Page 40 - Studio International - November 1965

The 4th Biennale of Paris

1 by Georges Orley 2
In its fourth manifestation. the Biennale de Paris Given the impossibility of a common level of achieve­
justifies its existence as much for its negative qualities ment in 14 countries not to say 54. there does appear
as its positive achievements. Fifty-four countries a spreading infection of non-exclusive imagery that
participate in the emission of paintings, drawings, overall suggests a depressing proliferation of new
sculpture. prints and travaux d'equipe, the last-named figuration stemming it seems from adaptation of
being one of the most successful categories established partly-digested gleanings of Francis Bacon. Dubuffet.
since the inception. This year the foreign award for Goya and Roy Lichtenstein in varying degrees. Painting
group projects went to Great Britain. earned jointly by in its plastic purity has lost. for most young artists on
students of the Royal College of Art. London. and the evidence here produced, a great deal of its material
Newcastle University. attraction. Colour has become distorted or overlaid

with drawing or used in tints that have commercial
associations or is applied as it comes in paper collages.
The result generally is a flatness and a degree of
stillness in contrasts. Exceptions are Yvan Theys of
Belgium who has painted a large canvas described as
a tryptique after the central panel of the Holy Lamb by
Jan van Eyck in the Church of St. Bavon. Ghent. In its
large abstracted masses of colour it gives a moving
effect that divorces it from the original. Kimmo
Kaivanto of Finland in large informal oils carries the
presence of winter through dark hatchings that
become the shadows of leafless trees.
Figures having clean cut profiles with no kinship to
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