Page 61 - Studio International - June 1967

coated, or painted upon, at times with great (Snelson), hang from the ceiling (Grosvenor and Works made up of linear elements and thin
capriciousness. Here again technological advances Weinrib), and lean against a wall (McCracken). planes are easily involved in cutting through space
are appropriated to achieve a degree of colour Main approaches to the treatment of forms in and the slightness of at least dimension, or light-
usage and saturation not prevalent since late space can be discerned even in a broad overview; ness in weight, permits them to explore unusual
Gothic polychromy. Several related observations the multivalent and multipart gestural works, the locations or directions. Those working with neon
suggest themselves as explanations: the relative spatially-activated, and the composed, archi- tubing, Antonakos, Chryssa, and Flavin, build and
anonymity of the natural colour of steel, alu- tectural, and monolithic. The first has its source bend planar bands, constructions, or a framing
minium, and fibreglass; the commercial avail- in the organic and the figurative, in Dada collage container in addition to the light. LeWitt and
ability of plastic resins, enamels, and lacquers and assemblage, and works out its ultimate con- Snelson's thin membered modules vividly diagram
impervious to wear—and the equipment to apply clusion in the environment. Its companion wing space. The kinetic artists directly activate lines of
them; and the experience of luminosity achieved follows through the biomorphic purity and quali- material, Rickey by natural means, de Rivera as
by Colour Field and other geometric painting. ties of fantasy of Brancusi, Arp, and Surrealism. motorized optics, and Lye in an electrically
Frequently discussed is the increase in scale, and One finds generally a central 'torso' of dense and charged drama.
here the exhibition is unusually generous. As a con- mixed material from which protrude mimetic arm- The planar sculptors totally ignore relief impli-
cept these sculptures may often be directly under- like directions. Coincidentally four of the figurative cations but are more truly allied with painting:
stood in blueprint and model form, but it is not artists, Harris, Oldenburg, Segal, and Von Huene, Calder, Rauschenberg, and Kelly are obvious
until the full-size work is experienced as a sensory are involved in stuffed or rigid concretized examples; Benton, De Lap, Vasa, McCracken and
spectacle that they assume their power. One could exterior wrappings. The shifted, assembled, and even Andre might also be included. Painterliness
guess there is the pressure of mural-scale painting multiplied commentaries of Kienholz and Marisol of surface first appears as a response to the numer-
in effect as well. The makers of containers or vary most in the degree of their expressed social ous late, frontal David Smiths.
small objects (Bell, Cornell, Nevelson, Price and involvement. Expanding upon Miss Lippard's Composition in the older sense—and derived from
Zammitt) of necessity continue an interior, inti- Eccentric Abstraction, with an emphasis on a Cubism—still plays its role in the aesthetic group-
mate focus and the preciousness of their formats, contained organic form created from a variety of ings of Gray, D. Smith, Voulkos, Zogbaum, and
materials, and presentations cause them to require materials of a fluid or easily-shaped nature, one the guest appearance of Caro. Serial production,
a frame or pedestal. With these exceptions, stands could mention the West Coast contingent of repetition of units, and progression in size have
or legs are uniformly absent or built into the works. Anderson, Nauman, Paris, Price, and Wiley, as replaced composition of dissimilar parts in the
A number of extended floor pieces suffer from an well as Agostini and Westerman. fabricated works of Forakis, Gerowitz, Hamrol,
awkward dwarfishness on this score. Recent sculp- At opposite poles of the gestural range could be Judd, Morris, Smithson, and Valentine. This
ture is placed as a fully-realized form in an open located the tied and wrapped packages of Chamber- post-Cubist geometric direction is expanded by
viewing space without the attendant aesthetic lain and di Suvero's magnificent axial balancing the minimal structuralists who plot deceptive
distance of a base. Rather than distance they seek a act. Both depend on a spatial interpretation of solids. Compensating for their simplistic images by
heightened experiencing of direct contact, and this Abstract Expressionism, the former an energy- presenting monoliths, Bladen's are titled, Judd's
new activization is further underlined by occupy- packed rocaille sensitivity, the latter starkly segmented, Mason's dense, while Morris exposes
ing unexploited positions in space. In addition to Baroque in massiveness. Where the gestural acti- and opens his, and Tony Smith's climb about in
the kinetic works circulating or snapping in vity of Acton, Hudson, Kohn, and Light is axial an angular fashion. All produce phenomena or
space (Calder and Lye), pieces cross broad yet contained, a train of knotted events marks objects of a high contemplative order engaging the
expanses of floor (Andre), cantilever into space Howard, Sugarman, Todd, and Weinrib. viewer both optically and kinesthetically.
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