Page 29 - Studio International - April 1965

1 in their paintings and sculpture. The anonymous author visual relationship between the artist and the spec-
Andy Warhol
'Liz' 1963 of the statement I have already quoted suggests that tator. Art always was and must remain a mode of
Silkscreen/Canvas 'the idea of expression and the idea of the artist as some- symbolic discourse, and where there is no symbol and
40 x 40 in. each (4 panels)
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York one in communication with us through some code that therefore no discourse, there is no art. Not to affirm
2
David Hockney we can decipher are inadequate to the situation. The this, with all possible conviction, is to betray a sacred
California Art Collector 1964 idea of the relationship between artist and spectator as trust.
Acrylic paint 5 x 6 ft.
Alan Gallery, New York in any way analogous to a verbal relationship is totally You will now expect me to be more specific, to name
3 obsolete, and obsolete not only for Albers and Kline the artists and critics who have betrayed this trust, but
Andy Warhol
Elvis I & II 1964 but equally for Appel and Giacometti. All that we know the illustrations to this article will serve this purpose.
Silkscreen/Canvas is that the maker of art felt the need of a certain kind of The whole purpose of art is called in question, and
82 x 82 in. each
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York object in his life—in his studio—and proceeded to make what we are witnessing at the present moment is
it. And that others, seeing the object, recognise the not merely the disintegration of the modern movement
need and find it satisfied'. in art, but the disintegration of intelligence itself, a
This is surely a very illogical situation. The artist, we are descent into the eternal 'fun fair' which is neither funny
told, has no desire to communicate with us: he just nor fair, but an inferno into which the intellectually
makes 'a certain kind of object' which he needs to have empty and morally insensitive vandals of an alienating
around, to satisfy a private need. But if we invade his economy drift in their ruthless search for any object on
privacy, then he may find that after all his private object which to expend their destructive energies.
satisfies our private need. In other words, he has made Disintegration, by definition, has no unifying principle,
a communication, he has expressed himself in a sign but a label must be found to cover the diverse phenom-
or symbol that has general significance. ena of the contemporary scene and so the term 'pop-
That seems to be an uncommon piece of luck, and if art' has come into vogue. It was coined on the analogy
the intruder into his privacy happens to be a collector of pop-music, but pop-music is genuinely popular, a
or a dealer who also has a need for 'a certain kind of modern version of folk-music. It may be sophisticated,
object', then the indifferent artist is luckier still—his and it may contradict all the canons of academic music,
private needs have become public investments. But is but it springs from the people and serves their needs for
that always the situation ? Is it not more likely that the stimulation and emotional release. Pop-art can make
artist, or 'the maker of art' as he is now called, 'feeling no such claim : it has no roots in mass-culture, and its
the need' makes an object that has no significance for claim to select and emphasise popular images is a
anyone but himself, an object without beauty or delusion. What it exploits for the most part is a very
vitality, an object of non-art? different thing : the commercial image—that is to say,
Such is, indeed, what happens in the majority of cases. an image devised by cunning publicity agents to per-
These brutal scribbles and scrawls, these assemblages suade the public to buy mass-produced goods
of rusty junk from the scrap-heap or dump, what mean- (beverages, processed foods, cosmetics, gadgets of
ing or significance can they have for 'others' unless every kind), or, alternatively, persuade the same public
some concession is made to the idea of a relationship to patronise some kind of entertainment (sport,
between artist and spectator? Art is communication, cinema, dancing). Rather different, but still com-
and though every method and every kind of material is mercially motivated, are the various types of strip-
legitimate, materials and methods must establish a cartoons which do certainly exploit the emotions of the