Page 38 - Studio International - September 1965

Assemblage: The Savage Eye of Edward Kienholz

by John Coplans

The spirit of anti-art manifest in Dada and never since Kienholz extends this type of dislocation of the
completely absent from contemporary art derives from a object even further in scale in his series of tableaux. His
conception of the role of art which had been taking virulent and vulgar reconstruction of Roxy·s. a Las
firm hold throughout the 19th century. This conception Vegas World War 11 whorehouse. complete with period
presumes a discrete esthetic and psychic distance that furniture, carpets. knicknacks and the various inhabit­
the work of art must maintain. It must aspire to the non­ ants. goes beyond the boundary of a large piece of
functional, it must be a self-contained esthetic unity sculpture. or even, for example, the environmental
which will be uplifting. One of the reasons that sculpture of Louise Nevelson. This tableau. to be
assemblage was a studio-art for so long, rather than a coherently seen. requires a room to itself-the art in
collector's art was because in its very nature it violated effect moves the collector out of the house. If there is
all the propositions of this conception. As such. it can such a thing as an anti-art attitude, rather than a
be seen as the natural vehicle for that aspect of the anti­ conventional pretence, this is surely it!
art spirit which is directed at just this view of art. Kienholz can only be said to have developed a
An actual chair, instead of a painted chair, already stylistic look in that he avoids as much as possible a
breaks the discrete velvet cord between artist and ritualisation of style. He refuses to delineate a symbolic
viewer. A large, ugly medicine ball stuck in the middle frame of reference in which to operate-the total
of the seat becomes downright offensive, and the experiential world becomes his subject matter. Nor
irritatingly vulgar title I'm Not a Fig-Plucker, Nor a Fig­ has he a formalised plastic and esthetic frame of
Plucker's Son, but /'II Pluck Your Figs 'Ti/ a Fig-Plucker reference; he is able to deal with things that most
Comes takes us completely out of the realm of art. artists will shy away from because formal solutions
Perhaps even more than Rauschenberg, who seems are wide open-there is no esthetic bar between
incapable of ever eliminating the patina of elegance Kienholz and any conceivable media. and. more
from even his most raucous work, Kienholz has made the important. perhaps no technical one.
'inconvenient work of art' his very own. His recognisable characteristics of style emerge more

1 2

1
Untitled or.
I'm not a Fig-Plucker . nor a Fig-Plucker s son.
but I'll pluck vour figs · til a Fig-Plucker comes.
1963. Mixed media sculpture.
37 x 34 x 30 in. Dwan Gallery. Los Angeles
2
The friendly grey computer-star gauge model 54.
1965. Mixed media sculpture.
39 in. high x 36 in. wide x 46 in. de,ap. Dwan Gallery. Los Angeles
3
Backseat Dodge 38
1964. Mixed Media Tableau
20 ft. wide x 12 ft. deep x 5!, ft. high. Dwan Gallery. Los Angeles
112