Book Reviews: New Reviews from Ballast
Reviewed by Roy Behrens
Liners in Battledress: Wartime Camouflage and Color Schemes for Passenger Ships
by David Williams
1989, Lewiston NY: Vanwell Publishing Ltd
ISBN 0-920277-50-0
Reviewed by Roy Behrens
During World War I and II, as a deterrent to attacks by
German U-boats, abstract irregular shapes were applied to the surfaces of Allied ships.
Developed by a British artist in 1917 and officially called "dazzle-painting," this kind of camouflage made it difficult to determine the exact course of a distant ship through a periscope, thus spoiling the aim of the torpedo gunner. This is a fascinating, well-illustrated account of low-visibility camouflage, dazzle-painting, and other
protective measures that were applied to large passenger ships when they were converted to wartime use as troopships, hospital ships, and so on. Of particular interest to artists, psychologists, and military historians are dozens of historic photographs of dazzle-painted ships, and illustrated appendices on official ship camouflage patterns.
(Review by Roy R. Behrens, reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 1 3 No 2,
Winter 1997-98)
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Perception and Imaging
by Richard D. Zakia
1997, Boston, Focal Press
ISBN: 0-240-80201-2
Vision and art are inseparable, even more so if, as Paul Klee observed,
"Art does not render the visible; rather, it makes visible." Written by a well-known
photographic engineer and educator who taught for more than three decades at the
Rochester Institute of Technology, this is an encyclopedic handbook of concepts and
experimental findings related to art and visual perception: Attention, gestalt
organizing principles, visual memory, color, ambiguity, contours, subliminal images, and
so on. While addressed mainly to photographers, it describes and amply illustrates a
wide range of ideas about art, design, advertising, semiotics, and visual communication.
(Review by Roy R. Behrens, reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 1 3 No 2,
Winter 1997-98)
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Design Culture: An Anthology of Writing from
the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design
Steven Heller and Marie Finamore, eds.
1997, New York, Allworth Press
ISBN 1-880559-71-4
It is mind boggling to think that Steven Heller, who is a senior art
director at The New York Times, has now written, edited, or co-edited mor e than 60
books on graphic design and design history. Even more astonishing is that many of
those volumes are among the finest, most innovative books on the subject, among them
Graphic Style: From Victorian to Postmodern; Borrowed Design: Use and Abu se of
Historical Form; The Business of Illustration; and Design Literacy: Under standing
Graphic Design. Since 1985, Heller has also edited the American Institute of Graphic
Arts' journal, and in this anthology, he and it's managing editor have co llected nearly
80 essays that appeared first in that magazine. Sixty-two authors are rep resented by
lively, accessible articles on a wide range of design-related topics, inc luding skateboard
graphics, designer zines, and placing an order with a sign company. Stude nts will
understand and enjoy nearly all the selections. Among our favorites are i nterviews with
Saul Bass, Gyorgy Kepes, and Barbara Kruger; a memoir by Michael Beirut a bout
learning to draw with Jon Gnagy; Brad Holland=B9s masterful essay about t he primacy of
Picasso (titled "Picasso Rex"); and a hilarious illustrated piece by Ross MacDonald and
James Victore about designers=B9 use of martial arts (e.g., "the 10 perce nt kill fee choke
hold" and "the editor throw") as protection from "underhanded backstabbin g business
practices." (Review by Roy R. Behrens, reprinted from Ballast Quarterly R eview, Vol 13
No 2, Winter 1997-98)
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Play With Your Food
Joost Elffers
1997, New York, Stewart Tabori and Chang
ISBN 1-55670-630-8
This is a rich, full-color picture book for children and adults about how
to make humorous sculpture from food. As explained and illustrated in its text, it was
partly inspired by the fantastic paintings of Guiseppe Arcimboldo, a Rena issance-era
Italian artist (rediscovered in this century by the Surrealists), who mad e composite
portraits from fruits, flowers, and other non-human components. Reproduce d and
described are scores of imaginative edible shapes, made from everyday fru its and
vegetables, including human faces, animals, and insects, with advice on h ow to see
more creatively, and to invent one=B9s own examples. (Review by Roy R. Be hrens,
reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 13 No 2, Winter 1997-98)
