Page 48 - Studio International - June 1965

1 positions. Certain forms-spiky or knifelike extensions, connotations. Now, his penchant for cylindrical com­
Joseph Goto
Number Twenty-Eight 1964/65 spiralling interior shapes, corolla and seed shapes, and position does not stem from his use of pipes and
Steel sexual allusions-are carried from one piece to boilers, but his use of boilers and pipes seems to stem
14¼ in. high
Stephen Radich Gallery another, enabling thoughtful critics to do a proper from a concept of cylindrical composition.
iconographical job on his themes. Even where clearly identifiable screws, nuts and bolts
2
Jose de Rivera It is true that Lipton has approached the grand themes appear, as they do in an excellent small piece where
Construction No. 88 1965 repeatedly, seeking to endow his work with ideographic they emerge from either side of an open cylinder, they
Bronze
10,l:x10x27in. significance. However, the themes themselves are not serve only to suggest sharply active forms in contrast
Grace Borgenicht Gallery
always sufficient. At times, Lipton allows a lapidary to the monumental calm of their steel enclosure.
3 instinct to obscure the power of his motifs. For instance, Stankiewicz also seems to be moving away from the
Seymour Lipton
The Ring 1863 he often breaks a broad movement by making just one openwork welding of his last show toward a compact,
Bronze on monel metal more inversion of form, just one fillip of the spiral too densely composed imagery. One piece, for instance,
41 in. high
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery many. He also makes a uniformly dull surface by is based on a rhythm of flared curves produced when
4 brazing his pieces identically. If Lipton is assessed several carefully shaped steel plates are fastened
J. Iqbal Geoffrey coolly, in terms of his sculptural accomplishment, he together. This piece is complicated but large, heavy
In Search of an Ideal Landscape
Oil on paper must be seen as an ambitious stylist whose literary but elegant. It exists in an imaginary rectangular con­
Greenross Gallery preoccupations sometimes get in his way. tainer, but holes and slits in the steel produce the
But the long years have inevitably strengthened his pierced, multiple spaces within.
hand and in this exhibition, there are several pieces of The astringent simplicity of his new pieces is softened
great merit. I think, for instance, of his two variations by Stankiewicz' wizardry with colour. That is, the pink
of The Ring with their great clapper-like shells secreting and orange rust is carefully designated to highlight
the rounded, life-containing shapes that discreetly certain forms. Where these lovely colours would
suggest his theme. I think also of the large and powerful detract, he either burnishes the natural steel or deadens
The Emptv Room with its masculine, bold lines and the surface. Regardless of the natural processes which
reminiscence of the sturdy ancient Chinese bronzes. produced these colours, Stankiewicz must be con­
Here Lipton constructs a great expanse of wall which sidered an exceptional sculptural colorist, using colour
1 /2

partly obscures and partly envelops a darkly suggestive endemically to emphasize significant forms.
rounded shape within. Above, a coil of fleshy forms Joseph Goto, another steel and iron man, works only
spawns a thrusting phallic image. The invitation to enter with the raw materials. forging and welding and sawing
this primitivistic sanctuary is compelling. Lipton has his way to a monumental style. His new works at the
fashioned an ambiguous object, a tower, a crypt, a Radich Gallery are hewn impressively from enormous
symbol of life-shelter, and given it the magical secrecy solids of steel. Goto has the impulses of a child, eager
that truly justifies the thematic approach of his critics. to thrust his hand into living clay and push the masses
Much younger, Richard Stankiewicz has nonetheless around. But the child's impulse to manipulate earthy
articulated a unique style stemming from his early matter is transformed by an adult's ambition to tame
experiments with assembled ready-made parts. In the untameable. Certainly by working thick masses of
his exhibition at the Stable Gallery, Stankiewicz intransigeant steel; by cutting through its dense
indicates his growing concern with simplicity and with structure; by forcing it to defy gravity and rise at strange
the relationship of forms regardless of their origins. angles, Goto moves into the promethean realm.
He still utilizes scrap iron and bits of found steel in As always, Goto does not depend only on the massive
composing, but he has long since destroyed their composition of solids, but welds ropey, curvilinear
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