Page 62 - Studio International - April 1967

NEW YORK a simple level, the idea of guilt is expressed by the energy by making up an orchestra of horns,
various peace groups that remind America of
drums, tapes, sculptures (to beat upon) and other
commentary by Dore Ashton the Germans who claimed they never knew. On unorthodox noise-makers, in a kind of sound-
the more complex and less easily defined level of happening intended as a sustained dirge. Others
artistic discourse, the idea of individual guilt dodged the issue of committing their 'style' to the
emerges as a two-edged sword: guilt toward Art collage by contributing their signatures, mottoes
and potential guilt in the face of historical judg- or photographs. From the numbers of artists who
ment. responded to the call put out by Artists and
Out of the unbearable malaise and deep con- Writers Protest (a vague organization numbering
fusion grew the 'Angry Arts', which began perhaps in the thousands but without a member-
'Angry Arts'; Oyvind Fahlström at modestly enough as a week-long series of artistic ship list) it is clear that artists are roused, but
Sidney Janis; George Mueller at events and grew to unforeseen proportions. exceedingly uneasy.
Waddell; William Giles at Allan Originally the events were planned to take place The issue of applied art came up urgently in the
Frumkin; Herbert Ferber at Andre once or twice a day, but when the call went out, public symposia where a clear split was indicated
Emmerich artists in every field hastened to swell the ranks time and again : composer Morton Feldman in-
until the harried co-ordinators were obliged to sisted on his right to be an angry artist but not to
stretch the schedule to include no less than forty make angry art. 'I must have the right to be
readings, dance programmes, film programmes, esoteric', he angrily shouted while actor and play-
For a long time the concept of guilt-either from plays, concerts, public discussions, and-the con- wright Ossie Davis attacked the visual artists for
the Christian or Freudian point of view-has lain tribution of some two hundred painters and their 'purity' and divorced status, and successfully
dormant in intellectual discussions here, but it has sculptors-a Collage of Indignation installed in pushed the discussion into the realm of world
lately reappeared. It runs through the arts like a New York University's gallery. politics and the race question. Throughout the
nagging fury, worrying and disrupting, and forcing What emerged in this welter of performances public discussions, it appeared impossible to spend
uncomfortable, inconclusive encounters. was not a clear-cut argument for the use of art in much time on the private anguish of artists who,
Guilt was certainly one of the prime movers of the times of crisis, but rather, a spontaneous chorus of loyal to the premises of modern art, tried to
recent spate of protest activities grouped under the pain and anguish, which in a way is the more justify the pursuit of formal problems and the
title 'Angry Arts Against the War in Vietnam.' moving for its lack of rationale. There were scores inviolability of their aesthetics.
Artists on the whole were uncertain about their of young painters, for instance, who could not en- Not all the branches of the arts suffer this dilemma
position as artists in this manifestation of dissent, vision putting their talent to the service of propa- equally. Film-makers and poets can make their
but they seemed to agree that it is impossible to ganda, but who improvised other means of outcry. peace rather more easily, as can the youngest
maintain the moral equilibrium necessary for their A group of the coolest painters and sculptors in dissenters in mime groups and puppet troupes who
work in the face of their possible guilt as men. On New York organized a wild demonstration of are sustained precisely by their indignation, and

Left, Pageant Players perform before float caricature by Allen D'Arcangelo on streets of New York.
Above, a view of Collage of Indignation installed at New York University's Loeb Gallery-
foreground: controversial sculpture using replica of American flag by Marc Morell, later removed by
authorities of New York University