Volume 13, Number 3 · August 21, 1969
The Shape of Things to Come
By James Ackerman
Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture
by Sidney Geist
Grossman, 247, 204 figs. pp., $10.00
Modern American Sculpture
by Dore Ashton
Abrams, 54, 28 figs., 80 pls. pp., $25.00
David Smith by David Smith
edited by Cleve Gray
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 176, 107 figs. pp., $22.95
Beyond Modern Sculpture
by Jack Burnham
Braziller, 402, 135 figs. pp., $15.00
The increasing number of recent books on sculpture suggests that three-dimensional art has become the major expressive form in the art of the mid-Sixties. Painting, the dominant mode of the early twentieth century, now seems to be straining against the confinement of the rectangular plane. What has happened in sculpture during the last five years, moreover, has sparked a controversy that can be said to threaten modern art criticism itself. The 'minimal' artists, in their work and writing, have reacted against the highly individualistic art of the New York School of the Fifties by challenging traditional standards, which put a high value on individual invention and complexity. They are exhibiting work which avoids personal statement by using industrial materials and products assembled as in a factory. They reduce structural intricacy to elemental and usually familiar forms, the nature of which is apparent the moment we see them.
Review, 4644 words
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