Page 25 - Studio International - November 1965

American Sculpture in Paris

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PHOTOS: MARIANNE ADELMANN

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Lee Bontecou's stern Form in metal and canvas stands
up best to the strange milieu. It loomed up as I entered.
an ineffable primitive presence. remote from all that
surrounded it and inviolate. Bontecou in this piece
contrasts a tan chamois-like surface with blacks and
greys, expanding the spatial illusion by tone contrasts.
Clearly the organizers of this exhibition attempted to
include as many modes and personalities as possible.
In Rene d'Harnancourt's foreword. he points proudly
to the fact that we have no personality dominating
sculpture as they did in France when Rodin was alive.
This is patently true. not only in this exhibition. but in
the entire American situation at present. Not only is
there no single personality shaping the thrust of
American sculpture. but there is no one prepared to
say just what sculpture is at present. A work such as
Claes Oldenburg's soft telephone in vinyl is considered
sculpture as is Robert Mallary·s hanging effigy in
polyester, sand 'and etc'. as they note in the catalogue.
I couldn't help making unfair comparisons between
the Musee Rodin show and the striking exhibition of
masterpieces in the collection of the Musee de
l'Homme. The large feeling conveyed in certain African
and Mexican sculptures is nowhere matched in the
American show. Even those sculptures designed to
inspire discomfort or even fear-sculptures with sur­
realist overtones-seem like child's play when compared
with a Mambara animal or a Cameroun mask. Some­
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thing bold. passionate, ineffably large has disappeared
in modern sculpture.
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