Page 54 - Studio International - January 1967

The death of the Salons

It is impossible to imagine an event in Paris more dismal scene changes at breakneck speed. Artistic 'news' travels
and unsavoury than the SALON DES RÉALITÉS NOUVELLES : from one end of the world to the other and exhibitions
deserted halls in which one glimpses from time to time based on regular invitations sent out to local artists (or to
an exhibitor who can remember better days; row upon foreign artists belonging to the same 'group') have been
row of tachist offerings painted by the bloodless descen- overtaken by modern developments. The artists repre-
dants of Kline and Pollock or by admirers of the Brücke; sented at such exhibitions are always the same and they
rooms devoted to works of sculpture which are for the are able to do nothing more than 'dig themselves in' at
most part very dated—a Jacobsen which must have been positions they defended so vigourously ten or twenty
completed in 1955, a Gilioli (admittedly very successful) years ago. Meanwhile the nature of the dialogue between
of the same period, a Berrocal, a Sklavos, a Mannoni spectator and work of art has changed so radically that
which leaves a painful impression of repetition. We have there may well be some justification for the view that the
seen it all before. It is easy to see why the public is artistic message depends not on a material object—which
disillusioned : there is nothing to surprise or stimulate. may be destroyed at the end of the exhibition—but on the
These annual Salons have become morbid festivals and shock the object produces. (In Stockholm three artists
even the organizers seem to have lost faith in them. constructed a gigantic female figure which was visited by
Alviani Inevitably one wonders why exhibitions once so active, 60,000 people and was then dismantled overnight.) The
Superficie a texture vibratile even essential, are drooping and dying. Several reasons questing, probing spirit takes precedence over the ack-
1961 come to mind. Since the war the number of important nowledged masterpiece. The very concept of the art
Aluminium
35 1/2 in. high cultural centres has increased enormously and the artistic gallery as a monotonous succession of rooms conforming to
a notion of the artist at his easel, which dates back to
the Renaissance, has become a strait-jacket, forcing the
artist to adopt a form of presentation (materials, dimen-
sions, etc.) which he can no longer really accept. Tradi-
tional institutions are stifling all traces of life. The future
belongs to light, mobile, even temporary structures,
based on modern engineering techniques (light support-
ing screens and geodesic domes) where collective 'exhi-
bitions' in which the audience actively participates can
be held; these new exhibitions will have to centre on a
precise point in our changing history. This is the only way
to escape from the old, restrictive tradition of housing
living works of art in pretentious edifices built to last for
ever and ever.
There was, however, one interesting room at the
Réalités Nouvelles devoted to kinetic and optical art. This
included several foreign paintings loaned by Soto, who
has one of the finest modern art collections in Paris.
Thanks to his co-operation, works by Mack, Necker,
Alviani, Franceschi, Calderara, and Haacke were on
show, while such artists as Morellet, Cruz-Diez, Vieira,
Debourg and Asis each submitted one example of their
current work. The Vibration Sérielle (Serial Vibrations) by
Soto was certainly the finest work in the Salon. As in the
Mur (Wall) at the Venice Biennale—since acquired by
the Rome Museum—Soto here obtains an extremely re-
fined modulation of light, using the following method:
vertical yellow bars, all of the same size, are arranged in
regularly-increasing numbers from left to right; as the
eye moves across the surface of the work it registers a
continually-growing number of yellow bars, and since