Page 14 - Studio International - October 1966

On chance and Mark Boyle

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

The use of chance may imply tolerance of unhampered by preconceptions. These two journey between Düsseldorf and Cologne
incident and thus an attitude of permissive- approaches could not be further apart. On by setting up in a train a camera programmed
ness. It may, on the other hand, suggest the this basis one could conclude that the to take a picture every four minutes, did not
complete opposite—an attempt to harness artists who deliberately employ chance in produce a vastly surprising document. The
chance to make it a manoeuvrable instru- their creative activity have as much in limitations inherent in the system he had
ment playing some specific part in an art common as those artists who use red paint. set for himself were responsible for the
process. It can also mean a number of Other classical examples in twentieth narrowness of the journey's interpretation.
different things between these two extremes. century art which manifest the use of chance The idea itself is more inventive than the
There are certain generalizations one can are works by Arp, Tristan Tzara and Max result, and thereby more significant.
make about it. Ernst. Arp has referred to the 'laws of chance', Among the manifestations based on chance
The use of chance implies that the cause which not only suggests that he envisaged during the past ten years, including those of
responsible for a certain effect or outcome is chance as a structural system, but also that Mathieu, Dali, Manzoni, Klein and
unlooked for, or that at least it cannot be he was aware of it as a limited and limiting Burroughs, the aleatory systems applied to
completely specified. component in a work of art. The works interpretations of concrete poetry, musical
Deliberate use of chance in art has been which illustrate his laws of chance are the composition and transformable works of
manifested in various ways. In technique or collages begun in 1916, composed of odd art, one of the most interesting and moving
method, for instance, as in action painting— scraps of paper, shuffled, thrown and glued solutions has been that reached by Mark
the predetermined elements being the size exactly as they fell. Tristan Tzara composed Boyle. The essential attitude at the basis of
of the painting and the materials or implements poems by drawing words from a hat, and his activities is the total acceptance of
employed. The process of mechanical chance Max Ernst invented the techniques of results which these provoke. In relation to
where the chance element can only produce a frottage and decalcomania of chance, the the recent pictures which he calls presenta-
subtle variation is demonstrated by latter involving the spreading of ink between tions, this may not seem surprising—they
Duchamp's 3 stoppages étalon of 1913. two sheets of paper, which were then pulled are aesthetically pleasing (which is
Duchamp held three pieces of thread one apart to reveal a fairly unpredictable irrelevant), and they are original (which
metre above a canvas and allowed them to image. The use of chance does not necessarily isn't, except to Boyle himself). The
fall freely. The threads were then fixed to produce surprises. Arp's collages and presentations are a relatively recent
the canvas exactly as they had fallen. Ernst's frottages (rubbings from various development, so it might be worth while
Similarly unpredictable methods were common surfaces like wooden planks), are initially to consider some of his earlier
employed for arriving at various forms in not as unexpected as Tzara's poems, since attempts at harnessing chance—i.e. the
his Large. Glass. Given the thickness and words as material are more immediately events which he has been organizing since
length of thread, it is not difficult to imagine loaded and relative to their sequence and 1963.
what will happen if it falls from a height of the context in which they are to be found. As the word 'Happening' suggests a
one metre, but it is much more difficult to Use of the laws1of chance, as it might have `dramatic performance, Mark Boyle decided
anticipate or to control the effects of action been called in the 1920's, or random systems to call his total manifestations 'Events'. This
painting. In the case of Duchamp the use of (as it would be called today), is prevalent presupposes a less deliberate way in which
chance has something to do with an intel- in a number of contemporary creative the unpredictable element is used, despite
lectual attitude and in the case of the pursuits, especially in Germany. The anloreparation, rehearsal or expectations.
tachist it has something to do with the most photographer who made a photographic Of these I have seen only five. Perhaps one
direct and intuitive type of expression record in the form of a book about the that illustrates most accurately Boyle's

Contributors to this issue

Jasia Reichardt, who contributes a monthly Comment Chimen Abramsky, who was born in Russia and Edward Lucie-Smith, poet and critic, contributes a
to Studio International, is assistant director of the educated at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, lectures regular commentary to Studio International.
Institute of Contemporary Arts. in Jewish history at University College, London. He
has published books on the British labour movement Kenneth Frampton is an architect in private practice
Gene Baro, a frequent contributor to Studio Inter- and articles on Jewish art. in London. As technical editor of- Architectural
national, also contributes to Art International, The Design from 1962 to 1964 he wrote a number of critical
London Magazine, and other periodicals, and is John Anthony Thwaites has been working in Germany articles on art and architecture. He has taught archi-
London Correspondent of Arts Magazine and Art in as an art critic for sixteen years. His monograph on tectural design at both the A.A. School of Architec-
America. the sculptor Norbert Kricke was published last year, ture and at the Royal College of Art. In 1965 he was
and he has just completed a book on the painting of visiting lecturer and Hodder Fellow at the School of
Rupprecht Geiger. Architecture, Princeton University.