Page 55 - Studio International - October 1965

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Cesar who then admitted that he had lost all inspiration The largest and most important work by D'Haese is
and for about two years he hardly worked at all. But entitled The Song of Evil. This is a 'museum· piece for
now we can see. at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. that I can hardly imagine any art collector finding a place
he has come back to the fore with renewed strength for it in his private home-unless it stood in an immense
exhibiting works which are much more powerful and hallway such as that of Mr. Gulbenkian·s huge house in
original than his former compressed automobile body­ Paris. The Song of Evil represents a wierd. dislocated
works which. in their repetition. became boring. Now figure of a man sitting on an animal which is a cross
he is working actively on what he terms reliefs. These between a cow and a horse !
are two dimensional compositions of the junk and Tinguely is the third artist exhibiting at the Musee
dustbin order formed of assorted scraps of various kinds des Arts Decoratifs. He has become so successful with
of metal. Cesar is inclined to have a sarcastic turn of his international exhibitions of entertaining electronic
mind but which can simply be a twisted sense of mobiles. and so much has been written about his
humour as in his relief entitled Portrait of Patrick Wald­ activities. that it is hardly necessary to refer again to
berg, the art historian. which is reproduced here. him here. The Tinguely section is fascinating for those
Roel D'Haese. perhaps the lesser known of these three who are little acquainted with his mobiles. for any
sculptors. is equally original and inventive in his work. visitor can place his foot on a pedal lying on the floor
Like Cesar. he is inclined to 'decompose· his composi­ which starts the electrically controlled motor to move.
tions. There is a break. a tear. a twist in most of his I regret only that there are not more of his remarkable
figures. His is a strange. informal expression of sculpture little pen-and-ink sketches for some of his machines
which is difficult to define. He forms weird figures. on exhibit. His delicate detailed drawings for his
some of which remind one of the fantastic little people Bascule No. 5 remind one of the extraordinary studies
that appear in the compositions of Bosch, in gilded by Leonardo da Vinci for cannons and engines of war.
beaten sheet-metal joined at the joints with wax. The Tinguely himself is full of wit and humour and his
most appealing and amusing of his pieces on view at the mobiles are hilarious in character. But to see these
Musee des Arts Decoratifs is his Infant Prodigv. small. studied sketches alongside his frenzied mobiles

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