Page 43 - Studio International - April 1966

Below Josef Albers Structural Constellation 1964
Engraving in plastic 20 x 26 1/4 in. Gimpel Fils Gallery
Albers has described his approach as pragmatic
psychological engineering, based on the facts, as
known, of visual perception. Apart from his personal
achievement as an artist, his influence as an
educator—he was long associated with the
Bauhaus—has won him a unique position in
contemporary art.
Left Victor Vasarely Naini 1958
Oil on canvas 77 x 45 in. Hanover Gallery
Vasarely's objective re-examination of the visual cues
of space perception has sparked off a revolution in
European art in the past decade.
strong similarity between certain of his ideas and those
of Moholy-Nagy, but his work is mainly reminiscent of
the 'heroic' period of Constructivism.
The quieter current of Constructivism, which expressed
itself in a disciplined, rational approach to art, is, need-
less to say, not solely the province of Constructivists.
Artists like Victor Vasarely and Josef Albers have brought
a similar attitude to painting and have worked in an
empirical spirit that brings to mind the scientific under-
tones of Renaissance art. Both have based their work on a
re-examination of the spatial clues which underlie the
conventions of representation. From their findings they
devised vocabularies of such clues, which were used to
construct ambiguous or self-contradictory spatial experi-
ences. In their work, attention is shifted from the result of
an act of recognition to the procedure of recognition
itself. As a consequence the spectator is obliged to
organize his own activity in front of a painting in order
to assemble a whole experience.
Vasarely has had an enormous influence on the art of
the past decade. It is in great part due to his ideas and
example that a number of groups were formed who sought
to replace self-expression by the principle of objective
research. The formation of these groups, which was
almost entirely a European phenomenon, took place
too, no doubt, in reaction against the self-indulgence of
American informal painting. Best known is the Groupe
Recherche d'Art Visuel, which has been the principal agent
in uniting the others into a loosely knit movement
through the Nouvelle Tendence exhibitions.
Generally these groups have concentrated on perceptual
art, using the medium of construction as well as painting,
and have attempted to bring to their studios a detached
spirit of inquiry, making no claims for art, nor employing
traditional aesthetic criteria. But they have also ranged
widely over the whole gamut of post-Constructivist
forms: transformable art, kinetic forms, light projections,
etc. It is to their credit that they brought a breath of
fresh air to the then torpid situation in European art.
Their best work is characterized by an openness of
means to bring about an ingenious effect, as in the con-
structions of LeParc and Morellet of the Recherche group.
Indeed, ingenuity would come close to their notion of an
aesthetic criterion. On the debit side, however, their
flirtation with Neo-Dadaism and the growing emphasis
on theatrical effect and 'entertainment' in their exhibi-
tions suggests that they have lost some of the purity of
their original convictions. In any case one is inclined to
be sceptical about the staying-power of an aesthetic
doctrine in which almost any sort of conceptual response
is deemed non-visual.
Nicholas Schöffer Chronos 1
Kinetic construction Height 6 ft (approx)
One of a series executed in the middle fifties. Paddles spin in the
three mutually perpendicular planes while the object revolves as
a whole. A translucent screen is attached to the structure trapping
its many shadows and reflections.
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