Page 51 - Studio International - August 1965

space and time simultaneously, chiefly in the forms of
sheet aluminium and brass or even paper and rubber.
Ceri Richards Cycle of Nature. Arabesques 1964 50 x 50 ,n
Marlborough New London Gallery
Jim Dine Walking Dream with a four foot clamp 1965 011. Charcoal. Collage
60 x 108 ,n. Robert Fraser Gallery
Her precursors are evidently Gabe and Pevsner and
also, though to a lesser extent, Teuber-Arp. Probably
the most popular aspect of her exhibition was the
proliferation of the hinged sheet metal combinations of
segments, parallelograms and Moebius loops with
which the spectator was invited to play. This 'do it
yourself participation of the onlooker had its deceiving
impression of originality for already the point of balance
of angle, straight edge or curve on the floor was
determined within a possible number of variants. More
to the point was the reflection that finality is a point
never reached in a work of art any more than it is in
life, for when life reaches the point regarded as finality
it is, in fact, another beginning, namely, death. That the
works are capable of provoking such thoughts is
indicative of their intellectual and spiritual impact. In
her painted reliefs and canvases we find ourselves even
more involved with the teasing appearances of planes
and profiles of areas of opposing tone, usually black
and white. Lygia Clark has that rare talent, to involve the
spectator immediately and cooperatively in the experi­
ment of basic design, but, if it results in appreciation of
the mechanics of art, it leaves the magic as mystery­
and for that we should be grateful.
To get under one's skin is a legitimate enough artistic
motive and at first acquaintance it seems as if Jim Dine,
the American artist having his first exhibition of
assemblage paintings at the Robert Fraser Gallery is
succeeding. My Tuxedo Makes and Impresses Blunt
Edge to the Light is the title of a work that in effect is
-partly-the thing it says it is. On two real wire hangers
a real jacket and a pair of trousers are suspended against
panels that are painted in oils to represent what could
be propeller shafts though the truncated legs of dress
dummies are also seen. To complete the picture a pair of
shoes rests on the floor in front of the trousers. The first
reaction is shock; the real objects are very real and
raise questions. But the questions remain unanswered.
We see the point of contact between the artist's work
and the tailor's: it is the hook of the hanger. But in the
one case the hook seems to be about to hang on the
drawn axle rod; in the other it is a few inches away.
Thus if Jim Dine is trying, as he appears to be, to make
the comparison of life and image a catalyst that releases
certain thoughts we are prepared to go along with him.
The process is purposeful if it can induce the hard
vacuum that stimulates urgent thought about our being
and its problems in the way a dentist can accidently
induce it when he is called away from the surgery and
leaves his patient with mouth open and full of iron­
mongery. The result is not quite like that. We come to
the conclusion that the artist is only half an artist in
traditional media; his greater impact is made by bringing
us face to face with reality. His art accentuates it here
but in Walking dream with a four foot clamp the
accessories make another dimension of thought beside
the collage girls' legs and drawn bulb and propeller
shafts. Nothing ingratiating in colour or texture
persuades us that the artist cares even to please himself
tactually or visually. Animation of the surface, by means
outside painting convention, brings what he does into
the realm of another kind of intellectual communication.
What is its purpose and what is its success it is perhaps
too early to say; its form is not yet finalised; the
language has not its syntax defined; it is not even clear
what context we read it in. Time will help us.
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