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Monkey Painting
by Thierry Lenain
1997, London, Reaktion Books
ISBN 1-86189-003-6
Since at least the 17th century, artists have been portrayed satirically as monkeys, and
monkeys as artists. Non-human primates are mimics of humans, while, accor ding to
tradition, art is the imitation of reality, an aping of nature. In the la te 1950s, inspired
by language and problem-solving research with apes, two European scientis ts, Bernhard
Rensch and Desmond Morris (author of The Biology of Art), working separat ely, began
experimental studies of "monkey painting," hoping to learn more about the biological
basis of esthetics. In each case, monkeys were given art materials and ob served making
marks, appearing at times to exhibit a sense of visual balance. Their cre ations, which
resembled Abstract Expressionist paintings, were widely ridiculed by the public, who
saw them as proof that a monkey could paint as well as Franz Kline or Wil lem de
Kooning. Illustrated by 70 photographs, including examples of monkey pain tings, this
book is an excellent, updated look at the significance of those experimen ts. (Review by
Roy R. Behrens, reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 13 No 2, Win ter 1997-98)
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Frank Lloyd Wright: The Seat of Genius, Chairs: 1895-1955
by Penny Fowler and Mary Anna Easton
1997, West Palm Beach FL: Eaton Fine Art
Distributed by the University of Washington Press).
ISBN 0-9655819-2-6
During a period of 60 years, Wright designed
more than 200 different chairs, many of which were unique or for limited production,
and intended for use in specific architectural settings. This is the exhi bition catalog for
a selection of Wright=B9s chairs at a Florida gallery in early 1997. Twen ty-one chairs are
reproduced, isolated and in full color, accompanied by black and white ph otographs of
the same objects in the context for which they were initially designed. T he volume is
introduced by essays by Fowler and Easton, both of which are interesting, but because
of the book's typesetting they are almost unreadable. (Review by Roy R. B ehrens,
reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 13 No 2, Winter 1997-98)
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Architecture and Cubism
Eve Blau and Nancy J. Troy, eds.
1998, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press
ISBN 0-262-03244-9.
The cube, cubicle or cell is the architectural counterpart of
the square. Gertrude Stein claimed that cubism began not with Les Demoise lles
d'Avignon but with Picasso's paintings of Spanish houses; and villas designed by Le
Corbusier and Gerrit Rietveld are frequently described as cubist-inspired . But to what
extent was modernism in architecture directly influenced by cubist painti ng? That is the
primary issue addressed in this interesting, illustrated anthology of 11 scholarly essays
by art and architectural historians, commissioned by the Canadian Center for
Architecture. Among the most surprising are discussions of cubism=B9s imp act on the
design of French gardens; its indebtedness to the Gothic tradition; archi tecture and
cubist poetry; and the influence of the writings of architectural and soc ial historian
Sigfried Giedion. Most connections between cubism and architecture, the c ontributors
conclude, were indirect and analogical, a result of their parallel use of techniques such
as fragmentation, ambiguity, transparency, and multiplicity. (Review by Roy R. Behrens,
reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 13 No 2, Winter 1997-98)
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A Short History of the Shadow
by Victor I. Stoichita,
1997, London, Reaktion Books
ISBN 1-86189-000-1.
In the 18th century, when Italian Jesuits went to China as missionaries,
they were surprised to find that Chinese artists understood but rarely us ed linear
perspective. Nor did they include shadows, because, the Jesuits reported, "they looked
like smudges on the face." Shadows are pictorial ephemera; the painting=B9 s subject is
paramount, while shadows are incidental. We often take shadows for grante d, but only
since the Renaissance have they been portrayed systematically. This is on e of several
books in recent years to examine the art historical and symbolic signific ance of
shadows. Well illustrated and clearly written, it opens with the shadows in Plato=B9s cave
and Pliny=B9s assertion that painting began by tracing silhouettes, moves through and
beyond the Renaissance, and concludes with a too brief account of their u se in this
century by Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, and others. (Revi ew by Roy R.
Behrens, reprinted from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 13 No 2, Winter 1997-98)
