I first heard of this book whilst listening to Frank Whitford's extensive interview with Eduardo Paolozzi. You can read or listen to it via the British Library site. During that period, late last year, I was hunting down as many of Paolozzi's artist's book as I could find and afford. The interview is fascinating, a real journey from Paolozzi's beginnings onward and Ozenfant's Foundations Of Modern Art seems like a seminal influence on Paolozzi. When I finally got a copy I could see why.
It may not be so much about what Ozenfant says as the way so many aspects of society just after the modernist boom are brought together, crucially in the form of pictures. Here the ancient and new, scientific and tribal combine to create, when flicking through, something akin to a book Paolozzi might have produced himself.
Far from being a dry theoretical text, though, it's full of Ozenfant's opinions on all subjects and their relationship to art, his teachings and theories enlivened by the way he expresses his beliefs and, crucially, the way the book is designed.
Coincidentally, as I was cycling this morning, I noticed, not for the first time, the uniformity of the parked cars, one row of which presented a colour scheme of grey, silver and one muted black. To say the average car today is boring to look at is an understatement. Later, having thought about posting this and flicking through, I came across this passage. How right he was in 1928!
This afternoon I felt 'A need', even 'a buzzing' to create, so I set to work on an idea which, as I speak, is still drying. So instead of posting that here's one from a few days ago. It's one of several versions created from the original, which was a paper 'assemblage/collage. Thanks for calling in - ta-ta!
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| Up-To-Date Affair, RTomens, 2019 |
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