Page 54 - Studio International - December 1967

sions to urban life. The legend for this piece is of plastic, with silk-screened photographs discreetly that, in general, such enterprises are hopelessly
interest to Rauschenberg historians since it neatly set, the first impression is sombre, but sombrely mediocre.
condenses his attitude both to the world and his aesthetic. The raving, impatient anger a Kienholz But this International, far from being un-
work : conveys is the exception rather than the rule. necessary, is a helpful instrument precisely because
`The image of the man is reflection of the cause Some artists, such as Elaine de Kooning, do not it holds few surprises. For the first time in my
of the trouble and the cure, which is the individual attempt to reconcile art and information, but turn memory, a huge sculpture exhibition is offered in
responsibility of the viewer; the mirror to absorb instead to the skill of the display artist, using the the cautiously comparative terms that permits
the present environment the viewer sees, whatever tricky lights, slogans and booth-like format favoured speculation on a philosophical level. For this I am
it may be.' by business in trade fairs, to get across a message not only grateful but admiring. Without undue
The aloofness of a statement about individual of despair about America—its violence, its suicidal fanfare the organizers have called attention to the
responsibility characterizes the attitudes of more propensities, and its great capacity for destroying. vital 20th century traditions by including ex-
than half the exhibiting artists. They tend to And some artists, such as Andy Warhol, keep cellent small anthologies of works by older artists,
believe that the best, or rather the only, course they their cool. His piece is a silk-screened newspaper among them Arp, Giacometti, Smith and Kemeny,
can take is to act responsibly in their own terms. photograph of a police dog lunging for a southern all of whom died recently, and all of whom re-
Their instinctive response is to cultivate their own Negro. This is more in the nature of an exposition mained quick in the memories of many younger
gardens. If they succumb to stress, and try to act than a comment, and in a strange way is more artists.
in a collective way, or in a directed way — if, in compelling than paintings in which the artist's soul By moving through recent sculpture history using
other words, they try to caricature Johnson rather is seen in pain. the classic generational method of selection and
than ponder abstract values — they do so with the If I have characterized the modern art of social installation, Messer and Fry are able to bring some
greatest misgivings. protest as inappropriate behaviour, I hope I have order into what is ordinarily a chaotic type of
Among the artists who did not try to move made it clear that it is inappropriate only because exhibition. It provides the terms in which con-
abruptly from their usual position the results were there is seemingly no appropriate behaviour temporary sculpture can be discussed on more than
relatively satisfying. Charles Capori's unique style possible. a merely sensational level. Mr Fry does this in his
in charcoal rendering of the nude lends itself On a rather different tack, the GUGGENHEIM catalogue essay. Noting that 'the era may already
easily to the massing of supine bodies and the title MUSEUM is accused of inappropriate behaviour, or be drawing to an irrevocable close in which art is
Pax Americana. Romare Bearden,whose commentary something similar, by the New York Times critic focussed upon the creation of unique tangible
on Negro life has long been offered in subtle photo- Hilton Kramer, who found that its International, objects', Mr Fry speculates that there may be a new
montage-like terms, moves very easily into the this time devoted entirely to sculpture, is one of the conception of art emerging that will replace art
denunciation of the Vietnamese war. The same is most unnecessary exhibitions of the year. He based on the sensuous and physical qualities of an
true of George Segal, whose white plaster effigies grumbles about there not being a single surprise in object. Although this exhibition stops short of what
always smelt of death, and whose victims of execu- this anthology of work from some twenty nations he calls a Faustian dream, he suggests that the
tion on view here are only that much more acutely and reproaches director Thomas Messer and progressions revealed in it seem to lead to a point
mortuary. curator Edward Fry for refraining from jolting at which the myth of Pygmalion will have become
Of the very few artists whose customary language our sensibilities. a fact.
is invective, only Ed Kienholz seems totally at This is a rather unusual argument coming from Whether or not such speculation, based on a
ease. His God really loves America best, a rude con- Kramer, whose sensibilities ordinarily prefer not progressive theory of artistic evolution, ultimately
struction in a box with antlers protruding and a to be jolted, but it was clear from his article that proves accurate, it is most important that it be
phallic or bomb-like protrusion, is one of the few he was suffering from a surfeit of omnibus ex- undertaken in the sober and restrained terms this
really angry works in which anger is the first hibitions. His reports from the Brazilian Bienal, exhibition provides. We have had enough sur-
information received. In James Wines' sombre which I could confirm with my own experience, prises. Now we need thoughtful evaluations.
relief with its muted photos of Vietnamese atroci- were excellent testimonies to the futility of these For this, the inclusion of familiar work is an asset.
ties, or in Robert Mallary's funerary stele in mammoth exhibitions. I absolutely agree with him By including the best possible examples of the
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