DECADE BY DECADE: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THECOLLECTION OF THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY by James EnyeartReview by: Kathy J. AndersonArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Fall1989), p. 161Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948111 .

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Art Documentation, Fall, 1989 161

DECADE BY DECADE: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY / Edited by James Enyeart.-Boston: Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Com pany, in assoc. with Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, 1989.- 256 p.: ill.- ISBN 0-8212-1721 6 (cl); 0-8212-1722-4 (pa); LC 88-25798: $40.00 (cl).

Decade by Decade, edited by James Enyeart, serves as an introduction to 70 years of American photography starting

with the turn of the century and ending with the 1970s. Enyeart, former director of the Center for Creative Photog raphy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and now direc tor of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, assigned a ten-year period to each of a selected group of well-known photo historians and curators. The resulting essays are illustrated with images from the center's collection. Although not referred to specifically in the essays, the photographs, arranged in chronological se quence, parallel and enhance the time-line of the text. The volume commemorates an exhibition which opened at the Center for Creative Photography in February 1989.

As mentioned in Enyeart's introduction, there is some overlap in the content of the essays as the authors were not in contact with one another. This is, however, not a weak ness of the text since the recounting of history is often a layered rather than linear process. While all of the essays are

well written and informative, several are notable in that they offer an overview of the major trends of a particular decade while introducing new insights into particular facets of those trends. The first essay, "The Recording Angel and the Sov ereign Laws of Beauty: Photography's First Century" by Es telle Jussim, provides a background of international scope against which to view the later developments in American photography.

Van Deren Coke follows Jussim with a study of the relation ship of major art movements of the 1920s, such as Surrealism and Expressionism, to photographic experimentation. The contributions of Naomi Rosenblum and Helen Gee, on the 1940s and 1950s respectively, detail the rise of photojour nalism and its profound impact on the photographic image. In the final essay Charles DesMarais examines photography in the 1970s and discusses the emergence of photography as an art world commodity, the coexistence of many disparate photographic "styles," and commendably acknowledges the significant contribution of feminist art historical theory to the critical process. Nathan Lyons, in an afterword, pro vides a sense of closure to the text with his comments on more recent positive developments in photographic scholar ship, citing the establishment and preservation of such in stitutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, and the Center for Creative Photography.

The volume contains the aforementioned preface by Enyeart, seven essays, and an afterword. Images that illus trate points made in the text are sprinkled throughout the es says. The "Duotone Portfolio" consists of 104 plates and the "Color Portfolio" of 16 plates. A detailed description of the plates follows which includes size, type of print (gelatin, platinum, photogravure, etc.), accession number, and dates for the original negative as well as the print reproduced in the text ? a very useful inclusion. Finally, there is a brief pro file of each contributor and index.

The technical quality of the volume is exceptional. The photographic reproductions, printed on heavy stock, retain clarity of detail and full tonal range. The binding is sturdy

- an increasingly rare feature these days! Bulfinch Press is a new division of Little, Brown and Co., and if this volume is any indication of their standards of production, their publica tions are highly recommended.

Decade by Decade is designed to be a survey and emi nently fulfills this goal. For in-depth studies, however, one should look to other resources, including such classics as Beaumont Newhall's 77?e History of Photography (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964),Photography: EssaysandIm ages (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980), or to John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1973). American Photography: A Critical History

Since 1945 to the Present (New York: Abrams, 1984) by Jonathan Green focuses on the years after 1945 and is a more detailed examination of the theoretical and philosophical concerns briefly dealt with in Decade by Decade. In some ways the volume reviewed here is similar to the recent Photography: A Facet of Modernism (New York: Hudson Hills in assoc. with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1986), by Van Deren Coke with Diana C. Du Pont, which served as a showcase for the photography collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. However, Coke's monograph differs in that it is international in scope and has been organized by approach (such as formalism, pluralism, etc.). With Decade by Decade James Enyeart has assembled a

quality introduction to the study of 20th-century American photography. It is a desirable acquisition for both academic and public libraries.

Kathy J. Anderson Onondaga County Public Library

OTHER REVIEWS FEATHERED SERPENTS AND FLOWERING TREES: RECON STRUCTING THE MURALS OF TEOTIHUACAN / Edited by Kathleen Berr?n.-San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, distr. by the University of Washington Press, 1988.-238 p.: ill.-ISBN 0-295-96703-X; LC88-10968: $39.95.

Ethical and legal issues surrounding the repatriation of na tional treasures have been matters concerning governments, historians, and museum officials for many years. When the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (one of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) was presented with a bequest of a major collection of wall murals from the pre-Columbian civilization of Teotihuacan, museum officials were forced to address these concerns directly.

Kathleen Berr?n has edited an important volume of five es says written by some of the foremost scholars of Teotihuacan culture who address the ethical, legal, physical, and scho larly problems of the Teotihuacan Murals Project. The project

was undertaken by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco when the gift of the murals was received from the estate of Harald J. Wagner in 1976.

The first essay by Thomas Seligman, curator in charge of the art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas for the Fine Arts Musuems, describes the circumstances of the museums' ac quisition of the murals from Wagner. When the museum re ceived the murals they were in various states of repair. Some had been crudely mounted, still others were in pieces. Steps were taken immediately to insure the safety of the extremely fragile artifacts. Also delicate were the negotiations necessary to determine ownership of the murals.

Because of his close involvement with this project Seligman has a unique perspective on the ethical and political issues facing museums receiving gifts of cultural property from other nations. He describes the discussions with Mexican museum officials and outlines the principles set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

The detailed information presented by Seligman will be both interesting and useful to other museum officials who find themselves in a similar situation.

The second essay, by Kathleen Berrin, editor of this book and the museums' associate curator of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the time of the bequest, sets the stage for un derstanding the significance of the Wagner murals. Berrin describes the circumstances that allowed the Teotihuacan murals to be removed not only from the archaeological site outside Mexico City, but the circumstances that allowed them to be taken from Mexico to the United States. She also tells the story of Harald Wagner: how he came to own the murals, and how he came to give them to the de Young

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