130
PARTISAN REVIEW
spoke to the human condition, and into an age of decoration . In Neo-Dada
we see a culture turning on itself, with destructive intent. We are living in the
Last Days, says Mr. Kramer, surveying a century and a half of painting with
the same kind of eschatological gloom that Auerbach felt as he scanned two
millenia and more of literature. I thought this book both memorable and
instructive.
Mr. Steinberg's title means that we need not be stuck with "seasonal"
criteria, since by thinking we can come up with new ones. His thinking is
done, for the most part , in long meditative "confrontations," notably with
JasperJohns and Picasso. These essays-the Picasso material so generous as to
be almost a book in itself, and embedded, by the equal generosity of the
publisher, in a beautifully designed book-seem to me exceptionally fine.
The descriptions of painting are unflaggingly accurate and imaginative, and
this fidelity to the experience of the painting is by no means impaired by
Steinberg's prose style, which is always clear and acute, without mandarin or
cliquish affectation. Indeed it might be said in passing that all these writers
use their own version of an excellent educated common style-Macdonald
with the most bite and verve, Steinberg perhaps with the greatest reflective
elegance . It is, after all, an index ofcivility to have such a common style, and it
is curious that many Americans suppose they must look for it across the ocean
rather than at home .
The Picasso piece is a richly illustrated argument centered on
Les
Demoiselles
D
'Avignon-a
personal encounter with one of the crucial
moments ofmodern art history which is truly equal to its occasion. The Johns
is also fine, and so is the authoritative study of Rodin. A man less prodigal of
talent and research would have got more than a single book out of this. Since it
is impossible
to
do more than recommend these essays without specifying
their merits, let me add that Steinberg is not simply an accurate observer; he
possesses a benign skepticism , and often takes a shrewd look at our
idees
regues.
Is action painting "living on the canvas"? No, it 's untrue unless
trivially is true of all painting. See also his wise remarks on illusionism , and the
unsoundness of the distinction berween an old art that concealed the medium
and a new that calls attention to it (in the essay called " Other Criteria") .
Anyone with views on any modern art should read this book.
Mr. Rosenberg 's volume ranges characteristically over art and politics ; it
includes many fugitive pieces tracked down by Mr. Michael Denneny and
rightly revived and collected . The book naturally lacks something of the
impact of those the author put together himself, but it is full of wise, aggres–
sive comment on painting, poetry, psychoanalysis and culture ; on Jewish art
and boring
art ;
and on intellectuals, a class of person the English tend not to
have or
to
encourage. There are
obiter dicta
much too good
to
be lost:
