The Year's Art 1969-70

Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London, first edition, 1970. Cloth, 4to,. 243 pp, plates. A concise epitome of all matters relating to the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, which have occurred during the year. Together with information respecting the events of the year." "The year of the Rembrandt Centenary was celebrated with exhibitions in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Toronto. The year under review was also the anniversary year of Tiepolo and of Matisse. It was the year in which two of the great museums in the United States, the Metropolitan Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, celebrated their centenaries. In many of the other fields covered in this book, 1969-70 could similarly be regarded as a time for looking back and taking stock of the situation. Several of the major collections still in private hands were transferred to public museums, notably the Oscar Reinhart collection to the Swiss State, the Bonacossi collection to the City of Florence and the Robert Lehman collection to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The late Mark Rothko, whose achievement is discussed in this book, had donated eight of his major paintings to the Tate Gallery in London shortly before his sudden and tragic death. In the contemporary field there has been a noticeable trend in recent years to devote large retrospectives to living artists in mid-career. Richard Hamilton, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol were given such shows. The exhibition pattern has changed rapidly both in methods of exposition and in particular problems facing the museum director. In some areas the whole concept of the gallery exhibition and of the present commercial outlets for contemporary art have been questioned. A recent exhibition described itself as ‘a compendium of all current efforts to go beyond painting'...Our architectural coverage is extensive in an important year for architecture, a year in which some architects were particularly aware of the communities in which they operate, and where events ranging from Expo in Japan to the Woodstock rock festival presented needs for quickly erected impermanent buildings. A year of deep concern about the environment affected the pace of change in industrial design as well as in other fields. Here, however, both of our correspondents are agreed on placing their emphasis on what needs to be done rather than present levels of achievement. This edition of The Year's Art is an Anglo-American venture, with correspondents from both sides of the Atlantic writing on all aspects of fine art and museum activities, as well as architecture, design, art books, and personalities of the art world." - from the blurb. Inscription on front pastedown endpaper, margins agetoned, otherwise Fine in a somewhat yellowed dustwrapper.