National Art Education Association

Contemporary American Painting and SculptureArt Education, Vol. 22, No. 7 (Oct., 1969), p. 49Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3191391 .

Accessed: 11/06/2014 13:20

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.

.

National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ArtEducation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.96 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 13:20:01 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

involved in visual perception and the psy- chological hangups in making value judg- ments about works of art.

Color plates are often valuable in clarifying statements in the text, while many black and white photographs and diagrams are dis- appointing in quality.

Donald O. Williams Los Angeles, California

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 1969. Introduction by James R. Shipley and Allen S. Weller. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1969. 185 pp. $4.95 (Paper) (Catalogue of the 14th exhibition of Contemporary American Paint- ing and Sculpture, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois)

Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture 1969 is much more than a cata- logue, as the exhibition it documents is more than an ordinary university exhibit. The 14th exhibition, held March 2- April 6, 1969, at the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, is a compilation of avant-garde works; the majority were produced in 1967 and 1968. A comparable exhibit has been held annually from 1948 to 1953 and bien- nially from 1955 to the present. The cata- logue, issued at each of the exhibits, docu- ments the show with examples of what the nation's artists are producing at the im- mediate present, and offers a source of biographical information about the artists. Obviously such an exhibition cannot include works by all of America's significant painters and sculptors, but it does represent a view of the types of expression that are most provocative and representative of the moment.

The 1969 catalogue, largely visual, consists of black and white photographs of the paint- ings and sculpture, a biographical commen- tary on the artists, and lists of locations of their major works to date. The Introduction, entitled "The New Artist," was composed by James R. Shipley and Allen S. Weller. In their Introduction they characterize the widely divergent individuals whose works comprise the catalogue by discussing some of the qualities which seem to unite these artists: both a recognition and a denial of the in- terrelation of art and society; a prerogative on "style", a commitment to the exact "present" as the reality to be expressed; a totally new source of materials, derived from the present technology; and a new aesthetic geared to daring. The Introduction surveys the field of the avant-garde and then raises questions of values and of future trajectories. Further issues of the catalogue will help show the answers to these questions-or new ramifications of them.

The University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts renders a unique service in holding its biennial exhibition and in issuing the accompanying publication. The catalogue is indeed a "tour-book" of the present adventures of America's visual ex- pression.

film review:

WHY MAN CREATES. Saul Bass. Distributed by Pyramid Film Producers, P.O. Box 1048, Santa Monica, California 90406. 16mm. color, 25 minutes. $270.00. Rental: $15.00.

The art of film is related to the art of drama. This film sweeps one along to the irresistable denouement of its flourishing ending with true mastery of the best in dramatic efforts. Surprising, mercurial, some- times shocking, at times delicately poetic, it moves, stops, changes, and exclaims; and with true dramatic finesse, it sums up all of its apparently disjointed images and impres- sions in the powerful climax, where every- thing falls into place in a lovely unity of theme.

One cannot help but feel strains of Moliere's satire, of Shakespeare's humanism (especially in the episode on the "Judgment" of art by the public), of surrealist incon- gruity, and of the playful but profound paintings by Paul Klee. The film opens with that dramatic device, the "delayed entrance" of the main actor, as we first listen to the scratch of a pencil, then observe a hand slowly writing "1. The Edifice" across a barren page. And then, in a truly Klee-like scramble of child-like images, we are led up the great tower of the stages of man's civili- zation, from the prehistoric era of the Lascaux cave paintings, up to the Greek columned portico, thence to Roman gran- deur, barbarian darkness, Gothic windows, Renaissance space, the Machine Age, and on up to the explosion of the atomic bomb, where we are dropped into the rest of the film.

Each of the 8 sections (one could say "acts") is a separate entity, yet each receives its full impact only in relation to the others. There are some beautiful moments: the "Parable" of the white ball which, unlike all the others, heard something different in- side himself, and flew up into the sky like the "Red Balloon", and never came back again. And there is the discovery of the butterfly nestled in an eggshell, waiting for man's spirit to release him (an image as touching as the pantomime by Marcel Mar- ceau, of the butterfly-catcher). And the finale presents the view of works of art through the veil of nature's effects in a fleeting impression which would surely have delighted Claude Monet, as works of sculp- ture are seen through rain, lightning, dust, and the wings of a flock of birds ascending.

The more mundane parts of the film, the repetitious scratching of the pencil as each episode is announced, the abruptness, the unpleasant experiences of mechanistic life, serve only to heighten the poignancy of the butterfly, the ascending ball, the faces of men at thought, and the melodious ending. At the close, one rediscovers the theme, which is imbued with a thousand new gleamings: that what counts is the unique quality of each individual. And so we find that the secret was with us, all along.

... the Art Teacher's magazine for ideas that inspire and challenge students in all grades.

school arts 50 PORTLAND ST.. WORCESTER, MASS. 01608

Bayou have our new

art supply catal8g? C3

The new 1969 edition of our general catalog is off the presses. It lists over 10,000 items -probably the most comprehensive collection of art and drafting materials available any- where! It lets you order exactly what you want without leaving your home or studio. Write for your copy today . . . it's free! ARTHUR BROWN & BRO., INC. 2 West 46th St. * New York, N. Y. 10036

49

ERRATUM. We wish to acknowledge that due to an editorial oversight, the photographs intended to ac- company the article by Irma G. Middup, "If You Say You Can't, You Stop the Only You That Can Do It," were omitted. The article appeared in the March 1969 issue of Art Education. Some of these drawings have been used as illustrations for the series of articles on "Art Education for the Dis- advantaged Child," featured in the Journal during the 1968-69 publication year. We wish to aologize both to our author and to our readers.

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.96 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 13:20:01 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions