PARTISAN REVIEW
quires a far deeper knowledge of composition than "full-voiced pro–
jection." And it is for this very reason-apart from the innate quality
of her best work-that I think her reputation will increase. She repre–
sents a branch of the abstract movement opposed to most of what has
been acclaimed in western art for many centuries. Today, on every hand,
we are met with a glorification of "personality." The influence of Taeu–
ber-Arp is turned to the opposite pole, toward the most forgotten im–
pulse to build something that is beautiful
as an object-like
a vase or
a temple-and that will stand alone, without relation to its signature.
In an effort to progress even further in this direction, she and Arp exe–
cuted together a series of "communal compositions" (two are repro–
duced) built from rectangular subdivisions; these are clipped on a
mechanical cutter, for scissors might betray a tell-tale "personal" touch.
The pictures in this book disclose an additional facet which modern
painters have approached from many angles. Unity of form and ex–
pression does not provide much difficulty in a primitive society; but
when the field has the breadth that confronts the artist today, with all
its intellectual obstructions to instinct, a considerable understanding is re–
quisite for the exact fitting of the emotional projection within its struc–
ural limits. Taeuber-Arp has invariably keyed down her expression until
every spot and line is aware of its position within the fabric. Several
of her contemporaries approached the problem simultaneously ; but few
succeeded through such concentration, and none, I think, with more
variety within limits that were self-applied.
George
L.
K. Morris
A MODERN VOLUPTUARY
FIFTY SECRETS OF MAGIC CRAFTSMANSHIP.
By
Solvodor Doli. The
Diol Press. $7.50.
Salvador Dali's
Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship
evades
category. It is not quite a book and it is many texts in one; a Bartlett's
of Leonardo, Cellini, Vasari, recondite natural science and the sur–
realist social register.
If
the sources are only indifferently acknowledged,
they are no less clear for it. The reader who insists on Dr. Johnson's
"bottom of common sense" with his reading should be advised to look
elsewhere. And even the most exotic palate may find Dali too rich a
diet and be moved to exasperation by a series of sybillic pronounce–
ments that is misrepresented by author and publisher as a painter's
104
