Leonardo

Books 177 Japanese art-much too much for just one chapter. He has selected a vast amount of material and organized it well. The text is enjoyable to read and will provide an excellent foundation for further art studies. While Art in Perspective attempts to be balanced between historical background and analysis of art works in a chronological context, Elsen’s Purposes of Art has a quite different approach. Elsen contends that with the current demands for relevance ‘we are challenged to transform our subjects and methods so as to make learning more interesting ’. On one hand he states that ‘no teacher or writer worth his salt can help others face the present by discarding the past’. But, when stating his goals Elsen says: ‘Purposes of Art is a book that seeks to avoid chronarchy, the tyranny of time.’ What the author attempts is a presentation organized according to themes and not historical eras. He states: ‘Purposesof Art is a fragmentary history, a mosaic of themes.’ Pieces of history are removed from their contexts so as to study the development of an ’ idea or artistic medium. An example of his approach is the chapter ‘Images of gods’ in which he discusses representations of Apollo, Buddha and Christ, ending with the Matisse murals in the Rosary Chapel at Vence. In the Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Picasso chapters the author presents mini-biographies and four chapters are devoted to specific historical periods. One chapter is devoted to religious architecture and one to the city square. The approach seems logical and, in fact, in some chapters the following of a theme works very well. The one on the city square is’the most successful example. Starting with the Greek agora, the author discusses the Roman forum, the Medieval square, the Renaissance city, Aztec capitals, the Baroque center and ends with the modern city square. Other chapters are more difficult to follow and occasionally the examples do not seem to fit into the book’s general scheme. I felt that I was not reading an integrated text but an anthology of essays on major themes in art. One gets confused as to where things belong, like the child who asks who came first, Jesus or George Washington. As Elsen states, the book is a mosaic and requires the reader to have had someprevious exposure to art history so as to be able to make some order from the many individual presentations. Purposes of Art is a well written, luxurious and superbly illustrated book. I recommend it to those who have had sufficient background to appreciate Elsen’s approach. I believe, however, that a beginning student would find it confusing, unless he had studied before a chronological presentation to provide a historical perspective. Children and Their Art: Methods for the Elementary School. 2nd ed. Charles D. Gaitskell and Al Hurwitz. Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1970. 507 pp., illus. E5.50. Reviewed by John F. Mee* In this second edition of their book the authors have produced a broad programme of art education that is highly impressive in its philosophy, its organization and its content. Though. it is aimed principally at primary (elementary) schools, it has much to offer teachers in secondary schools. The predominant objective of the book is to develop within teachers a better understanding of their role for bringing about a creative approach to art education. The authors have sought to achieve this understanding in the first part of the two-part book, entitled ‘Preparing to Teach Art’, in which considerations of contemporary educational psychology, the nature and tradition of art and the changes in and objectives of modern art education are coupled with the ‘down-to earth’ practicalities of syllabus development and classroom equipping and organization. A series of activities for the reader is provided at the end of each chapter. In the second part, ‘Teaching Art’, a carefully planned programme of activities in Drawing and Painting, Paper Craft, Sculpture and Modelling, and Printmaking is presented . A wide range of media, techniques and teaching methodology takes account of the psychology and educational needs of a child throughout each stage of its primary education. The individual and group activities described in each...