Page 18 - Studio International - February 1965

Artist in the landscape

Andre Bloc, one of France's 0utstanding sculptors, offers What are your thoughts on the part played by the artist
his views in reply to some pointed questions relating to the in present-day society? Do you think that he partici­
role of the artist in modern architecture pates effectively in the harmonious development of the
contemporary world ?
If one were to believe the witness of the countless
articles devoted to various aspects of contemporary art:
Salons, Biennials, individual or group exhibitions, one
would decide that artists played an important part in
modern life. In fact. for most of them it is a question of
1 __ living or, rather, of keeping alive. The most shrewd-and
2 sometimes the most noteworthy-take the lead and
succeed in interesting the major collectors and the
museums and galleries in their works. If they are selected
fm the great international exhibitions, still more if they
receive awards, their 'market value' quickly rises until it
sometimes reaches an unjustified level.
Genius and talent are qualities that time alone can reveal,
and reveal slowly; judgments are subject to revision,
but initially widespread publicity is essential, and
publicity is linked to the activity of presumed impartial
critics and those dealers who are thought to be
competent.
Frequently mistakes are made and the shrewd artist has
a better chance of success than the others. This is the
reason for the slow road to suc;:cess of some truly
creative artists after or shortly before their deaths, whilst
other, and lesser, 'discoveries· do not suffer the same
process.
Whatever the reasons may be, artists' works, whether
excellent, mediocre or plain bad, eventually silt up in the
withdrawn territory of collections and then museums.
Their names are known to the so-called cultured public
-those who live in the most select districts, or the
hangers-on around St Germain des Pres: Pollock,
Kline, Hartung, Dubuffet, or even Kandinsky and
Mondrian are names they bandy about with apparent
ease. Picasso has achieved popular recognition; but for
most people, 'Picasso' is no more than a symbolic name
-shorthand or a simple catchword for questions of
which they have no real knowledge. To put it shortly:
contemporary artists take no practical part in the life of
their own times.

You have always behaved differently from your
colleagues in trying to associate your work with
problems of architecture and even of urban growth.
Perhaps you could now explain your intentions.
I have been associated for some years now with an
architectural review, and I have been able to confirm the
overall existence of a certain ossification in architectural
design. There are some magnificent examples which
stand out as landmarks of the century in this field. But
they are rare, and the genius of some leading spirits:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies van der
Rohe, and the quality achieved by one, or not more than
two, dozen exceptional individuals at the most, seem
special cases in the immense sea of mediocrity that is
contemporary architecture. The great men who really
achieved something new are dead or grown old. There
are attempts to form new movements, but never-in the
whole of human history-has there been evident so
great a poverty of conception, so extreme an ignorance
and so much vulgarity in architecture and in urban
planning and design. Those who come after us will
inherit atrocious urban settings, despite the noteworthy
elements thinly scattered among the mass of buildings.
You will call me a pessimist; you will be quite wrong.
This weakness of ours is displayed in our blind respect for
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