Page 63 - Studio International - February 1965

New York Commentary

Robert Birmelin history and myth. It also gives a measure of Nakian's carousel made of baseballs, tops, inner tubes and
Dark Interior Ex1erior. 1963 ability to make subtle sub-compositions while still umbrellas, all strewn about with high-spirited disdain
Plastic paint. 78 x 70 in. holding to the frontal convention. for plastic purpose.
Stable Gallery
Quite another spirit is embodied in the plasters of In Agostini's sculptural equivalents of still-lifes and
Peter Agostini at the Radich Gallery. Agostini reminds imaginary monsters, there is no ruling principle. He is a
me of Aldous Huxley whose preoccupation with strictly empirical gamester. The metamorphic aspect of
pneumatic shapes led him to sketch several female form, oddly accented in the glazed white surfaces, is
characters with singularly pneumatic chassis. relegated to a seemingly gratuitous spirit of addition.
In Agostini, the inflated effect is given in plaster-casts The proliferation of bundles and balls becomes an
of inner tubes and rubber balls which are usually end in itself-an end which has its compelling quality
combined incongruously. Insistent sadistic notes (in and which bespeaks a robust iconoclasm.
the organic distortions and in the squeezed look of the Peter Chinni at the Royal Marks Gallery is an
turgid shapes) refer back to the su1-realist era when ambitious sculptor who finds the means to put a great
aggression was a programmatic end. But there are notes deal of what he models into bronze. Unhappily, what
of humour, too. Agostini is a notable slapstick he does is generally derivative, and is rarely handled
comedian in his plaster agglomerations. One of the well. His surfaces are monotonous, his sense of form
major pieces in his show was, in fact, an elaborate blunt, his compositions scaled badly. ■

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