Page 64 - Studio International - January 1967

official Israeli exhibitions which pay too much homage Whilst Alphaville reflects a comic-strip, because its however, much more than Fauves who couldn't
to the pioneers and indiscriminately approve of the characters are inanimate, too close a tie with pop-art manage to do it quite as well. Their attitude to the
rest. Miss Friedman provides a somewhat primitive is unhelpful. Richard Roud senses this, but draws an purpose of art, to the whole matter of picture-making,
summary of modern sculptural history and lists a odd distinction between the 'true pop-artist' and was very different and if their first mature style is un-
long series of 'qualities and processes' whose 'pro- Godard, Larry Rivers and Robert Rauschenberg. He thinkable without the example of the Fauves what
portion and balance' is necessary to artistic misses the truculence and irony of much pop-art. He they made out of their sources is distinct, original and
expression,i.e.'Emotion-Thought','Sensation- Knowledge', also fails to place Godard in perspective in the essentially un-French. It is as German as Bamberg.
etc. Not only does she make no attempt to describe cinema. Godard stands at the other pole to Antonioni The task of the Brücke was heroic. They sought to
and investigate the remarkable development of who fatalistically accepts social change. The intro- renew German art, to find a valid substitute for the
modern Israeli sculpture, she also omits a number of duction fails this valuable book, which, unfortunately, tired Impressionism, anecdotal realism and nostalgic
important artists, notably Haber. is also a little inconsistent in its filmography. romanticism which even after the turn of the century
Mr Hashimonshoni on architecture has a less familiar Kevin Gough-Yates were still giving German artists problems of digestion.
and in some senses a more stirring story to tell, since The common studio and living quarters that Kirchner,
he had to trace the remarkable progress of the Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff and Bleyl rented in a Dres-
new State and refer to the heroic welfare programme. den suburb, their first roughly improvised exhibition
Fortunately he is not afraid of the occasional acerbity in a lighting factory in Dresden-Löbtau, their eager
or note of criticism, such as the reference to the campaigning and refusal to compromise are all the
haste with which new buildings have been put up, more remarkable coming from a group of such young
and the dangers of improvisation. Similarly John men. They gave German art a new direction and their
Chaney is frank in describing the decline of the contemporaries the courage to set aside foreign ex-
Bezalel School as the principal art academy in the amples so that they could speak once again of a
country, and the poor standard of the new tourist German art as distinct from other national schools.
craft industries. Undoubtedly there is a strong element of Blut und
Anyone who knows Israel and its art can refer to a Boden nationalism about all this-Nolde was a Nazi-
good number of accomplished artists and the promise but it is difficult to envisage more outward-looking
which lies in a group of young men and women. Even German movements later without the confidence
more interesting is to study the relationship of their which the Brücke gave them.
work to the contributions of European Jews and to It is often forgotten that the most important contri-
consider what special qualities may one day come bution of the Brücke was to graphic art. They created
out of Israel. This book makes no such attempt.___ the modern German woodcut, partly helped by
Charles S. Spencer Gauguin and Vallotton, but more especially instruct-
ed by medieval German woodcuts. They printed
Pop in the cinema where possible, themselves, eager to revive the
idea the artist-craftsman. The graphic productions of -
Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard, English translation the Brücke, numerous and wide in their range, em-
and screenplay by Peter Whitehead. Introduction by body the qualities of Expressionism far more com-
Richard Roud, 104 pages, 39 black-and-white plates. pletely than their painting does.
Lorrimer Films Ltd., 18 Carlisle St, London W.1, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was the leader of the Brücke,
9s 6d. its moving spirit. He formulated the manifesto of the
Brücke and carved it in wood. He was its most con-
Jean-Luc Godard is the most fashionable of film siderable painter and the one most willing to experi-
directors. Alphaville is thought by many to be his ment in graphic techniques. Kirchner too wrote the
major achievement, making use of pop-art imagery, controversial Chronicle of the Brücke which, because
but transferring it into something less ephemeral, of its marked bias and, in parts, complete untruthful-
illustrating and illuminating his other work. ness was the last in a long line of contentious matters
The volume falls into three sections: a personalized to alienate some members of the group and cause its
and cautious introduction by Richard Roud, the dissolution. In some ways Kirchner remains the
screenplay, and a kind of rough shooting script, group's most enigmatic figure. His criticisms of his
The Treatment. The visual excitement of the film Kirchner, Graphic Art by Annemarie Dube-Heynig, own work, written under a nom-de-plume, are interest-
would not be apparent from the screenplay and 160 pages, 24 colour plates, 20 two-colour repros and ing as a personal document but do little to clarify the
Treatment alone and Peter Whitehead has selected 25 monochromes Cory, Adams and Mackay £5 10s contradictions in his character or the steps in his
excellent illustrations. The combination of Godard development as an artist. It is one of the minor
and his photographer Raoul Coutard produces For several years now interested parties have been mysteries of modern art that Kirchner, after being so
images which are sometimes startling and disturbing prophesying an English vogue for German Expres- sure of his direction, seems to have declined after the
when viewed as stills, though the films never fulfil sionism. In spite of full-scale exhibitions at the Tate group's breakup and that his work should have
their promise. They are graceful, lyrical, charming, and smaller but revealing shows at the Marlborough declined far too often into an uneasy pastiche of
but novelettish and untidy, littered with captions or, (Blaue Reiter, Brücke, Kokoschka, Nolde and so on) Expressionist colouring and angularity and half-
as in Alphaville, voices off, to clarify the situations. the vogue has not materialized. Perhaps our sensi- digested ideas from other artists-notably Picasso.
In spite of an apparent casualness, Godard pays bilities are too tender for such strong stuff. We are, Dr Dube-Heynig has been working for many years
detailed attention to film stock and film processing, however, not so blind as we were when we turned on a study of the Brücke and in particular on Kirchner
persuading the laboratories to accommodate his down an important collection of Schmidt-Rottluff's and his graphic work. Her thesis for the University of
eccentricities. He avoids studio work not to limit costs work, which was offered to the Tate after the war. Gottingen did a great deal, not only from the point of
but because he believes it hinders realism. In the Research on pre-1914 German art (Expressionism is view of a more reasonable chronology but also from
cinema he has no counterparts, though he has un- a confusing if handy label) carries on apace and there that of an enlargement and completion of the previ-
doubtedly been influenced by the work of Carl is still much vital work to be done. Most of the chrono- ously unique catalogue of Kirchner's graphic work by
Dreyer and the many innovations of television. The logy of the Brücke is unclear for a start, and artists Schiefler. A revised edition of her thesis has now
intensity of the Godard-Coutard images springs from like Heckel and Kirchner did not help matters by appeared in print. The biography cannot be faulted.
the loneliness of his characters, who spread their assiduously covering up their traces. They claimed, It is scholarly but eminently readable and the quality
hands and arms in desperation or perhaps pleas for with justice, that they were great originals but, with of the reproductions, in all cases photographed
help. One observes without involvement so that the less truth, did so at the expense of some of their directly from the original prints, is uniformly high.
films tend towards abstractions. Alphaville has the sources. Their relationship with the Fauves seems There is no doubt that it breaks new ground, explains
sterilized atmosphere of a hospital, full of long suspiciously complex and the recent exhibition of previously unclear aspects of the artist's personality
anxious identical corridors and instruments which Fauves and early Expressionists in Paris and Munich and development and is an important contribution
Frank Whitford
could destroy as easily as cure. did nothing to clarify matters. The Brücke artists are, to the bibliography of the period.