Page 18 - Studio International - September 1966
P. 18

In other publications                     produced but also help to present them more vividly.   Correspondence
                                                The museum, in fact, should attempt to be a work of
      Form                                      art in its own right, and a hive of activities fostering
       The second issue of the quarterly magazine Form has   interest in everything from techniques and crafts-  In general I enjoyed the August issue very much but
       just been published. Privately produced in Cambridge,   manship to the spiritual implications of supreme art.   was unhappy about the cover, which I feel did less
       this 'little magazine' aims to print articles on kinetic                          than justice to David Smith's work.
       art and concrete poetry. The first issue included a   In brief                                    Yours sincerely,
       fascinating and important essay by Theo van Does-  The first gallery in the world devoted exclusively to   John Plumb
       burg, Film as Pure Form. The September issue prints   the theatre arts, the Wright Hepburn Gallery, opens   London, W.4
       an article on Hirschfeld-Mack's Bauhaus Experiments.   on September 14 at 10 Halkin Arcade, Motcombe
       The magazine, which costs 2s. 6d., may be obtained   Street, London S.W.1, with a retrospective exhibition   The August cover of Studio International, based on a
       by post from: 8 Duck End, Girton, Cambridge.   of theatre designs by Kenneth Rowell. Peter Rice's   photograph of a David Smith sculpture, would
                                                stage designs will be exhibited later in the year.   certainly have dismayed and angered the artist. His
       Scottish Art Review                      Designers whose work will be permanently in the   work has been brutalised-hacked up, arbitrarily
       The current issue of the Scottish Art Review-Vol. X   Gallery are Arthur Boyd, Nicholas Georgiadis, John   coloured to suit some notion of decoration-its inten-
       No 4-has an extremely constructive article by Ian   Piper, Carl Toms, and John Truscott.   tion violated, its meaning destroyed.
       Finlay on The New Museum. He questions the idea                                    The question goes beyond Smith's individual
       that the museum should be a private collection writ   The first exhibition of the newly-formed Printmakers   interests. No artist should be treated in this fashion,
       large and that the public collection should express   Council (President: Anthony Gross; Vice-President:   least of all in a periodical that means to support and
       anything of the nature of 'public taste'. So long as   Julian Trevelyan) opened on August 21 at the Robert   elucidate art. Illustration of work should be just that-
       'the supreme function' of the museum is thought of as   Cox Gallery, 46 Victoria Street, Edinburgh.   the clearest possible photographic exposition of the
       acquisition, says Mr Finlay, 'we will make no progress                            sculpture or painting, not an •interpretation of it.
       towards the new museum'. The new museum, he   On August 31 the name of the Artists Own Gallery of   Using serious work to casual purpose is even more to
       argues, should be based on ideas rather than collec-  26 Kingly Street, Regent Street, London, W.1, was   be deplored.
       tions; themes should be investigated, masterpieces   changed to Newburgh Gallery.  The inaugural exhi-  Yours,
       exhibited in settings which not only illustrate some-  bition under the new name is an exhibition of works   Gene Baro
       thing of the times in which the masterpieces were   by contemporary Greek painters.   London, N.W.1






       Editorial statement                      73 years ago                             vainly clamouring at the Academy doors is a myth and
                                                                                         superstition. But when they do slip in they are lost in
       During the course of this year Studio International                               the general flood, even if they are not hung so as to be
       has been steadily improved. Its scope has widened;                                invisible. The Academy, instead of suggesting to the
       its coverage is now more extensive; and it can claim                              public the truth that there are very few good pictures
       to have an authoritative and international panel of                               produced in the course of the year, debauches them
       contributors. In recent issues the journal has also                               with a bazaar in which attention is called to the cheapest
       included many more and better reproductions than                                  and most meretricious.
       hitherto, in both monochrome and colour.                                           And it is here that the glaring defect of the Academy
        This has inevitably involved us in higher costs and                              constitution comes in. The trustees are by the charter
       an increased price has become essential. When this                                of the institution secured the privilege of benefiting by
       question was first discussed several months ago it                                their trust. The Academician not only receives his
       was felt to be important to make Studio International                             laurel, but has also the prerogative of exhibiting,
       an authoritative, well-produced journal of modern                                 whether he continues to paint well or takes to painting
       art, one able to give comprehensive coverage of de-                               badly (assuming that he did once paint well). Now, no
       velopments in Britain and abroad, even if this meant                              one would wish to lay a self-denying ordinance on those
       a rise in price. With the British Government's an-                                distinguished people to the extent of preventing them
       nouncement of crisis financial regulations, however,                              from exhibiting at all. But between the pictures
       we carefully re-examined the question of costs and                                admitted ex officio and the pictures admitted to please
       price, even though our new price had been announced                               the public, what becomes of our exhibition of excellent
       early in July to readers whose subscriptions were due                             pictures of the standard which is the only justification
       for renewal. Nevertheless we still found a price in-  The following excerpt from an issue of The Studio of   of an Academy? The fair thing surely would be to set
       crease was essential if we were to adhere to quality   1893 is reprinted  in extenso  because some of the   apart from the too many rooms one or more into which
       and to carry through a programme of additional im-  questions then raised by D. S. MacColl still remain   it would be understood that the pictures of the Acade-
       provements to which we were committed. We have   unanswered.                      mician might go ex officio; to set apart other rooms for
       therefore kept to our original decision, regretting that                          the bazaar, if that is necessary to make both ends meet;
       some of our valued readers may find an increase in                                but to have one room in which a standard should be
       price difficult to meet, but believing that there is a   The only force in having an Academic exhibition is to   steadily maintained, to which the Academician should
       need for a good journal of modern art.   have it exclusive and excellent; to refuse history if it is   only be admitted in virtue of excellence like the out-
        We also plan to publish eleven issues a year, with a   not also a picture, to refuse illustration if it is not also a   sider.
       special July-August number, instead oftwelve issues.   picture, to do honour to the picture which is a poem   From D. S. MacColl's essay on the R.A. exhibition of 1893.
                                                and nothing else, and to say to the public, These are
                                                pictures, whether you like them or not; here is the
       In the October issue                     standard in an art for which you probably do not care;   Utterly lacking in character, the most feeble thing I
                                                if you want and are capable of coming to care, look at   ever saw, said a visitor on Show Sunday. Amazed at
       The October issue of Studio International will include   these! Now, instead of doing anything of this sort- the   such frank criticism I looked round, but he was not
       a report by Gene Baro in the work of some of the   excuse for the existence of an Academy exhibition-  addressing the artist nor yet studying his own face in
       younger British sculptors; a commentary on the   the Academy notoriously takes another line: gives the   the mirror, only retailing his impression of Mr Whistler's
       present situation in Italian painting by Gillo Dorfles;   public exactly what the public likes in indiscriminate   Lady Meux to his host who, by the way, fully appreciates
       a commentary on Poland; and comments by artists,   profusion, and competes with trading concerns on   the one English master the New Criticism permits us to
       educationalists and others on 'What kind of art edu-  trading terms. It is not true that the poets never get in;   enjoy.
       cation?'                                 the idea that there is a crowd of talent and genius    from a note on an exhibition at the Grafton Gallery
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