14 Reviews 63-74

Kemp retraces some of the ground cov- nicely with another important essay by ous to what our present understanding ered in his previous book, The Science of Gombrich on the interaction between can illumine about the past. He clearly Art (1990) (e.g. perspective), but here form and expression, “Four Theories of acknowledges that the sources are in- he is concerned more with setting these Artistic Expression” (first published in complete; that we have learned much texts within their own time. Thus he 1980 in Architectural Association Quarterly, about the nature of the visual experi- points to the heterogeneous nature of Volume 12, and reprinted in 1996 in ence which we may apply to the past; the texts and notes that there was no Gombrich on Art and Psychology, edited by and that sometimes only hindsight al- real, classifiable “art theory” as we con- Richard Woodfield). lows us to see the so-called forest for ceive of it today (although it does have As implied in Chapters 3 and 4, there the trees. But we should still be ever on its origin in the Renaissance) and that occurred in the Renaissance a shift to- our guard not to impose present values, these texts were not widely read (al- ward the modern concepts of “art” and ideologies and obsessions on the past if though some were copied). Kemp’s “artists,” the topic of Chapter 6. But we wish to reconstruct as best we can— exposé rather deflates many modern in- even here, Kemp—always keeping an and as Ranke decreed—the authentic terpretations of the intellectual nature eye on the sources—puts a break on experience of the Renaissance artists. of art in the Renaissance. As he asserts, how much post-Romantic baggage we I believe that Kemp has established his functional approach precludes mak- may legitimately read back into this pe- himself as one of the foremost art histo- ing overarching pronouncements riod. At most, he concedes that some rians of our time. He is especially to be about art, such as linking the new features of the modern viewpoint may admired because of his ability to pro- modes of representation to a new way be seen as having their genesis in the duce an eclectic array of works without of seeing. Instead, Kemp remains Renaissance but that they were cer- sacrificing a high quality of scholarship. within the everyday world where Re- tainly not articulated as full-blown cat- His Science of Art synthesized and di- naissance artisans made (or tried to egories of “art.” gested a wide range of texts on perspec- make) a living. The last chapter (which could have tive, color theory and other “scientific” We often take for granted the issue of come first; indeed, the reader need not matters in European art. As well, Kemp value applied to “art” (Chapter 4). But read this book in the given order) puts has written numerous essays on what he in the Renaissance there was little uni- Kemp’s approach into an historical calls the “history of the visual,” explor- formity in pricing: art works that today context, although not a comprehensive ing images beyond the “fine arts” cat- would be priceless masterpieces could one. To be specific: it is more of an au- egory, such as scientific illustrations. As be valued as less than an ornate bed. tobiographical essay, in which Kemp re- one reads Kemp more and more, it be- Only antiquities were consistently of views his intellectual development in comes increasingly evident that the high value. Similarly, artists’ wages var- art history after his early “inglorious” wide and sometimes seemingly dispar- ied, with only a few “super-artists” (such effort at science (biology, to be exact) ate range of material he tackles may re- as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian) as a student at Cambridge in the 1960s. ally be all of one piece. earning a considerable income. The av- Interestingly, he speculates that his pre- erage artist’s yearly wages, it seems, were vious training in biology may influence about one-third that of a lawyer(!). This his “functional approach.” His range of period also initiated an important shift study reads as an outline of the histori- MATERIALS RECEIVED whereby the value or price set for an ar- ography of twentieth-century art his- tifact was based less on the materials re- tory, beginning with the early focus on quired and the time spent making it formal analyses (growing out of the Multimedia Products and more on the skill of the maker and “significant form” of Clive Bell and the aesthetic quality of the piece—an- Roger Fry) through the iconographical Masterworks for Learning: other step toward our modern view. approach (from the “symbolic form” of A College Collection Catalogue The content of such works (e.g. ico- Ernst Cassirer) to various types of “so- CD-ROM. Allen Memorial Art Museum. nography) poses problems, because cial history”—the last (from the Marxist Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, U.S.A., 