Page 54 - Studio International - July 1966

The 'anti-compositional attitude' in sculpture

New York commentary by Dore Ashton

An artist quoted in the catalogue of the JEWISH MUSEUM'S `The work is often architectonic, if not architectural.
provocative sculpture exhibition, Primary structures, sees Most of the sculptures do not use base or pedestal, some
the sculpture situation with lyrical exhilaration: 'There are oriented to the walls, and some even to the ceiling.
is a certain madness, a relinquishing of control in the air The artist feels free to utilize and activate the space of a
now.' Another sees no madness at all, but, on the con- room or the outdoors according to the necessity of the
trary, a controlled situation in which sculpture is 'strictly work... Generally bright vibrant colour is in evi-
conceptual' with its form fully determined before the dence... The structures are conceived as "objects",
work begins. abstract, directly experienced, highly simplified and self-
In these two statements, and quite a few others, the contained ... The structures are generally not "composi-
initial premise of the show is inevitably scuttled. No tions"... The sculpture has benefited from modern
doubt in selecting Primary structures curator Kynaston technology and industry. The sculptor can now conceive
McShine had something specific in mind, but when the his work, and entrust its execution to a manufacturer...'
ensemble of works, largely by younger artists, is viewed, Of all these points, most of which are well taken, there
all thought of guiding principle, of a new aesthetic, are two which demand argument. The first is the idea
vanishes. At best the show offers an index of what younger that the sculptures are conceived as 'objects'. It is self-
sculptors are up to lately. evident that any sculpture is conceived as an object, as a
The few generalizations that might hold for certain of presence in space. The quality sought by a few artists—
the artists are noted in McShine's introduction where he the objectness which is stamped by similitude to industrial
observes that much recent sculpture challenges the tradi- modules—is only different from qualities in other sculp-
tional rigid categories. He makes the following points: tures in its means, not its ends. No matter how immaterial
a sculpture may be (Larry Bell's elegant mirror boxes
or Dan Flavin's fluorescent light sculptures), it func-
tions as an object apprehended in space. Special pleading
for this principle is gratuitous and adds nothing to the
formation of a new aesthetic.
Another dubious principle, stressed by several of the
participating artists, is articulated as an insistence on the
`structural' rather than the 'compositional' character of
the works. By definition a structure is an arrangement of
parts in relation to a whole. A structure, even a primary
structure, is always composed. Even if a sculpture con-
sisted of a single wire bent into positions, the bends would
provide elements for composing.
The whole anti-compositional attitude suffers from lack
of clarity. Asymmetrical or positively symmetrical com-
posing do not necessarily imply something different,
something structural. I understand that when sculptors
speak against composition, they are speaking against
tradition, in favour of what they like to think of as con-
ceptual aesthetics. But even the most uncompromising
`structurists' must set limits and compose. Again, this
unnecessary hypothesis only obscures the problems and
Above
Ronald Bladen makes for tendentious rhetoric. The works themselves
Untitled 1966 fail to reveal a definition of a primary structure.
Painted aluminium and wood
108x 48x 120 in. Many of the sculptures on view make capital on the am-
Primary structures exhibition biguities produced when gravity is contradicted. Cer-
at the Jewish Museum tainly the most overwhelming statement of this sort is
Roland Bladen's group of three identical elements—
Right
Anthony Smith towering shapes that tilt to the winds, punctuating space
Free ride 1962 like huge notes in ancient antiphonals or Easter Island
Steel
BO x 80 x 80in. heads. Bladen has faced his leaning towers with alumi-
Primary structures exhibition nium—dimly glowing surfaces that from certain views
at the Jewish Museum flatten his elements and provide pictorial accents. But the
overall impression of these three measured forms leaning
against nothingness is of a powerful architectonic nature.
I can see no difference between the experience in nego-
tiating these shapes and the experience of wandering
amongst the identical columns in Paestum, despite the
arguments for Bladen's structurism and the suggestion
that this is something other than an orthodox monolithic
displacement of space.
The use of identical elements in modular sequence is