THE INDIGNANT EYE: The Artist as Social Critic in Prints and Drawings from the Fifteenth Century to Picasso

by Ralph Shikes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 1969

Like a thematic museum show, the very existence of this comprehensive, abundantly illustrated survey demonstrates something; what we actually learn from it is something else. From a fixed ideological stance that imposes the conflicts of the 30s and 40s on previous periods (viz. the ""French McCarthyites"" of Louis Philippe's reign) and an equally fixed aesthetic position unmindful of relative values, the author overstates and oversimplifies the historical context (in many guises, ""the unleavened misery of peasant and workingman"" or--a chapter heading--""The Artist Against the Church Establishment"") and applies niggling or know-nothing judgments (Daumier lesser than Rembrandt because he lacked the latter's ""spiritual depth,"" ""Italian Catholic Art""--i.e. Renaissance art--as ""otherworldly""). On artistic grounds he is shaky altogether: who can seriously say that ""Gropper was and is a consummate artist."" The titular span ""to Picasso"" means only that the author chooses to conclude with the Guernica drawings; earlier he covers such later developments as civil rights and war protest prints in the U.S., also Mexican graphics into the 40s. His inherent identification with old-Leftist social protest (the specific sort, not such feints as Dada and Pop), while leading him, for instance to denigrate Grosz as a renegade, also produces rather thorough coverage of depression-oriented and anti-fascist material. And the whole book has some value as a showcase if little as an interpreter.

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Beacon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION