Books Received

by M.A.D. Staff

These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or on-line orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or mail-order house is the place to look.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Thayer Tolles (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2009, 80 pp., softbound, $19.95 plus S/H from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, [www.store.met museum.org] or [800] 468-7386).

The superb 2009 exhibition of the Metropolitan's Augustus Saint-Gaudens holdings (with related loans) has closed, and museum visitors must now content themselves with five important and varied Saint-Gaudens works installed in the reopened Charles Engelhard Court: The Children of Jacob H. Schiff (marble), Hiawatha (marble), the Vanderbilt mantelpiece (marble, mosaic, oak, and cast iron), Diana (bronze), and Amor Caritas (gilt bronze).

To further understand the vast scope and virtuosity of this esteemed American sculptor, one can look to this little publication, originally in the museum's Bulletin and produced to accompany the exhibition of the statuary, commemorative medals, bas reliefs, busts, vases, and residential commissions created by Saint-Gaudens. Or one might visit the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire, where Saint-Gaudens worked and lived, to marvel at the insight and craftsmanship with which this remarkable, influential sculptor invested his subjects.

The book illustrates many important works, some shown in the artist's studio and others photographed in their settings, such as the famed Shaw Memorial in Boston and the Adams Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photographs of Saint-Gaudens at work on major commissions, sketches of him by contemporaries, his bas-relief portraits of literary personages such as Robert Louis Stevenson, and photographs of plaster models are included. The backgrounds of many of his subjects, the project history of some commissions, the sculptor's casting of reductions of major works, the sculptor's working methods, his collaborations with Sanford White and Charles McKim, and his exhibition history (abroad and in the U.S., including, in 1908, at the Met) come to life in Thayer Tolles's well-documented essay.

The text also details the modest immigrant background of the Dublin, Ireland-born Saint-Gaudens, whose father, as his name suggests, was French. Settling in the U.S., first on Manhattan's Lower East Side and later in present-day Tribeca where he attended grade school prior to being apprenticed to a cameo cutter and producing bracelets, brooches, and pendants in stone and shell while attending classes at Cooper Union and then at the National Academy of Design, Saint-Gaudens broadened his background by selecting France for study.

This influence, according to Tolles, resulted in the redirection of American sculpture from an Italian Neoclassic to a French-inspired aesthetic, as well as to American subjects and to bronze as the preferred material. Significantly, a photograph of the winged allegorical Victory in bronze holding a palm branch (she is leading Sherman to battle and victory), from the famed Sherman Monument in New York City's Grand Army Plaza, graces the book's cover.

Rose Safran

Kandinsky by Vivian Endicott Barnett, Tracey Bashkoff, Christian Derouet, Matthias Haldemann, Annegret Hoberg, Gillian McMillan, and Vanessa Kowalski (Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2009, 319 pp., hardbound, $65, or softbound, $45, plus S/H from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, [www.guggenheimstore.org] or [800] 329-6109).

Perhaps the most important Modernist exhibition brought to America during 2009 was the brilliantly colorful Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) retrospective at New York City's Guggenheim Museum that closed on January 13. The exhibit was accompanied by this impressive volume, which positions the pioneer of abstract art within the context of his era, detailing his early struggles, concepts, theories, and writings.

It is fitting that this exhibition of Kandinsky's canvases created from 1907 to 1942 and the publication of its accompanying catalog coincided with the Guggenheim's 50th anniversary year. A champion of Kandinsky, museum founder Solomon Guggenheim began acquiring his works in 1930, purchasing over 150 paintings during his lifetime. This book, with six scholarly essays, a chronology, and a bibliography, all enhanced with reproductions of the artist's masterpieces, is a stand-alone study of abstraction as it evolved in Europe and came to the U.S.

Recounting Kandinsky's early years in Russia, from which he derived his sense of the "spiritual in art," and his training at the Munich Academy, the first essay links Kandinsky's writings to his art, detailing developments leading to his "conviction that he could achieve something new and special in art." Other essays explain the struggles to create something "new and special in art" in his native Russia, then as a German citizen (his art subsequently defamed in Germany as "degenerate"), and later as a French citizen.

Ultimately, through his paintings, drawings, writings, theatrical works, and teaching, he became "the most important founder of abstract painting." Creator of the Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) title and employed by Walter Gropius at the famous Bauhaus where he associated with artists such as Paul Klee, Kandinsky exhibited at Der Sturm gallery and at the 1913 New York City Armory Show, which traveled to Boston and Chicago.

The essay "The Artist Reinvents Himself: Changes, Crises, Turning Points" focuses on "the crucial junctures, breaks, crises, and changes in Kandinsky's life to accentuate its nuances and shifts" and presents "an overview of the transformations in his art." Another essay points to Kandinsky's defense of "objectless" painting and covers the history of his involvement with the Paris publication Cahiers d'Art from 1927 to 1944.

