Page 16 - Studio International - June 1966

Potted Art

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

Max Bense pointed out that the aesthetic subject of such frequent discussion if it were is adopted to a lesser or greater extent in all
quotient of any work of art is dependent on not for the fact that at no other time has these journals, and in this respect one is
the ratio of two separate entities: originality contemporary art been documented and struck by the obvious analogy between art
and aesthetic information. Originality alone written about with such eagerness and so magazines and women's magazines. Most art
is unacceptable since it fails to provide the set extensively as it is today. periodicals attempt in some way to give the
of references which one recognizes and which There are approximately twenty art maga­ reader a potted overall impression of 'art
allow the viewer to come to terms with the zines devoted to the international coverage of now'. This is useful but boring. The excep­
work. These necessary references are supplied professional contemporary art with an tional, inspired, and thorough article on any
by what Bense calls aesthetic information or international circulation. They include: art subject is as frequent in art magazines as
style. Where aesthetic information exceeds the Aujourd'hui Arte Oggi it is in New Yorker, or any other periodical
basic minimum, it becomes redundant-like Cimaise Arts Review which carries occasional art pieces.
ballast, its application can be seen as being l'Oeil Art & Artists Art magazines start in belated response to a
purely functional and thereby expendable. Kunsten Idag Studio International need. The need is usually felt by artists and
Where the ratio of aesthetic information is Billedkunst Art in America those involved, and it is to the latter as well
higher than originality in any given work, the Paletten Art News as to the art consumers that art magazines
particular work is likely to leave a great deal Das Kunstwerk Arts usually address themselves. In a strange way
to be desired. Konstrevy Vary Art International this need is never satisfied because the object
One could apply a similar system of analysis Canadian Art Ariforum one dreams of in a vague way (no artist has
to any piece of writing. If, for instance, one Quadrum It is so far produced a formula for an ideal maga­
adopts the term 'content' for originality and M.etro Collage zine) would be a mixture of erudition,
'style' for aesthetic information, then the and others. Any devout reader of art litera­ opinion, humour, and philosophy, inter­
value of the work also depends on the ratio ture can sit down approximately once a spersed with first-class colour reproductions­
of one to the other. The sort of writing month to a pile of current art magazines something either so specialized or so expensive
which would get very low marks here is quite which would be no less than nine inches high. that, short of it being run by an idealist with
obviously art criticism, or more accurately What is striking about these publications is extensive backing, it is unlikely that such a
art journalism. not the differences between them, but their journal would ever appear on the market.
Let me put forward some plausible reasons similarities in content, scope, and layout. When, in the late fifties and early sixties, the
or excuses for this state of affairs. There are There appears to be a certain formula which need for a magazine in England was dis-
considerable difficulties in writing at length
about abstract paintings, however good,
which are not based on any programme,
obvious source material, or special use of
media, and furthermore do not belong to any
movement or trend. (This is one of the reasons
why some excellent work is not adequately
covered, while something not so worth while
but easier to write about is.) Secondly, writers
on art are paid by the number of words they
produce and not by the number of ideas or
original statements they put forward. Thirdly,
the art jargon, the mistaken passport to
erudition, has evolved like an uncontrollable
growth which often assumes such dense
proportions that it tends to obscure the issue.
Art writing is often justly dismissed for
obscurantism, boredom, extravagant claims,
and lack of the sort of meaningful simplicity
which makes Baudelaire a revelation. If this
does not apply to all writing on art, it
probably justly applies to 80 per cent of it.
The merits of criticism would not be the

Contributors to this issue Charles S. Spencer writes on art for several journals and Edward Lucie-Smith, poet and critic, contribute
and reports on art in Britain for the New York Times. regular Commentaries to Studio International.
Jasia Reichardt, who contributes a monthly Comment David Thompson, a member of the British Council's Andrew Forge, head of Goldsmiths' College of Art
to Studio International, is assistant director of the selection panel for this year's Venice Biennale, was department of painting, contributes to The Listener,
Institute of Contemporary Arts. formerly art critic of The Times and now writes regu­ Studio International and other journals, and frequently
larly for Queen magazine and Studio International. He takes part In radio programmes connected with the
Sir Roland Penrose, chairman of the Institute of Con­ has also worked in television and the theatre as well arts. Richard Hamilton, the painter, is head of the
temporary Arts. was, with Sir Herbert Read and as writing art criticism. In 1962 his film on Francis department of painting at Newcastle University; he
others, one of the founders of the I.C.A. in 1947. He Bacon was shown by the London Film Festival, and has been a seminal background figure In the evolu­
has played a key role in promoting the visual arts In another on Turner, produced for the Arts Council, is tion of art in Britain during the last ten years, and was
Britain, and was responsible for the first Surrealist to be released in June. the first artist to formulate,the philosophy of Pop art.
exhibition held in London (in 1936) and the Guernica He has made an intensive study of Duchamp's work,
exhibition (1938), and organized the Tate Gallery Dore Ashton, the American writer and critic, whose and has helped organize the Tate retrospective.
retrospectives of Picasso, Max Ernst, and Miro. interview with Marcel Duchamp appears in this Issue,
226