1998. Kemp—keeping close to the original to the modern and postmodern variet- Mediamatic sources—is thus sensitive to reading too ies) entailing semiotics, feminism, psy- Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1998. Journal plus CD- much into the past, particularly from choanalysis and so forth. Kemp is less ROM. modern viewpoints such as feminism than enthusiastic about recent “theo- and psychoanalysis. Hence, in Chapter ries,” although he recognizes that these 5 he underscores the limitations of what approaches have provided significant Audio Compact Discs we can know about the original mean- insights into specific areas of art his- ing of, say, Botticelli’s Primavera. The tory. His main gripe, I think, is that the The Alpha Wave Variations most significant insight for me in this “New Art History” has not broken from Paisley Babylon. Zombie Records, San chapter was Kemp’s argument that for the vast overarching schemes of the Antonio, TX, U.S.A., 1998. many works there probably was no previous methods by still imposing pre- Divine Doorways fixed, preconceived single meaning; in- conceived concepts upon the past Andrea Goodman and Gerry Hemingway. stead, such meaning evolved as an inter- rather than listening to the sources Ruby Throated Music, Boothbay, ME, action between form and content while themselves. In a sense, one could say U.S.A., 1998. the work progressed. Hence, neither is that Kemp has begun the real legwork there a documented “program” for Re- into the material and social history of The Fence naissance works nor are we always able Italian Renaissance art that some Jon Rose. ReR/Recommended Records, to reconstruct unequivocally their origi- postmodern writers crow about. Surrey, U.K., 1998. nal meanings. This chapter dovetails This is not to say that Kemp is oblivi- 72 Reviews Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.1999.32.1.72 by guest on 01 October 2021 Inside The German Education System Since World Wide Web Sites Barry Traux. Cambridge Street Records, 1945: Outlines and Problems Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1996. Christoph Fuhr. Inter Nationes, Bonn, Art and Physics Germany, 1997. 315 pp. Paper. Leonard Shlain, ed. (author of the books Les Rumeurs de la Ville Art and Physics and The Alphabet Versus the Guigou Chenevier. ReR/Recommended The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Records, Surrey, U.K., 1998. Infrastructure Image). Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman, eds. http://www.artandphysics.com/ Live from California Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Dos Hermanos. Grateful Dead Records, Francisco, CA, U.S.A., 1998. 704 pp., illus. Clifford A. Pickover Website CA, U.S.A., 1998. Trade, $62.95. ISBN: 1-558-60475-8. Computers and creativity—educational puzzles, computer art, fractals, etc. Live in Tokyo In the Eye of the Beholder http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/ Cassiber. ReR/Recommended Records, Vicky Bruce and Andrew Young. Oxford home.htm Surrey, UK, 1998. Univ. Press, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1998. 189 pp., illus. Trade, $39.95. ISBN: 0-198-52440-4. The David Bermant Collection Out Beyond Ideas Includes the work of kinetic and light Mandir. Satsang Music, Missoula, MT, Instrumental Form (Boss Architecture) artists. Artists include Duchamp, George U.S.A., 1998. Wes Jones. Princeton Architectural Press, Roads and Nam June Paik. The David New York, NY, U.S.A., 1998. 400 pp., illus. Bermant Foundation also awards grants to Pragma Paper, $40.00. ISBN: 1-56898-115-5. students working in the technological arts. Tim Hodgkinson. ReR/Recommended http://arts2.ucsb.edu/bermant Records, Surrey, U.K., 1998. Marshall McLuhan Philip Marchand. MIT Press, Cambridge, Exotech Industries The Wind Rises MA, U.S.A., 1998. 322 pp., illus. Paper, Web site for performance artist and writer István Mártha, Sándor Bernáth/y/ and $17.50. ISBN: 0-262-63186-5. Coco Fusco. See, particularly, documenta- Endre Szkárosi; featuring Márta Sebestyén. tion of performance at Johannesburg ReR/Recommended Records, Surrey, U.K., The Mind’s Past Biennale and Festival of Latin American 1998. Michael S. Gazzaniga. University of Performance. California Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 1998. http://www.favela.org/fusco/ 216 pp., illus. Trade, $22.50. ISBN: 0-520- Books 21320-3. The Experimental Studio on Internet of the The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art Picturing Science, Producing Art CICV Centre Pierre Schaeffer in the 20th Century Caroline A. Jones and Peter Galison, eds. Focus: “platform for research and Bruce Altshuler. University of California Routledge, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1998. 344 experimentation.” Press, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 1998. 288 pp., pp., illus. Paper, $35.00. ISBN: 0-415-91912-6.

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