Page 57 - Studio International - October 1969

tion, because outside information (experien- results less conforming and predictable. It is that fulfills what another age might have
tial qualities, to note) have their own intrinsic in modern art's possession of a 'language' with called `man's spiritual needs'. Or, another
worth. And to comprehend this worth one the shortest history that the plausibility of way of putting it might be that art deals
does not need a state of 'art condition'. the abandonment of that 'language' becomes analogously with the state of things 'beyond
From this it is easy to realize that art's viability most possible. It is understandable then that physics' where philosophy had to make asser-
is not connected to the presentation of visual the art that came out of Western painting and tions. And art's strength is that even the pre-
(or other) kinds of experience. That that may sculpture is the most energetic, questioning ceding sentence is an assertion, and cannot be
have been one of art's extraneous functions in (of its nature), and the least assuming of all verified by art. Art's only claim is for art. Art
the preceding centuries is not unlikely. After the general 'art' concerns. In the final analysis, is the definition of art.
all, man in even the nineteenth-century lived however, all of the arts have but (in Wittgen-
in a fairly standardized visual environment. stein's terms) a 'family' resemblance.
That is, it was ordinarily predictable as to Yet the various qualities relatable to an 'art NOTES
what he would be coming into contact with condition' possessed by poetry, the novel, the 1 Morton White, The Age of Analysis, Mentor Books,
day after day. His visual environment in the cinema, the theatre, and various forms of New York, p. 14. 2 Ibid., p. 15.
3 I mean by this Existentialism and Phenomenology.
part of the world in which he lived was fairly music, etc., is that aspect of them most re-
Even Merleau-Ponty, with his middle-of-the-road posi-
consistent. In our time we have an experienti- liable to the function of art as asserted here.
tion between Empiricism and Rationalism, cannot ex-
ally drastically richer environment. One can Is not the decline of poetry relatable to the press his philosophy without the use of words (thus
fly all over the earth in a matter of hours and implied metaphysics from poetry's use of 'com- using concepts) ; and following this, how can one dicusss
days, not months. We have the cinema, and mon' language as an art language ? 24 In New experience without sharp distinctions between ourselves
and the world?
colour television, as well as the man-made York the last decadent stages of poetry can be
4 Sir James Jeans, Physics and Philosophy, University of
spectacle of the lights of Las Vegas or the seen in the move by 'Concrete' poets recently
Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Mich., p. 17.
skyscrapers of New York City. The whole toward the use of actual objects and theatre.25 5 Ibid., p. 190. 6 Ibid., p. 190.
world is there to be seen, and the whole world Can it be that they feel the unreality of their 7 The task such philosophy has taken upon itself is the
can watch man walk on the moon from their art form ? only 'function' it could perform without making philo-
sophic assertions.
living rooms. Certainly art or objects of paint- `We see now that the axioms of a geometry are
8 This is dealt with in the following section.
ing and sculpture cannot be expected to com- simply definitions, and that the theorems of a
9 I would like to make it clear, however, that I intend
pete experientially with this ? geometry are simply the logical consequences to speak for no one else. I arrived at these conclusions
The notion of 'use' is relevant to art and its of these definitions. A geometry is not in itself alone, and indeed, it is from this thinking that my art
`language'. Recently the box or cube form has about physical space; in itself it cannot be since 1966 (if not before) evolved. Only recently did I
realize after meeting Terry Atkinson that he and
been used a great deal within the context of said to be 'about' anything. But we can use a
Michael Baldwin share similar, though certainly not
art. (Take for instance its use by Judd, Morris, geometry to reason about physical space. That
identical, opinions to mine.
