MODERN PLASTIC, ART By C. Giedion-Welcker
Ten years ago , we were allowed t, accept abstract art as something which, if it appealed to us at all, appealed to a purely aesthetic faculty, the working, of which were independent of any other form of activity in which we indulged. Now Marxism as a mode of thought has spread, at any rate on the Continent, to such an extent that even those intellectuals who are in theory strongly opposed to it find themselves inevitably thinking in terms of the Marxist idiom. So we have the strange phenomenon of a writer justifying • abstract art on the grounds that it is the ittost complete possible expression of a ' particular social development, and that it perform, a function of value in the general life of society. For this is really the main thesis of Frau Giedion.Welckees Modern Plastic Art (Zurich.: Girsberger. Verlag, 12S. 6d.). - She _maintains, for_ingance, that the various forms .of abstract art which she discusses are - dominated by " the rehabilitation of . everyday themes and their reassimilation to the broad stream of life," a tendency which she also finds in other fields of culture, in philosophy and science. It is, however, very hard to see how this tendency is shown in the sculpture of Arp or Moore. However, this book serves a useful purpose in containing the dearest direct exposition of the doctrines on which the various artists in question work, supported by quota- tions from their own writings on art. Further, the plates illustrate the various forms of abstract sculpture exceptionally well.
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