Page 17 - Studio International - September 1966

Berlin Festival West Germany, Toche of Belgium, Enrico Baj of Tt,e Kandinsky Trial
Italy, J. J. Lebel of France, and three members of the
The Berlin Arts Festival which runs this year from newly-founded lnstitut fur Direkt Kunst, Vienna­ Before a court in Munich recently Nina Kandinsky,
September 25 to October 11 is probably best known for Otto Muhl, Gunter Brus, and Kurt Kren. Several widow and heir of the painter, lost all claim to the
its presentation of films and musical Items. It also groups of young British artists are also to attend, and copyright of sixty-nine paintings by her husband.
stages art exhibitions and this year no less than three a number are preparing 'destructive events'. This hearing was the latest In a long line of compli­
have been organized, two devoted to the German The final sessions will be open to the public, and cated legal proceedings between Mme Kandlnsky
baroque and the third to an investigation of fantastic may be held in a larger hall. and Lothar-Gunther Buchheim, an author and pub­
art. Concurrently there will be exhibitions of documents lisher best known for his books on German Expres­
The exhibition German Painters and Graphic Artists relating to destruction In art, with photographs, bio­ sionist art. If this protracted dispute has no real slgnl•
of the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day is on graphical material, manifestos, etc. flcance for the copyright laws In Germany and
view at Char!ottenburg castle and throws new light on Europe it does at least afford an insight Into the per­
what has been considered to be an uninteresting sonalities of the major protagonists.
period In German art. Elsheimer, whose achievement In 1959 Buchheim published his own book on the
is now being reassessed by art historians, is repre­ Blaue Reiter and the New Artists' Association of
sented in the show, as Is Joachim von Sandrart, who Munich. Immediately Mme Kandinsky complained
Incidentally was the author of the first book on art that Buchheim's choice of Illustrations did a dis•
history in German. service to her husband's work, for the reproductions
The second exhibition Is of model palaces, archi­ in no way served the text they were Intended to aug­
tectural drawings, engravings and colour prints ment. As legal heir to her late husband's estate, Nina
which give visitors a comprehensive Idea not only of Kandlnsky claimed that she could stop publication of
the Residenzen of Germany's princes In the seven­ the book.
teenth and early eighteenth century, but also of After going to law she flnally succeeded in prevent­
Germany's contribution to Baroque architecture In ing further sales, but not until long after the first
general. , edition had been out of print. Buchheim challenged
Labyrinths, devoted to fantastic art,· has been the decision of the first court and appealed to a hlg her
mo�nted by the newly formed Berlin Kunstverein and body which, In March of this year, reversed the decl•
is on show at the Akademle der Kunste in the capital's slon and gave Buchheim permission to proceed with
spectacular Hansavierlle. The 180 paintings, graphics, his plans.
architectural drawings and sculptures in the show Nina Kandinsky still refuses to give up. After Buch­
explore both the literal and metaphorical meaning of heim had announced his decision to bring out a new
the labyrinth. Among those whose work Is repre­ and completely revised edition of the Blaue Reiter,
sented are Piranesi, Klee, Hundertwasser, Chirico, Mme Kandlnsky's lawyer, Dr Georg Bott, let it be
Magritte, Delvaux and Dall. Britain Is represented by Roland Topor, an example of whose startling work Is known that he would appeal against the higher court's
works by Henry Moore and Francis Bacon. reproduced here, Is a 28-year--0ld Parisian who has decision. He also said that his client would begin
just had an exhibition in Hilversum. Topor's drawings, proceedings against Buchheim for libel. This move
which precisely illustrate hangings, variations on the (In spite of persistent rumours) had nothing to do
female breast, games of football played with human with the fact that Buccheim's publishing house had
Chagall's gift heads and porcupines fenced off in barbed-wire en­ brought out a collection of cartoons entitled The Art
closures, have a startling Surrealist quality. His hu­ of Burning Widows; It had to do with the fact that
Marc Chagall, who Is now 79, left Russia for France mour, cruel and pointed, Is often based on the Bucbhelm, In a note to Dr Ott, accused Nina Kandin•
in 1922 and now regards France as his homeland: exaggerated paradox. sky of 'dark machinations'.
'France is the country that welcomed me' he Is fond Topor regularly has stories and drawings in the
of saying. He has recently presented most of his out• French satiric monthly Hara-Kiri (of which he is co­
put over the last twelve years to France-eighty-seven founder) and Bizarre. Tate acquisitions
paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures,
which have as their theme the biblical message. A splendid example of Braque's analytical cubism
France, delighted with this gift from one of her most R.A. Winter Show and the Gallery's first painting.by Nolde-Oas meer B.
eminent artists, will put the work on permanent dis­ ·of 1915-17-are among recent Tate acquisitions.
play In a museum to be built in Nice. Until this museum The Royal Academy had planned to present a full­ Other Important additions include Gabo's Kinetic
is ready the works are being exhibited at the Louvre. scale Rembrandt exhibition this Winter. One of the construction of 1920, the first motorised sculpture;
reasons it allowed Its Michefangelo Tondo to travel to Le tlmide orgueil/eux of 1956 by Asger Jorn; a group
Russia was that it had hoped, in exchange, to secure of sculptures by younger British artists; and, through
several Important Rembrandtsfrom the Soviet authori­ a gift from H. S. Ede, seventeen works by Gaudier­
Happenings ties around which It could build Its Winter Show. Brzeska.
Plans for the Rembrandt exhibition fell through,
Happenings (dealt with elsewhere in this issue) will however, and there was a good deal of speculation
.
be prominent in the Destruction in Art Symposium about whether there could be a Winter Show at all at Beardsley seized
which takes place on the three days September 9-11 such a short notice.
at the Africa Theatre, King Street, W.C.2 (not, as Arrangements have now been completed for a retro­ On August 9 a squad of Scotland Yard detectives
earlier announced, at the Cochrane Theatre). The spective Millais exhibition which will open on January seized 260 reproductions of drawings by Beardsley
Symposium will bring together artists, writers and 14. Selected and catalogued by Miss Mary Bennett, from a RegentStreetshop window. After some passers
scientists from various countries to discuss the com­ Keeper of British Art at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, by had claimed that the drawings were obscene a
plex Inter-relationship of aggression and destruction the exhibition will subsequently be shown at Liver­ warrant under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959
in art and society. pool. was issued from Bow Street Most of the originals of
DIAS Intends to sponsor events and Happenings Mlllals, whose last show at Burlington House was In the seized prints were on show in the Beardsley
organized by any artists who wish to stage them, and 1896, had intimate connections with the Academy. He exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The
will help by finding sites and assistants. It has, how­ was 11 when he began to study at the R.A. Schools in reproductions, priced at 2s. 6d. each, were from the
ever, made it clear that It cannot take legal responsi­ 1840, and he died shortly after his election to the Lyslstrata series, and when they were first displayed
bility for anything that may occur during the proceed­ Presidency of the R.A. The most famous Infant pro­ crowds gathered outside the shop window. After the
ings. digy In British art, Mlllais also helped found the Pre­ complaints a detective bought four of the reproduc­
Among artists who have already signified their Raphaelite Brotherhood when he was 17. The Winter tions over the counter. When the warrant was issued
intention of takin_g part are Al Hansen and Ralph Exhibition should provide a fascinating Insight Into the shop was temporarily closed while the offending
Ortiz of the U.S., Wolf Vostell and Bazon Brock of the phenomenal early development of this artist. prints were removed from the window.
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