Page 12 - Studio International - February 1966

Simplicity and inspired boredom

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

'It is interesting to observe that as technical simplicity-ltn aim that is very far removed affective, l'avenement lucide et positif d'un
applications have increased in complexity from anti-art (for which it could conceivably certain regne du sensible. Oette manifestation
with the passage of time, languages have be mistaken), or the sort of search for de synthese perceptive. sanctionne chez Yves
increased in simplicity, until today we are meaningful purity which exemplified the Klein la quete picturale d'une emotion
considering the ultimate compression of work of Malevich and some of the con­ extatique et immediatement communicable'.
information in the simplest possible forms' structivists. If their intention was involved 'l'he vernissage was enhanced by the burning
COLIN CHERRY, History of the Theory of with the capturing of an idea's essence of incense in the gallery which Jed Klein
Information. through the simplest pictorial means, Nart to decide that there is no smoke without
is nothing if not the opposite-it is really the fire. A fire brigade was duly called causing
In one of the Pataphysical journals it was negation of everything that art has hitherto such congestion that eventually police were
reported that in the Salon des Independents· stood for, it is the expression of disinvolve­ brought in to deal with the chaos. The
in Paris in the 1880's one of the exhibits ment. The sources of Nart are closer at evening was declared to have been a great
consisted of a completely blank picture. The hand than the heroic experiments of the success. What·is noteworthy here is that
unpainted canvas a,ppears to have been first two decades of-the 20th century. Its the exhibition was almost incidental in the
sent anonymously. Notwithstanding the lack ·recent precursors are the two heroes of the process of events which gave it such
of any information whatever that it might Zero group-YVES KLEIN and PIERO MANZONI, notoriety, and this is also true of the various
have conveyed visually, the title indicated both of whom died in the early 1960's. individual works by Klein, which like ideas
that it was a completely narrative work. It Whereas one is tempted to dismiss Nart thrown out into space became embedded
was called something like this: 'The sea had as an attitude which has yet to prove its in our memory by the events they provoked.
receded, the Jews had passed, and the seriousness of intent, the work and ideas of In 1957 Manzoni started producing a series
Egyptians hadn't come yet'. both Klein and Manzoni, as well as being of totally white paintings to which he
Despite the total lack of image, this highly idiosyncratic, are remarkable visually referred as 'achromes' or 'zones of con­
painting, since it obviously tells a story on and intellectually. Klein aimed at what he fluence'. His varied and. often inspired
the level of an epic, is only deceptively described as 'peinture immaterielle'. His excursions into the realm of the absurd (see
simple. No such sophisticated imaginative overall electric blue pictures and sponges his Immediate Projects opposite)-signing his.
extravaganza would come under the (Yves Klein blue is still available on order name on naked girls, conserving his· own
category of Nart-a term coined recently by from Iris Clert), his experiments with live breath in balloon sculptures, and con­
Mario Amaya to describe the type of paint brushes (nude girls covered in paint secrll,ting eggs with his fingerprints, have
creative activity which reduces the personal making impressions on the canvas with aptly or otherwise been submitted since the
and idiosyncratic element to the minimum. their bodies according to the artists' instruc­ artist's death to a strange memorial volume
A Nart picture could well be a blank one tions), ventured to extend the process and -Piero Manzoni: life and works by Jes
(untitled); a Nart exhibition as envisaged function of painting into hithe�o un­ Petersen (Verlag Petersen Press, Flensburg/
by Amaya might consist of objects ordered explored realms. Calling himself Le Gliicksburg 1963). 'fhe volume consists of
on the telephone from a carpenter and Monochrome, Klein saw the artist of the 60 absolutely empty blank pages of dear
painted white as �he most neutral colour, future expressing himself eternally through acetate.
with the size and shape of objects either an immense picture which would have no In view of the SOI't of contributions made
specified or just left to the imagination of dimension whatsoever. It is in this context during the 1950's by Klein and Manzoni,
the carpenter. The obvious result that the that he was preoccupied with the notion of perhaps it is not a coincidence that the most
artists would fail to recognise their own the immaterial and the void: 'Pour avant-garde group in Diisseldorf and its
remote-control works when those did appear satisfaire la sensualite de mon esprit, je equivalent in Holland called themselves
in the exhibition is simply a part of what consomme chaque instant de ma vie de Zero and Nul respectively.
Nart is all about. l'espace de l'immateriel et du Vide'. Concern with simplicity may assume many
The idea as such is not new, of course, but Klein's most talked about exhibition was contradictory guises. To what extent, for
although it was voiced by the Dadaists held in Paris in the late 1950'.s, and instance, can we infer something about
nearly forty years ago, today it must be consisted solely of the gallery whitewashed simplicity as a process of reduction from
seen in a rather different context. Nart personally by the artist. ·The invitation to artists as different as AD REINHARDT,
might be considered as a logical conclusion the show read as follows: 'Iris Glert vous ELLSWORTH KELLY and ANDY WARHOL?
to either an ideal or mistaken quest for convie a honorer, de toute votre presence In the case of Reinhardt the game of hide

Contributors to this issue

Jasia Reichardt, who will be contributing a monthly Robin Campbell of the Arts Council was responsible, 'A kind of informality', in which David Sylvester, the
Comment to Studio International, is assistant director with David Sylvester, for the organisation and art critic, Andrew Forge, head of Goldsmiths' College
of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and very much installation of the retrospective exhibition of of Art department of painting. and Michael Podro,
involved with the sort of manifestations which Giacometti's work held at the Tate last year. head of the History of Art Department at Camberwell
bridge the gap between different creative activities. School of Arts and Crafts, talk about the work of
Charles Harrison, who has lectured at the Bath Pierre Bonnard. was originally broadcast on the
Robert Hughes, an Australian critic who divides his Academy of Art, Corsham, is researching on British BBC Third Programme on January 12.
time between England and Italy, frequently takes painting and sculpture between the wars.
part in radio and television programmes on the arts.
He is completing a book on the non-rational
in painting.

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