Page 32 - Studio Interantional - May 1967

which is everywhere and the circumference nowhere, ness. Already some scientists are trying to invent a perfect
can we find a place for the artist with his will to endure creative machine. I am sure that they will succeed.'
and to conquer the inexorable march of time with a few Simultaneously, with that naïve belief in the omni-
hundred fragile pictures? Vasarely does not know. For potence of science which for him replaces dialogue with
the first time he has become aware of the sad truth that the modern world, Vasarely is trying to elaborate a
art cannot stave off death. Thus he takes his stand with theory which would permit the rational cataloguing of all
Proust, who towards the end of Time Regained says : 'One the great works of the past with a view to 'separating the
accepts the thought that one will die in ten years and purely plastic elements in order to establish a general
one's books in a hundred. Eternal duration is no more plastic law based upon certain constants valid for all
promised to works than to men.' creative work of all periods' and then to computerize
However, Vasarely is not resigned. So far as the tran- these elements. Vasarely has already attempted to apply
sience of his works is concerned, his fertile imagination this utopian idea of rationalizing the past to the future. In
finds various ingenious solutions, all characterized by a extending one of Herbin's ideas—while not forgetting the
profound, almost cellular, desire to proliferate and in- late Matisse decoupages—he has constructed an alphabet of
crease. Even in 1947 he was calling his pictures 'prototypes' fifteen colours and fifteen geometric cardboard templates
and recording on the back the exact chemical composition which, with its thousands of permutations, he would like
so that any wear and tear could be completely repaired. to see used throughout the world as a working basis by
Half tones were eliminated as 'only maximum contrasts other artists. 'First I intend to use them myself and then
last'. He soon came up with the idea of the reproduction they could be tried out in schools and barracks. It is a
and continuous regeneration of the same work. 'Time matter of inventing a vocabulary which, like the tonic
deposits a patina which tampers with the essence of a sol-fa, would provide a common denominator for all
work. Only re-creation according to given constants will creative artists. Perhaps it's pretentious, but so long as we
enable people in twenty or fifty years' time to experience have no system of elementary plastic classification, we
the exact feelings of the artist. If art in the past has felt have no criteria for judging a new work and art criticism
and made, it will in the future conceive and have made. The will remain non-objective. The advent of a contrivance of
myth of the unique work must go. Let's have machine- this magnitude would provide a tool valid throughout
made mass reproductions of our works.2 Let's not fear the world, the multiplicity of permutations permitting
the new tools technology has placed in our hands. Litera- complete self-expression to members of all ethical and
ture and music have spread through books and gramo- aesthetic groups. What I want is a world-wide folklore
phone records. Why not do the same for painting? An where each person, by following the same rules, can
artist who today sticks to the hallowed craft techniques of express his own individuality. All the great styles, whether
easel painting cannot claim to be in the avant-garde. Egyptian, Greek or medieval, are built upon constants.'
Putting ten or twenty thousand stimulating works of art Vasarely's proposals to lengthen the life of works of art
on children's and young people's walls is not only feasible by reproduction and to introduce an international dic-
but certain, and will achieve the double purpose of tionary of elementary forms are indicative of his inflexible
filling both physical space (the city) and mental space
(the public mind). That is why I base the components of
my technique on constants: precise colours, measurable
geometric curves, size, harmony, scale, all of which can 1 Mondrian himself as far back as 1919 felt the need for a new
conception of the painted surface: `...the problem would be
easily be reproduced. I do a small scale model on the
solved still better if we stopped producing easel paintings. If those
basis of which one or several canvases, a tapestry, fresco, who agree with me were to plan their interiors in accordance
panel or a film or television design can be made. It is with the principles of Neo-Plasticism, easel painting would
usually unnecessary for me to touch these secondary gradually disappear.... The abstract-realist picture will disappear
jobs. I have three full-time assistants; thanks to them I as soon a: we can transfer its plastic beauty to the space around
us through the organization of the room into colour areas....
am able to put in forty or fifty hours a day. Use other We survey the room with our eyes, and afterwards we form an
hands, use machinery— that's the modern idea. Look at inner image, which causes us to see the various planes as a single
that picture there above your head. Is it an original or a plane... And isn't the three dimensional unity of various wall
copy? You can't say !3 surfaces an excellent means of shifting our inner vision, of making
Vasareley couples these conceptions, which originate in us more sensitive to multiple dimensions?'
the ideas put forward by the Neo-Plasticists and the (Natural Reality and Abstract Reality. An essay in dialogue form
1919/20 printed in full in Piet Mondrian. Michel Seuphor, Harry
Bauhaus, with an irritation at the irrational side of art, its N. Abrams Inc. New York.)
mystique and imponderables, which forbid its total 2 Here Vasarely picks up one of Mondrian's favourite ideas as
identification with science and thus too the utilization reported by Michel Seuphor: 'In theory Mondrian rejected the
of scientific resources to create and spread its works. 'For inimitable uniqueness of a work of art as socially and morally
negative; he was the one who favoured the mass reproduction of
the moment I am in exactly the same position as an
works of art.' Mondrian Edit. Flamarion.
impressionist. I look at one of my preliminary prototypes. 3 Compare once again what Mondrian said in 1919: 'In
That red is too strident. The old painter in me rises. I architecture, the work is done and the material brought together
change it. It's almost a physical thing. A dissatisfaction. by people who are not artists. Couldn't that also happen in
Until we have a new system, we shall be reduced to this painting ? ... The kind of execution required by Neo-Plasticism—ie,
execution with the help of specialized technicians and machines—
kind of mysterious instinct. But one day I am sure we shall
will be different from the direct execution by the artist himself,
have a science of painting. A certain orange will give but superior to it and also more in accord with the painter's
you truculence. A certain grey and a certain green, sad- intentions.' (Natural Reality and Abstract Reality.)