Page 20 - Studio International - April 1967

Design as an attitude

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

Many artists have at various times inter- they were not built for programmed living. and the asymmetrical facades of buildings
rupted their principal activity of making These sculpture-houses represent a half-way designed by the de Stijl architects, were a
paintings and sculpture, and applied them- landmark on a road which leads from the straightforward three-dimensional projection
selves with varying degrees of determination completely non-functional to the utilitarian. of paintings. They were so dominated by
and enthusiasm to the design and the Here the function or lack of it is subordinate ideas originating in the abstract painting of
decoration of objects. To most, these depar- to the idea of creating a space within which Mondrian, Van Doesburg and Van der Leck,
tures into the realm of the decorative, the spectator will find himself. that they would never permit pieces of
functional, and applied arts are not Many contradictory comments have been furniture or buildings to assume natural
particularly significant—to others, the idea of made about the relationship of art and design form based upon their function, or to be
popularizing an art idiom through its and the real purpose of either or both. Max finished with an emphasis on natural surfaces
adaptation to objects for every-day use is of Bill claimed quite realistically that the design and textures. The influence of the Stijl
greater importance. of a spoon or a city presents problems which was disseminated through numerous
The outstanding design is dependent on the are not essentially different from those of channels. Le Corbusier's well-known device,
basic conception which is inextricably creating sculpture or painting. Buckminster for instance, of painting the walls of the
involved with function—in fine art the same Fuller used the term 'design' in yet another same room in different colours had been
principle applies, but function is substituted context when he described his idea of the anticipated by de Stijl and Mondrian's
by content. From the heroic ideas of the de Comprehensive Designer—a synthesis of Neo-plasticism. The latter, too, was an
Stijl group, and Omega workshop's objects artist, inventor, mechanic, objective all-embracing philosophy. Mondrian's con-
for common life 'expressing the feelings of economist and evolutionary strategist— to cern with the ratio between colour (primary
the modern cultivated man', to garishly solve the world's economic problems. Few hues) and non-colour (black, white and grey)
emblazoned car bodies, there are as many artists would envisage the context of design in his paintings, was firmly transferred to his
ideas motivating design and decoration as as quite so ambitious. Yet, ideas relating to grandiose environmental projects. In the
styles in painting. design present a more fertile ground for revealing essay 'home-street-city' of 1926,
There are, however, instances where no revolutionary thought than, say, easel paint- Mondrian expresses to what extent his
distinction can be made between what one ing, and who knows if the Furturists might painting reflects his broad concern with the
might call fine art, and design. This is true not have made a more radical contribution total environment of man. He applies, here,
of Rietveld's furniture, for instance, and the than a few rousing manifestos and a number of the neo-plastic principle of equilibrium to
sculptured houses of Andre Bloc. Rietveld's minor masterpieces, if they had had a town architecture and city planning. He puts
famous armchair of 1918, painted in primary to design. Would it not have been a way of forward the notion that buildings, like his
colours to emphasize the structural elements, proclaiming with the greatest possible paintings, would be composed of a predeter-
is not as uncomfortable as it looks. It seems, effectiveness that 'museums are public mined amount of colour and non-colour—
however, that the owner of the chair, which is dormitories' ? translated here into the equivalent ratio
made of solid wood, is likely to find himself in The classic example of an extremely close between material and space. He was well
possession of it from interest rather than the relationship between the work of art and aware that his utopian aspirations to
desire for comfort. The chair represents an mass production and design is represented by `collectivism', the end result of these pursuits,
embodiment of a philosophical concept— the work of the de Stijl Group (1917-31). would not be realized for a long time to
ideas about its designer's attitude to life and Van Doesburg, the guardian of the move- come; meanwhile, however, the details of
the relationship between function and ment, collaborated on the design of a his strategy for rationalizing the city
appearance, purity of form and its practical convalescent home with J. J. P. Oud in 1917. environment were clearly indicated.
application. André Bloc's houses which The floor, an intricate composition of No utopian ideals relate to what recently
mushroomed in his vast garden in Meudon in coloured rectangles—which was his particular has been named `Autoart in America,
the early 1960s are environments for spiritual responsibility—was quite simply an expanded although Mondrian might well have
use. They protect one from the weather, but painting. The arrangements of balconies approved. 'Autoart consists of an artist's

Contributors to this issue

Jasia Reichardt, assistant director of the Institute of Bernard Rozran was awarded a master of arts degree Charles Harrison, who has lectured at the Bath
Contemporary Arts, Edward Lucie-Smith, poet and by the committee of the history of culture, University Academy of Art, Corsham, is researching on British
critic, Dore Ashton, American writer and critic, and of Chicago. He wrote a thesis on Vorticism in 1961, painting and sculpture between the wars.
George Savage, member of the council of the British and is presently freshman tutor in the department of
Antique Dealers' Association, are regular contri- fine art, Leeds University. Robert Melville, art critic of the New Statesman and
butors to Studio International. a contributor to a number of art journals, is the author
William Lipke is an American art historian who has of books on Picasso and Sutherland. He is engaged
Margaret Tarratt teaches English at Reading Univer- specialized in twentieth century British art. He is on on a- book on the erotic element in European art.
sity. She has done research on the novel, and is the staff of the department of art history at Cornell
especially interested in the social background to University. His biography of Bomberg is due to be Frank Whitford has recently completed a book on
modern literature. published this June. Kandinsky, to be published by Paul Hamlyn.
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