Page 58 - Studio International - February 1967

presence can only be defined in terms of something
other than the purely material object. Whether
this entails a symbolical interpretation, or an
iconic identification, the fact remains that what
moves us if we contemplate each painting, and
sense the presences of all the others in the room, is
both the image itself and the non-discursive kinds
of emotional association to which the image leads
us. If an image leads anywhere, it is immediately
more than the physical sum of its physical parts.
Rationalism in the service of the irrational;
scientism disguised as art; or art disguised as
science: these are the questions posed by Robert
Smithson's exhibition at the DWAN GALLERY.
The major exhibit is a ten-unit piece called
Plunge. Each unit comprises four cubes stepped into
the air, and each unit diminishes •with: its progress
toward the smallest, or enlarges with its progress
toward the largest, depending on how you view it.
Without examining ratios, explanations or graphs,
the piece looks very much like a homeless architect's
vision. I have seen similarly effective stepped
sequences in Mexican temples, and incidentally, in
Mexican-or rather, pre-Columbian-ornaments on
the temples. The impulse to make these vanishing
perspectives in three dimensions seems related to
an ornamental impulse.
From various viewpoints, the simple whole takes
on different aspects. Frontally, it is rather dull.
But seen from the foot or the head, longitudinally,
the sweep of the vanishing points is breathlessly
swift and quickening to the pulse. I couldn't help
feeling, though, that the scheme would have been
more at home elsewhere, perhaps in a garden or a
modern Villa Adriana.
Now, what the artist thinks of his modular work
is another matter-one which I admit I'm in-
competent to deal with. He mixes poetic and
mathematical diction, neither of which is very
clear to me. For the sake of the reader, then, here
is an excerpt from the catalogue:
Each unit of 10 units titled PLUNGE consists of 4
cubes (A, B, C, D,) sequencially (sic) increasing in
size by 3 inches from the bottom cube (A) to the top
cube (D)
The point of positional change is the vertical edge
of the angle of A which is the most distal from the
angle formed at the point of intersection of A and B.
The constants in the aggregate are the 3 hidden
cubes (3" 6" and 9") in each unit.
Under the heading of 'The Constant Exalted into
the Null Dimension', Smithson lists the following :
1. Modifications that somehow apply
2. Ready to drop
3. Approximating the approximate
4. Agreement between acedia and splendor
5. Extinguishing a little less
7. Quadripartioning of futility [where is No. 6? -D.A.]
8. Rigid paroxysms set in a row
9. Reckoning from the department of amnesia
10. Concerning the saccades of the eye

Above right
Robert Smithson
Plunge 1966
Painted steel, 10 units, large square surfaces
14 1/2,15, 15 1/2, 16, 16 1/2, 17, 17 1/2, 18, 18 1/2, 19 in.
Right
Larry Zox
Monitor ll 1966
Acrylic on canvas
7 x 8 ft