Page 48 - Studio International - April 1966

able art with optical art, for the work is lifeless until is given. Consider a spectrum whose shades represent the
powered by the spectator's movement. What I find parti- degrees of freedom of the spectator's choice. If spectator-
cularly interesting in the work of these two men, and participation is at one end, surely at the other end we
others, like Yvaral of the Recherche group, is that one would find the art of trompe l'oeil. Here the artist brings
cannot quite tell what one is looking at; it is difficult to about a state of belief which, though temporary, is one
form an image in one's mind of the physical object re- over which the spectator exercises no control. He makes
sponsible for the sensation. This gives a new, novel twist no choice; his response is wrung from him. The kick
to Tatlin's 'real object in real space', for, having become comes from knowing that he has been fooled, and if the
more concrete through the stripping away of external calling card or the bit of string turn out to be real, he has
reference, the art object is now dissolved into a mechanism been doubly fooled. One questions whether this kick is
for producing disembodied sensation. sufficient to constitute aesthetic response. It is worth
noting here, too, the similarity between trompe l'oeil and
Spectator participation the more monolithic forms of optical art. They have in
The form which has introduced the most revolutionary common this limitation on the spectator's choice.
change in the spectator's role is that of spectator-partici- In omitting kinetic art, and in passing so quickly over
pation. It is a doctrine that has been lurking in the wings the broad front of experimentation that comprises the
for some time without finding a sufficiently serious or Nouvelles Tendences, I have scarcely done justice to the
dedicated exponent. Artists like Agam, Tinguely, Munari multiplicity of directions which I believe owe something
and others have touched on it, but Karl Gerstner's efforts to historical Constructivism. Nor have I been fair at the
in this field appear the most promising. His Carro 64 other end. The programme of the Bauhaus provided a
strikes an intelligent balance between the artist's prede- systematic development of many of the ideological
Karl Gerstner termined structure and the spectator's freedom of choice. threads whose contribution to the character of these
Carro 64
Cubes in colour which give Yet even here the option is so wide that a natural doubt directions can hardly be overestimated. The promise and
rise to an enormous number arises as to its validity as an art form, and such doubts the exceptional vitality of current art owes a considerable
of permutations. The link arise, too, at the other end of the scale, where no option debt to the past. q
between the artist and
spectator—the structure
embedded in the object by
the artist—has been stretched
almostto the point of
non-existence. Perhaps it is
only a superbly-designed toy.