Page 48 - Studio International - February 1967
P. 48
Amsterdam Commentary One of the major problems in staging an exhibi- Certainly Max Bill and Lohse have been interested
by John Plumb tion such as 'New Shapes and Colour' in a gallery as in colour for a long time, but as a secondary
important as the STEDELIJK MUSEUM in Amsterdam, element, their primary concern being with geo-
is to be certain that the documentation and infor- metric structure; the evidence is in the complexity
mation contained in the catalogue (an extremely
New shapes of lavish document) is correct and not open to mis- and manipulation and the formal resolution of their
work, which has its source in flat-pattern cubism.
colour from the original language of the introduction (in Colour in Vasarely's work is contained by structure
interpretation. A competent and careful translation
aiming towards a perceptual (physiological)
this case Dutch into English) is of great importance response and therefore his usage is basically
The exhibition 'New Shapes of Colour,' also, as it seems that changes of meaning have different in intention and alignment from that of
which closed at the Stedelijk Museum, occurred which could mislead those who cannot Bill and Lohse. In the context of this exhibition,
Amsterdam, on January 15, is to be shown read Dutch. The first paragraph of the introduction Albers, by his isolation of a banality of structure on
at Stuttgart and Bern. attempts to set the scene: which to hang a scientific theory of colour-
`The exhibition SC chiefly places emphasis on response, is an important figure, but Rothko,
the new independent position that colour occupies whose work is not in the exhibition, is a seminal
in a new "cool" abstraction. The starting-point?- figure for a well-defined area of painting covered
the systematic and orderly colour-treatment of in this show. Rothko's use of banal structure is to
Bill and Lohse, Albers and Vasarely, the young give colour full expressive reign; 'Color, although
Netherlander Struycken. Chapter two was formed not a final aim in itself, is his primary carrier,
by the colourfield-painting of Newman, Turnbull, serving as the vessel which holds the content'.'
and Polk Smith, then later, Kelly, Kuwayama, Newman uses large fields of colour, not in the
Plumb, and Pfahler.' narrow terms implied in the catalogue intro-
duction, but as a vehicle inseparable from the
Left John Plumb Brunswick December 1965
P.V.A. and acrylic compound emulsion on canvas personalized structure he has evolved to carry the
72 x 50 in. meaning in his work. Newman has said 'Painting,
Below left William Turnbull No. 18 1964 like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear
Oil on canvas it, I must let speak, unfettered.'2 Turnbull has said
80x 60 in.
Below Marc Vaux Royauté 1965 of his large two-colour paintings executed in 1959,
Acrylic on canvas `My recent paintings in no way relate to the geo-
84x 84 in. metric abstracts of the thirties. They are neither
Above
Richard Smith
Corner B
Acrylic on canvas
84 x 84 in.
Left
Paintings by Al Held at the
Stedelijk exhibition: centre-
White Goddess; right-The One
