Pasmore, a painter Whistler would have loved; Victor Pasmore: A Catalog Raisonne of the Paintings, Constructions, and Graphics -- 1926-1979, introduction by Alan Bowness and Luigi Lambertini. New York: Rizzoli. $100

Victor Pasmore is one of the few 20th-century painters Whistler would have considered worthy of respect. That at least was my impression after leafing through and reading this catalog raisonne of Pasmore's art. It is a monumental book detailing an extraordinary life's work.

It was prepared in collaboration with the artist, and contains selections from his own writings, together with essays on his life and work by Alan Bowness , director of the Tate Gallery, London, and Luigi Lambertini, the Italian art critic. These are incisive accounts of Pasmore's evolution as an artist, most particularly of his highly dramatic switch in the very late 1940s from a lyrical and delicate representational art to one that was completely abstract.

Also included, and beautifully reproduced in color, are four of his etchings with poems. These and the many other excellent color reproductions -- together with the clear black-and-white illustrations of every work he executed between 1926 and 1979 -- make this book a worthy addition to any art library.