Page 25 - Studio International - June 1966

or may not have become in the last few years as important extremes lies a whole new concern with illusionistic
a creative centre as New York. But the claim is often techniques in the treatment of space which is particu-
made, not even in a particularly chauvinistic spirit, that larly characteristic of British art at the moment. But
it has done so, and Venice this year is an obvious place to without wanting to over-stress affinities within the group,
present the evidence for such a claim. I think it is still worth pointing out one or two ways in
The temptation is to see these five, because of the cir- which they illustrate certain current preoccupations in
cumstances in which they are being shown, as too closely this country. Decisive in the development of all five, for
linked. There might seem, for instance, to be a certain example, has been the catalyst of American painting,
neatness about having, at one end of the scale, Caro— the even if its main relevance now is precisely how far its
sculptor who has more than any other pointed the way influence has been superseded.
for the current trend of sculpture towards painting—and, American painting shook British art out of its provin-
at the other, Richard Smith, who more than any other is cial habits, gave it a new awareness of scale, and a new
extending painting towards sculpture. Between these confidence in what non-figurative art was all about and