Page 59 - Studio International - August 1965

New York Commentary

the Cubist approach. Yet Martin's bold composing the opportunity to bring to the East the work of West
and his candy-bright colours give a strange, original Coast artists never before seen here.
flair to his work. This is particularly valuable in the case of sculpture.
Al Held exhibits the 30 foot Genesis, previously dis­ Prof. Andersen has summarized accurately the West
cussed in this column, and a new painting which con­ Coast tendency to revive surrealism. Many of the most
sists of a plane of thick white, spatially determined by commanding works are wild and woolly compositions
two miniscule coloured triangles, one at top, and one in the surrealist tradition of free association. Artists,
slightly off-centre at bottom. By using the two small particularly from the San Francisco area, have leaped

View of the exhibition 'Concrete forms, which describe an invisible plane, Held com­ into the great recesses of the imagination and brought
Expressionism' at New York
University. showing paintings by. plicates what would normally be a pristine white space. forth amusing monsters of disassociation. Some of the
left to right: Ronald Bladen, Knox Mr. Sandler has chosen these artists partly because sculptures are composed of plaster and fibreglass, some
Martin, and Ronald Bladen;
sculptures by George Sugarman they all, in one way or another, carry forward the of plastic and wood, and most are brightly painted,
abstract expressionist tradition, and partly because in often with mysterious symbols, or fragments of funny­
their rugged individualism, they have refused to be paper humans.
seduced by current demands of 'trendmakers'. For this, Andersen also represents another current interest on
he is to be congratulated. the West Coast-the interest in fired clay sculpture,
Congratulations and reproaches are both in order for stimulated by Peter Voulkos. An excellent example is
Professor Wayne Andersen of Massachusetts Institute provided by Stephen de Staebler, whose earthy-looking
of Technology, and Brian O'Doherty, editor of Show reclining masses of fired clay give a sense of timeless
Magazine, who helped American Express to put on the depth lacking in most of the other exhibits.
exhibition 'Art, 1 965' at the New York World's Fair. O'Doherty remarks that much of the work in his
It is well known that such events never come out selection of paintings has a 'neo-Revlon' look, and I
properly. The commercial motives of a big company think he is right. The shiny paint and flat statement
inevitably intervene and dignity flies out the window. tendency is visible not only in certain sculptures, but
Such was the case here, where after making grand in many of the paintings on view.
statements of their sober duty in presenting the work Since he was concentrating on unknown or lesser
by unknown or lesser known artists, without prejudice, known painters, O'Doherty's selection appears par­
American Express took fright and withdrew some eight ticularly jumpy. It ranges from a dreadful representa­
paintings selected by O'Doherty. In addition, the work tional painting by Andrew Wyeths's son, Jamie, to a
is not well exhibited massed together without rhyme group of abstractions from Ireland, the only foreign
or reason in quarters not calculated to make works of country represented. In between there are semi­
art live. The public can wander through indifferently, surrealist drawings and paintings, and California­
baffled not only by the work, but by the mish-mash style extractions from the illustration and comic-book
installation. tradition. Then there are a few clean-edged offerings,
Still, as I said. congratulations are in order. The fact not particularly distinguished, and some prints and
is that the show renders us a service, no matter how drawings that look, for the most part. like the com­
inadequately. For both Andersen and O'Doherty took petent but ordinary products of graduate schools. ■
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