Page 53 - Studio International - December 1967

NEW YORK
commentary by Dore Ashton

'Protest and hope' at the New School;
Guggenheim Sculpture International;
Four British painters at Betty Parsons.

An eminent anthropologist, Dr Morton Levine,
was discussing the cultural aspects of `inappropriate
behaviour' before a group of students. On the
animal level, it is quite ridiculously simple. When
a rat feels stress, he sits down and grooms himself.
Simply and utterly inappropriate. When a human
being in our particular culture feels stress, his
reactions are more complicated, but equally
inappropriate: it has been found that the stomach
releases acids that are the prelude to eating. Not
surprising in a culture which pacifies its young with
food ad museum, and which spends at least a part
of the day consuming revolting television advertise-
ments on consuming. When Oldenburg makes
giant chocolate cakes, he knows what he is con-
fecting.
It includes works by 43 artists, more than half of conception of art. The abuses that were rampant
While the American obsession with food may be
whom are rarely concerned with such problems in during the American 1930s are still too fresh in the
a constant, one is tempted to equate its recent
their 'real' work, and struggle to make an honest minds of most artists. Their unease in this prosely-
acceleration with the stresses Americans are
job of it in their protest work. Needless to say, the tizing mode is felt again and again in the work.
undergoing at present. The war in Vietnam is
`real' work remains the real work, and these Yet, possibly because of the sensed reluctance,
certainly of first magnitude, but there are other
stress-inducing situations ranging from a 50 per specific contributions to the cause are peripheral, many of the works in the show are moving,
artistically speaking. particularly the more oblique or restrained ex-
cent rise in the cost of living since 1959 for a
`moderate way of life' to a rising tide of anarchy Although this is the best exhibition of protest pressions. And a few — very few — are consistent
art we have seen so far, it suffers from doubt: not with the best of the individual's works. I think, for
in city life, to a clear and present danger (as the
doubt about the justness of the artists' outrage — instance, of Rauschenberg's large fragment of a
militarists like to put it) of racial insurrection.
These harrying aspects of American existence that is all quite clear—but doubt about the justness mirror on which he has engraved the outline of a
of imposing messages on an essentially abstract human figure surrounded by his customary allu-
bring out inappropriate behaviour on more
sophisticated levels than mere gluttony. In artists,
for instance, there is an increasing need to express
dismay through their work. Sadly, this behaviour
is all too often inappropriate. I say this with con-
Above
siderable reluctance, since I am among the many
George Segal
who, for want of any other mode of behaviour,
The Execution 1967
look to the artist to give a shape to my own distress.
Wood and plaster
But everything indicates that the separatism of 8ft x 12ft x 8ft
art history and political history is too firmly
established as a principle of the modern tradition Left
to contradict. It may have been possible for Goya, Charles Capori
and even for George Grosz under certain circum- Pax Americana 1967
stances, to embody profound anger in works of art. Charcoal
But for the contemporary American artist it seems 27 x 34¼ in.
an uncomfortable business from beginning to end.
This is apparent in an ambitious exhibition at the
NEW SCHOOL called 'Protest and Hope.' The
show, according to its director Paul Mocsanyi, is a
commentary on Civil Rights and Vietnam, and
reflects a renewed interest in 'human, social and
political commentary', which he dates from 1963,
the year of the assasination of President Kennedy.