PERIPHERIES OF PAINTING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 951, 1 November 1957, Page 12

PERIPHERIES OF PAINTING

MEMOIRS OF ANNIGONI, by Charles Richard Cammell; Allan Wingate, English price 16/-. PICTURES IN PERIL, by H. . Pars, translated by Katherine Talbot; Faber and Faber, English price 25/-. Hlustrated. ANNIGONI is an important artist today if only because he has provoked so much controversy between artists and critics. Where he is allowed to speak for himself in this book we find wisdom and value, even if we disagree with some of his conclusions. Unfortunately, he writes little of the book himself, though how a work by another hand can. be entitled "memoirs" must remain a literary mystery, for Mr Cammell makes no attempt at "ghost" writing; he thrusts himself irritatingly forward all through the work. He tells Annigoni’s story, but in so doing interprets the man himself, his work, and, worst of all and impertinently, his soul. All this in nauseatingly sentimental fashion, frequently revealing no more than the banal and the obvious, and often in a hotchpotch of poeticised prose: "In conversation his mind not seldom reveals itself"; and a few pages later, "At this new crisis in his artistic development his Guardian Spirit came once more to his aid; always for Annigoni was found the friend in need, always occurred for him the right meeting at the right moment." It was not easy to read Mr Cammell’s own personal musings and moralising on beauty, pacifism, faith, esoteric mysticism and a. hundred other Cammell characteristics: further, it was devastatingly prejudicial to his subject, whom he admires and respects. Pictures in Peril is also disappointing, and it is difficult to guess at what sort of reading public it is aimed. The writer appears to be well-informed; he has collected (with careful scho!:-ly details) stories of pictures and works of art which have been damaged, stolen or irretrievably lost; he skips about the centuries and the nations presenting each as a sort of thriller but written with the dignified reserve of 4 museum curator. The result is a muddle. Much of the material is of value, for instance,

the chapter on restoration includes historical records, factual details and considered judgments. The story of the wax bust, Flora, attributed to Leonardo, has not previously (as far as I could trace) been so fully and carefully recorded; the conclusions are considered and supported by authorities. Unfortunately, nothing links the subjects together except sensationalism, which is contradicted and defeated by the style, so that the book is unsatis-

factory.

John V.

Trevor