The Hidden Order in Art. A Study in the Psychology of Artistic Imagination: By Anton Ehrenzweig. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. 306 pp.

Anton Ehrenzweig, who died in London shortly after this book was completed, had studied law and psychoanalysis in Vienna where he was appointed a judge in 1936. Two years later he settled in London where he worked as a lecturer on art at the University of London. In 1956-1957, Ehrenzweig lectured in the United States where he had been known by his psychoanalytic approach to art through several of his books, especially, The Psychoanalysis of Artistic Vision and Hearing.1 Sir Herbert Read wrote of this book that it combines a profound knowledge of psychoanalysis with a profound knowledge of all the arts, particularly painting and music. This, Ehrenzweig's first book, had a great influence on the explanation, justification, and interpretation of modern art; it has inspired many artists and is now experiencing a deepened impact.

With the publication of The Hidden Order in Art, Ehrenzweig's work is now completed. It is an admirable presentation of his views and is written with self-assurance, confidence, and clearness of insight and expression. It is difficult to read only because of the difficulties of the topic. In a new approach, it combines a profound knowledge of psychoanalysis, art, history, and anthropology.

In the first part, the author shows that in addition to conscious intellectual critical powers the artist relies on unconscious critical processes and that his unconscious 'scanning' of serial structures plays a major part in the organization of pictorial space, the use