The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (104 page)

Circle
.

A collective manifesto of
Constructivism
edited by the architect Sir Leslie Martin , the painter Ben
Nicholson
, and the sculptor Naum
Gabo
, published in London in 1937. Sub-titled ‘International Survey of Constructive Art’, it is nearly 300 pages long with numerous illustrations and was originally intended as an annual. The volume contains Piet
Mondrian's
seminal essay ‘Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art’, and essays or statements by, among others,
Hepworth
(who took much of the responsibility for the layout and production),
Le Corbusier
,
Moholy-Nagy
,
Moore
, and
Read
. The artists illustrated included (in addition to those already mentioned),
Malevich
,
Lissitzky
, Antoine
Pevsner
, and many others, such as
Braque
,
Brancusi
,
Giacometti
, and
Picasso
whose work did not conform with the theoretical concept of Constructivism.
Circle
was reprinted in 1971.

 
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(French ‘lost wax’). Term used to describe a method of hollow metal casting in which a thin layer of wax corresponding to the shape of the final sculpture is encased within two layers of heat-resistant clay or plaster, melted and drained off and then replaced with molten metal poured into the cavity that the ‘lost wax’ has created. The technique, found in every continent except Australasia, was used by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans and is still the main means of casting used for traditional bronze sculpture. Casting sculptures of any size is an industrial process requiring great expertise, and there is a celebrated account in
Cellini's
autobiography of the difficulties he encountered (and heroically overcame) with his figure of
Perseus
.

 
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(
c.
1597–1660).
Dutch still-life painter, born in Germany and active in Haarlem, where he settled in 1617. He and Willem Claesz.
Heda
, who also worked in Haarlem, were the most important exponents of the
ontbijt
or breakfast piece. They painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression. Claesz. generally chose objects of a more homely kind than Heda, although his later work became more colourful and decorative. The two men founded a distinguished tradition of still-life painting in Haarlem, but Claesz.'s son, Nicolaes
Berchem
, became famous as a landscape painter.

 
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(1903–83).
British art historian, administrator, patron, and collector, born into a wealthy family whose fortune had been made in thread-manufacturing: ‘My parents belonged to a section of society known as “the idle rich”, and although, in that golden age, many people were richer, there can have been few who were idler.’ After working with
Berenson
in Florence, he was Keeper of Fine Art at the
Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford (1931–3), then Director of the
National Gallery
, London (1934–45), and at the same time Surveyor of the King's Pictures (1934–44). Subsequently he held many other public posts, including those of Chairman of the
Arts Council
(1953–60) and of the Independent Television Authority (1954–7). He published more than twenty books, his forte being appreciation and interpretation rather than exact scholarship, although his monographs on
Leonardo da Vinci
(1939) and
Piero della Francesca
(1951), both of which have been issued in revised editions, still remain standard works. His other books include
The Gothic Revival
(1928),
Landscape into Art
(1949), and
The Nude
(1956). He regarded
The Nude
as ‘without question my best book, full of ideas and information, simplifying its complex subject without deformation, and in places eloquent’. A polished television performer as well as an elegant and stimulating writer, he did a great deal to popularize art history, most notably with his television series
Civilisation
(1969, also published then as a book), which was shown in over sixty countries. The part he played as a patron and collector (he inherited substantial wealth from his parents) is less well known, but was of considerable importance. He bought the work of
Moore
,
Pasmore
,
Piper
, and
Sutherland
in the 1920s and 1930s when they were little known and helped to establish their reputations (he also made a regular allowance—in strict secrecy—to several artists), and during the Second World War he had a major influence as chairman of the War Artists' Advisory Committee (see
OFFICIAL WAR ART
). His two volumes of autobiography—
Another Part of the Wood
(1974) and
The Other Half
(1977)—are highly entertaining, if not always accurate in detail, but some of the pot-boilers that appeared in his old age would have been better left unpublished.

 
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(1889–1931).
Irish artist, chiefly famous as one of the 20th-cent.'s greatest designers of stained glass, but also a mural painter, textile designer, and book illustrator. He was born in Dublin, the son of a church decorator, and had his main training at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, 1910–13. Scholarships then enabled him to study medieval glass in France. He took over the family business on his father's death in 1921 and had a large output in spite of his short life (he died from tuberculosis). The Harry Clarke Stained Glass Studios Ltd continued in business until 1973. Clarke's glass was sumptuous and often rather bizarre in style—in the spirit of French
Symbolist
painters. As an illustrator he had a taste for the macabre and is particularly remembered for his black-and-white drawings for an edition of Edgar Allan Poe's
Tales of Mystery and Imagination
(1923).