own. By merely confirming Levine’s in- well-honed fashion. William Strong, essayist Ulf Linde, an analysis of the lin- terpretation of Duchamp’s work, Krauss who practices copyright law in Boston, ear perspective in the lower part of the fails to really discuss the complexity of states his purpose succinctly in the pref- Large Glass shows that the bachelors’ her art. This example may also illus- ace to The Copyright Book: “to make avail- sections are in fact narrow ellipses (see trate another question worth discuss- able to people whose lives and work are his Marcel Duchamp, Stockholm, 1986). ing: to what extent have surface-models affected by laws of copyright an under- One may object that this kind of analy- and reductive binary schemes limited standing of their rights and responsibili- sis, necessarily involving the Albertian the scope of visual semiotics? ties.” Words of praise on the dust-cover unity of pictorial space, represents ex- echo these goals and suggest that every actly the dominant, symbolic order that BECOMING A GRAPHIC publisher and lawyer should have a desk which Duchamp apparently sought to copy. I believe that this sets the tenor of ESIGNER UIDE TO subvert in his work. However, the cru- D : A G the book, and the 12 chapters—from cial point here is the choice between CAREERS IN DESIGN the subject matter of copyright through the circular and the elliptical. by Steven Heller and Teresa Fernandes. the topic of copyright and the informa- The circle as a plastic signifier has John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, tion society—display the material in a certain connotations. For instance, let U.S.A., 1999. ISBN: 0-471-29299-0. straight-forward manner.

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