Covered separately is his exhibition history in the U.S., including exhibitions of the Blue Four (Kandinsky, Klee, Feininger, and Jawlensky). The chapter on Kandinsky and America discusses the personalities involved with the Guggenheim's purchases of Kandinsky paintings, teaching offers (he declined them) by American venues, and the memorial exhibition of his work on 54th Street in the original Guggenheim Museum (founded as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting). Also explored are Kandinsky's materials and techniques, indicating the artist's changes over the years.

This beautifully illustrated book with reproductions of the artist's "Impressions" (real-life subjects), "Improvisations" (unconscious images), and "Compositions" (formally developed works) is an invaluable resource. It is filled with fascinating anecdotes and information about an exceptional visionary and the milieu in which he lived and worked.

Rose Safran

Sèvres Then and Now: Tradition and Innovation in Porcelain, 1750-2000 by Liana Paredes (Hillwood Museum and Gardens Foundation, in association with D Giles Limited, 2009, 174 pp., hardbound, $65, or softbound, $39.95, plus S/H from Hillwood Museum and Gardens Foundation, [www.hillwoodmuseum.org] or [202] 243-3930).

Marjorie Merriweather Post, whose Washington, D.C., estate Hillwood is now a museum, was a collector of French furniture and decorative art, including Sèvres porcelain. An exhibit on view at Hillwood through May 30 examines the range of work produced by the Sèvres factory from its earliest years through 2000. This book is the catalog for the exhibition of Sèvres from the Hillwood collection, supplemented by pieces on loan from other museums and private collections.

Curator Liana Paredes begins the book with a brief history of the Sèvres factory, which she asserts is known for its "sustained creativity and unparalleled invention." The factory's director in 2002 said Sèvres has "always manifested an 'insolent scorn for repetition.'" Subsequent chapters illustrate the factory's creativity and inventiveness by highlighting the designers and designs of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The checklist of 86 items in the exhibit includes a small color photo of each, photos of many of the marks, and information on designers, provenance, and related examples.

The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC by Rita E. Freed, Lawrence M. Berman, Denise M. Doxey, and Nicholas S. Picardo (MFA Publications, 2009, 224 pp., softbound, $40, or hardbound, $60, plus S/H from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, [www.mfa.org/publications] or [617] 369-3575).

The catalog from the exhibition The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 B.C., at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston until May 16, is a fascinating look at the discoveries from the tomb of the Djehutynakhts in the Deir el-Bersha cemetery on the east bank of the Nile. Essays at the beginning of the catalog discuss the history, culture, politics, funerary traditions, and art of Egypt's Middle Kingdom. The next section covers the discovery of the tombs and analysis of the coffins, canopic chests, burial treasures, and models, of which this tomb had more than any other Egyptian tomb yet discovered.

The 1915 excavations led by George Andrew Reisner and Hanford Lyman Story enhanced the MFA's collection of Middle Kingdom art, a period that was, until that point, the "weakest area" in the museum's collection of Egyptian art. The history of the excavation of the area and of the arduous and discouraging dig in 1915 is briefly recounted. As was common, the tomb had been pillaged and partially burned during the period of the New Kingdom. What was found included coffins, treasures (but scarce few of the precious metals or stones that are assumed to have been numerous), models or wood carvings that provide for the dead in the afterlife, and a mummified head and torso that had been ripped apart from the rest of the body. (The head is separately analyzed in an appendix essay.)

Although it is heartbreaking to realize how much was destroyed and stolen from the tomb, the significance of what remained is celebrated with thorough analysis of its construction, use, and meaning, including an interpretation of the inscriptions inside and outside the coffins. Numerous color photographs and a foldout color panel of the front of the outer coffin enhance the text. A second essay in the appendix discusses the difficulties of dating the tomb.

The illustrations pull one into the story, such as the photograph from 1915 of the stripped torso, as discovered by Story, upside down atop a pile of small vessels. History, analysis, and much intrigue are all part of the secrets of the tomb in this well-edited and thorough catalog that will make you want to see the exhibition.

L.M.

Antique Trunks: Refinish, Repair, Restore—Revised and Expanded by Paul Pat Morse and Linda Edelstein (The Trunk Shop, 2009, 200 pp., softbound, $29.99 plus S/H from The Trunk Shop, [www.trunk.com] or [877] 878-6588).

This is a revised and expanded version of the authors' 2001 book on trunk restoration. It covers much of the same material and is a hands-on "how to" book on restoring and repairing antique trunks. There are 175 new illustrations, some of them comical vintage drawings that feature trunks, and closeup photographs of restoration work in progress to help explain the process.

The authors discuss trunk styles, tools needed, and restoration safety before beginning their straightforward instructions. Chapters on quilted lids, trays, locks and keys, and tips and tricks are included. There are also sidebars with additional tips and pointers.

The final chapter includes a list of businesses that supply trunk parts or restoration tools, advice on pricing restoration work, and suggestions on how to sell restored trunks. Advertisements, mostly from trunk dealers, helped support the publication and are included in the back.

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