Page 16 - Studio International - February 1967

A perspective of kinetic art

Comment by Jasia Reichardt

All kinetic art is involved with the those of Calder, George Rickey and Jean organic additive, provided by chance air
disturbance of those factors which circum- Tinguely. currents and the occasional intervention of
scribe the work of art as a finite entity. When referring to kinetic art, I mean the the spectator. Their mobiles are resolved
By removing the rigidity of the concept type of art which employs mechancial structurally and visually when static.
that a given art object occupies a constant motion, and where this motion is To express misgivings about kinetic art, in
space or format, that it is composed of introduced as a technical rather than an particular in relation to boredom, one must
unchanging relationships, and that the ideological consideration. The type of art examine those works which come alive for
only alterations in its physical appearance which produces the illusion of motion is that short duration when they are in
are fortuitous, kinetic art opens up usually referred to as cinetic (Vasarely), motion, where the programme of changes
possibilities which are so immense that one and the works which involve manual is short and repetitive and where the
could hardly even attempt to list them. In manipulation in the re-arrangement of the element of spectacle is not sufficiently
creating a situation which allows for various elements, although they come under memorable to leave° a lasting impact on
unfolding and changing images it suggests no specific heading, do not belong to the the viewer. It is as if the magic of the work
a process of continual development. The realm of kinetic art either. There are also was short lived and irrevocably terminated
element of movement proposes the advent artists who make use of movement which with the switching off of the electric current.
of a different relationship between the cannot be readily classified (nor should it There is yet another characteristic which
spectator and the work of art to that be), but whose approach only incidentally these works share, i.e. like the majority of
hitherto engendered by sculpture and associates them with kineticism. Agam, for those produced by the Groupe Recherche
painting. It introduces mechanical motion, instance, who is especially involved with d'Art Visuel and the Italian groups, they
use of technological devices and the relating his reliefs and structures to certain have an anonymous quality, which far from
possibility of a spectacle. These basically aspects of reality makes deliberate being incidental is often one of the funda-
are the ideas and preoccupations behind parallels between his works and our mental criteria motivating the work. It is
what has come to be called the 'movement' environment which cannot at any one unfair and inaccurate to apply this to the
movement. moment be grasped in its entirety. Thus he entire oeuvre of any group or any
Partly because the possibilities and the has constructed images which too cannot individual, since there are some very obvious
limitations of these propositions have not be perceived at once but develop and exceptions, particularly the environmental
been fully grasped, let alone explored, and alter as the viewer walks in front of the constructions by the Zero group, which are
partly because kinetic art is only at the work and sees it from different angles. endowed with a considerable degree of
beginning of its beguiling adventure, the Another artist who only in a peripheral vitality and imagination.
promise implied remains still to be fulfilled, way is involved with kineticism is Soto. In Most kinetic objects are involved with a
To date only a small number of individual his work movement seems almost incidental repertoire—a repertoire of movements,
artists has made a vital contribution in this to the content and significance of each juxtapositions and combinations which are
field, and among these the outstanding individual piece. Also, Calder and George often so minimal (shift of position of
names that most readily come to mind are Rickey have made use of movement as an similar elements) that they fail to make

Contributors to this issue David Medalla, born in Manila, Philippines, in 1942, he was ,associated with group activities of abstract,
studied drama and literature at Columbia University, constructed and kinetic art in England and abroad.
U.S.A., in 1956. He 'invented' auto-creative art (con-
Jasia Reichardt, assistant director of the Institute of cerned primarily with the transformation of materials, Marcello Salvadori, born in 1928, came to England in
Contemporary Arts, Edward Lucie-Smith, poet and especially pulverized materials). He has had exhibi- 1955 and began working with industrial materials two
critic, Dore Ashton, American writer and critic, and tions as a painter in America, Europe, and Asia. years later. In 1966 he founded the Centre for Ad-
George Savage, member of the council of the British vanced Study for Science in Art, which he runs in
Antique Dealers' 'Association, are regular contri- Jesus-Raphael Soto was born in Ciudad Bolivar, close collaboration with Erica Marx.
butors to Studio International. Venezuela in 1923. He studied at the School of
Lev Nusberg founded the Soviet group 'Movement'
Plastic Arts in Caracas from 1942-7. He was then
Carlos Cruz-Diez was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in appointed Director of the School' of Plastic Arts in in 1962.

1923. From 1940-5 he studied at the School of Plastic Maracaibo. In 1950 he went to Paris where he now Frank Malina was born at Brenham in the U.S. in 1912.
and Applied Arts of Caracas. Until 1960 he inter- lives. He won a prize at the XXXII Venice Biennale. He exhibited structural reliefs in 1954 in Paris. He
mittently practised and taught commercial art and had one-man shows in Paris in 1960 and 1965, in
journalistic design. He has lived and worked in Paris Takis was born in Athens in 1925. He made his first Milan in 1960 and in Lyon, Rome, and Prague in 1966.
since 1960. sculpture in 1946. From 1954 he, has lived and worked
in Paris and has had numerous group exhibitions and Jeffrey Steele, born in Cardiff in 1931, studied at
Julio Le Parc was born in Mendoza, Argentine, in several shows in both Europe and the U.S.A. Newport and Cardiff Colleges of Art. He was awarded
1928. He is the founder member of the Groupe the French Government Scholarship in 1959, Llandaff
Recherche d'Art Visuel. He was the winner of the Kenneth Martin was born In Sheffield in 1905. He did Festival Design Prize in 1962, and Arts Council
International Prize at the 1966 Venice Biennale. his first kinetic works in 1951. During the'50's and '60's Bursary in 1963.
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