Page 47 - Studio International - April 1966

Transformable art about by movement of the spectator—where sometimes
Every change in style has brought about a change in the slight movement is amplified into striking change, or
nature of the response to a work of art. When the artist through the spectator's purposeful rearrangement (spec-
takes a new step the spectator may have to discover tator-participation), or where the object's own movement
anew how to respond. This is probably only a truism, but changes its appearance other than in the ordinary sense.
the attempt to assess changes in art in terms of changes in Duchamp's Rotoreliefs are an excellent example of the last
the spectator's role can be instructive. The network of category; rotatory movement is transformed into the
relations between artist and spectator is an intricate sensation of depth perception. It should be clear from the
thing of the utmost sensitivity, and in the art of the above description that this form overlaps kinetic art to a
twentieth century it has been constantly probed and re- great extent, and is closely entangled with optical art.
made. 'Transformable art' twangs an odd note in this Agam's work is the clearest example of transformability
relationship, for in a way it makes the spectator's role in its most straightforward sense. He paints on surfaces
into either that of the artist's victim or his accomplice. corrugated in triangular section—like accordion bellows—
Not everybody agrees as to what should be called so that only half the strips are seen on one side. To see the
`transformable art'. I shall use the term to refer to work other half the spectator must move across the face of the
in which a significant change of appearance is brought picture. There is a degree of continuity in the change as

Yaacov Agam Tableau Polyphonic: Cycle 1962-3 28 x 37 in.
Collection: Mr and Mrs William H. Weintraub, New York
Agam's work presents the classic example of transformable art
with no hint of perceptual entanglements. By means of triangular
sectioned fluting in vertical array, two or more images can be
made to appear separately, or to merge, according to the
spectator's position.

Jesus-Rafael Soto Grand Relations: Vibrations structure of fine lines. The result: Vibration. The
1965 Collection: Signals, London work flickers, jumps, does odd things. Soto aims
Black squares, 24 blue squares to create an art of pure relationships.
Squares suspended against a vertical periodic

the two images, usually simple exercises in decorative
geometry, intermingle. More continuity is achieved in
Carlos Cruz-Diez's works, which similarly change along
the left-right axis. His ingenious physical medium—the
surface is ribbed with coloured vertical fins, sometimes
transparent—allows moire effects to come into play, and
the fugitive atmospheric images brought about are partly
the result of the dissolution of the surface as a palpable
entity. This is even more marked in the Vibrations of his
countryman, Jesus-Rafael Soto, whose work has both the
strength and weakness of a truly one-idea'd art. It is based
on the optical effect produced by combining rectangular
shapes, diagonal lines, or other elements, with a vertical
periodic structure of fine lines. The result is startling; the
surface flickers, jumps, does other odd things. It provides
a precise illustration of the entanglement of transform-