A Concise History of Modern Sculpture - Praeger World of Art Paperbacks

This is a curious book. The text is problematic. Herbert Read is an interesting figure in cultural history, but I find the historical account here sketchy and the criticism almost valueless. And I say that as someone who is not at all typically dismissive of views "out of the past." But Read makes many contentious aesthetic assertions that I find unhelpful even as spurs to thought. He has no patience for sculpture that is "about" space instead of "about" mass - but it is that tension that has defined modern sculpture, at least in large part. He comes perilously close to stating that almost all post-1950 sculpture except for the work of Henry Moore is depressing junk. (He finds tonier words to say that, of course, but still, the point of view is clear.) Read has an annoying habit of privileging artists that he knew well personally (Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Paolozzi) in his narrative. Moore is a great artist and it is not as if he needs any special pleading, but Read provides it anyway. It all comes across as unpleasantly clubby in the worst British sense. (From an avowed anarchist and the son of a farmer, no less!) The illustrations are another matter. They are fascinating, but a vast number of the sculptors and pieces, especially in the second half of the volume, are referred to nowhere in the text, or at most in a list. Whoever put this edition together allowed the textual and visual sides of the book to lead separate lives.