Page 14 - Studio International - December1996

Structures / Objects /Assemblages

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

What are 'Structures' as an art idiom? to a three-dimensional work by Tinguely.
Neither dictionaries, nor the exhibition Even, however, within the categories and
under this title, provide a ready answer. range put forward by the structures
The catalogue introduction suggests that the exhibition there are a number of works
exhibits belong somewhere in that uneasy which evade these stylistic criteria and
category between painting and sculpture, which nevertheless play an important role
and this idea is stressed by the fact that a in the show. These particular works
number of artists who had hitherto represent the cross currents between
concentrated on the use of paint and canvas, structures and other three-dimensional
turned to constructing, welding and manifestations like assemblages and objects—
moulding when the exhibition was e.g. the plexiglass box by Allen Jones with
announced by the Welsh Committee of the overtones of figurative whimsy and the
Arts Council and the National Museum of movable wall construction by Victor
Wales. The exhibition was held in Cardiff Newsome which carries definite surrealist
last summer, and after touring Swansea and associations.
Bangor arrived in a modified form at the If 'Structures' is a misnomer, it has on the
ARTS COUNCIL GALLERIES in London in positive side opened such vast territory for
October. 81 exhibits were chosen from the the exploration of the use of three dimen-
original 600 entries, of which 30 of the sions in art, that it has provoked some
more readily transportable works were strange if tentative encounters between
shown in London. half-baked ideas. This ultimately might be
The fact that the general standard was more important than an exposition of very
uninspiring, to say the least, is perhaps fine works in a certain idiom, with a
irrelevant to the enquiry about the exact beginning, a middle, and an end, each
criteria which one can arrive at on the built in with an explicit message.
basis of this show. Nor is it possible to draw It is difficult to make realistic distinctions
clear distinctions between sculpture and between structures, objects, and assemblages—
structure (despite the predominance of the that the element of radicalism that could three disciplines or anti-disciplines, which
formal or geometric element) ; and the possibly launch 'structures' as a seminal fall between the various hitherto clearly-
significance of this particular idiom as a movement was lacking. Generally the works defined categories. Roughly speaking,
phenomenon of the 1960's (despite the fact gathered under this umbrella show the objects associate themselves with surrealism,
that all the works are very recent). The predominance of certain qualities which assemblages with Dada, and structures with
reason for the latter has something to do could be described as follows: systematic constructivism.
with the fact that an idiom which becomes organization of formal elements, precision, In the category of objects which are either
mainstream at any particular moment in use of mixed media and chromatic colour. assisted, as in the case of Man Ray,
history is involved with a retrospective Essentially, structures belong to the unassisted—Duchamp, or recreated—
rather than a current comment. The constructivist tradition as opposed to Warhol, the intentions motivating their
essential style of any period derives from another, better 'known, idiom which' also creation are as different as those underlying
experimental pioneering rather than falls between a number of categories—the any oddly assorted art movement. Man Ray,
mainstream art, as well as the design of more literary, intuitive, and expressionist, whose best known work of this type is his
utilitarian articles, fashion, furniture and idiom of assemblage. Thus when referring ironic Cadeau (1921) —an iron with a row of
other equipment and very little in between. to structures one would more readily think nails attached to the base which would
This does not mean to imply that the of a relief by Tomasello rather than a render its utilitarian function completely
element of experimentation was absent sculpture by Schwitters, or a plexiglass unrealistic—has throughout his life produced
from the structures exhibition, but simply construction by Bruno Munari as opposed imaginary objects which look as if they

Contributors to this issue Miriam and Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Patrick Heron had his first London one-man show in
Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, and Herbert Read, 1947. Since then he has had seven one-man shows at
Jasia Reichardt assistant director of the Institute were friends of Mondrian and lived near him in the Redfern Gallery, and five at the Waddington
of Contemporary Arts, Edward Lucie-Smith, poet and Hampstead. Gallery. In 1965 he shared the British pavilion at the
critic, and Charles S. Spencer, who writes on art in Sao Paulo Bienal with Victor Pasmore. He is to have a
Britain for the New York Times, are regular contribu- David Sylvester has been working on a monograph retrospective at the Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh,
tors to Studio International. and a film on Giacometti. He is visiting lecturer at next July, and a major show at the Kunstnernef Haus,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Royal Oslo, in the autumn.
Charles Harrison is researching on British painting College of Art, and art advisor to The Sunday Times
and sculpture between the wars. He has assisted with Magazine. Andrew Forge, head of Goldsmiths' College of Art
the editing of the features on Mondrian in this issue. department of painting, contributes to The Listener