LeWitt, Bladen, Smith, Bell, and McCracken— is to say, once we have given the axioms a 10 Webster' s New World Dictionary of the American Language.
not even mentioning the quantity of boxes and physical interpretation, we can proceed to 11 The conceptual level of the work of Kenneth Noland,
cubes that came after.) The difference between apply the theorems to the objects which satisfy Jules Olitski, Morris Louis, Ron Davis, Anthony Caro,
John Hoyland, Dan Christensen et al. is so dismally
all the various uses of the box or cube form is the axioms. Whether a geometry can be
low, that any that is there is supplied by the critics
directly related to the differences in the inten- applied to the actual physical world or not, is
promoting it. This is seen later.
tions of the artists. Further, as is particularly an empirical question which falls outside the 12 Michael Fried's reasons for using Greenberg's ration-
seen in Judd's work, the use of the box or cube scope of geometry itself. There is no sense, ale reflect his background (and most of the other form-
form illustrates very well our earlier claim therefore, in asking which of the various alist critics) as a 'scholar', but more of it is due to his
desire, I suspect, to bring his scholarly studies into the
that an object is only art when placed in the geometries known to us are false and which
modern world. One can easily sympathize with his
context of art. are true. In so far as they are all free from desire to connect, say, Tiepolo with Jules Olitski. One
A few examples will point this out. One could contradiction, they are all true. The proposi- should never forget, however, that an historian loves
say that if one of Judd's box forms was seen tion which states that a certain application of history more than anything, even art.
filled with debris, seen placed in an industrial a geometry is possible is not itself a proposi- 13 Lucy Lippard uses this quotation in a footnote to
Ad Reinhardt's retrospective catalogue, p. 28.
setting, or even merely seen setting on a street tion of that geometry. All that the geometry
14 Lucy Lippard again, in her Hudson Review review of
corner, it would not be identified with art. It itself tells us is that if anything can be brought
the last painting exhibition of the Whitney Annual.
follows then that understanding and considera- under the definitions, it will also satisfy the 15 'Four interviews', by Arthur R. Rose; Arts Magazine,
tion of it as an art work is necessary a priori to theorems. It is therefore a purely logical sys- Feb. 1969.
viewing it in order to 'see' it as a work of art. tem, and its propositions are purely analytic 16 As Terry Atkinson pointed out in his introduction to
Art Language (vol. 1, no. 1), the Cubists never ques-
Advance information about the concept of art propositions.' —A. J. Ayer 26
tioned if art had morphological characteristics, but which
and about an artist's concepts is necessary to Here then I propose rests the viability of art.
ones in painting were acceptable.
the appreciation and understanding of con- In an age when traditional philosophy is un- 17 When someone 'buys' a Flavin he isn't buying a light
temporary art. Any and all of the physical real because of its assumptions, art's ability to show, for if he was he could just go to a hardware store
attributes (qualities) of contemporary works if exist will depend not only on its not performing and get the goods for considerably less. He isn't 'buying'
anything. He is subsidizing Flavin's activity as an artist.
considered separately and/or specifically are a service—as entertainment, visual (or other)
is A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic, Dover, New
irrelevant to the art concept. The art concept experience, or decoration—which is something York, p. 78. 19 Ibid., p. 57. 20 Ibid., p. 57. 21 Ibid.,
(as Judd said, though he didn't mean it this easily replaced by kitsch culture and techno- p. 90. 22 Ibid., p. 94.
way) must be considered in its whole. To logy, but rather, it will remain viable by not 23 Ad Reinhardt's retrospective catalogue ( Jewish
consider a concept's parts is invariably to con- assuming a philosophical stance; for in art's Museum) written by Lucy Lippard, p. 12.
24 It is poetry's use of common language to attempt to
sider aspects that are irrelevant to its art con- unique character is the capacity to remain
say the unsayable which is problematic, not any inherent
dition—or like reading parts of a definition. aloof from philosophical judgements. It is in problem in the use of language within the context of art.
It comes as no surprise that the art with the this context that art shares similarities with 25 Ironically, many of them call themselves 'Conceptual
least fixed morphology is the example from logic, mathematics and, as well, science. But Poets'. Much of this work is very similar to Walter de
which we decipher the nature of the general whereas the other endeavours are useful, art Maria's work and this is not coincidental; de Maria's
work functions as a kind of 'object' poetry, and his
term 'art'. For where there is a context exist- is not. Art indeed exists for its own sake.
intentions are very poetic: he really wants his work to
ing separately of its morphology and consist- In this period of man, after philosophy and
change men's lives.
ing of its function one is more likely to find religion, art may possibly be one endeavour 26 op. cit., p. 82.