Page 60 - Studio Interantional - May 1967

accusing GALERIE MULLER of Stuttgart of buying tainties have been overcome, as the 34-year-old Above left Klaus Jurgen-Fischer Yellow Square
its present reputation as the leading German sculptor has adopted a formal concept not only up- 1964-5
gallery with the skilful eclecticism of its artists. to-date in its implications but also rationally Lukacryl 48⅜ x 48⅜ in.
The work of the 44-year-old artist Lothar Quinte thought out. Lenk's compositions reflect a dialectic
Above top Georg K. Pfahler Wall-space-relief-tex
is certainly rooted in the tradition of mono- struggle between object and structure. Depending
1966, aluminium (painted) on board 51¼ x 119⅛ in.
chrome• painting; and the paintings by _Georg on how one interprets them, his plastic works are
Fischbach Gallery, New York
Karl Pfahler (born 1926) betray a heritage of created by adding geometrical disc elements or
Robert Motherwell. But putting aside such artists dividing solid blocks; often the progressive struc- Above bottom Georg K. Pfahler Call-tex II 1965-6
as E. N. Nay, it's obvious that German art suffers ture is combined with a continuous objective form. acryl on canvas 70⅞ x 63 in.
from the lack of a generation of De Koonings, The Galerie Müller artists represent the present Galerie Muller, Stuttgart
Rothkos, Moores or Nicholsons, who played so peak of German creative activity; this empha-
decisive a part in international developments im- sizes just how fruitful the international prospect
mediately after the war. The absence of tradition may prove to be. Müller has also made an impor- only by a national consciousness united against
makes it difficult to evaluate the claims of young tant contribution to international exchanges in foreign influences; German classicism, for example,
German artists; international impulses have to be South West Germany by exhibiting leading Italian is simply a reaction against French enlightenment.
understood first, and true evaluation can only be and English artists, as well as American repre- But reactions of this kind are only possible when
based on rational future developments. On these sentatives of systemic painting (David Novros's serious discussion leads to a genuine understanding
terms one can recognize the significance of Quinte's work was recently shown in Stuttgart). It is hard of foreign influences. In this context the SYN
problem of lending articulation to a surface by to over-emphasize this contribution when one group, which recently exhibited again in North
means of a central colour fissure, instead of work- bears in mind that the central problem facing Germany, takes on a general significance in addi-
ing inwards from the edges. On the other hand, young German artists is not one of avoiding cheap tion to its theoretical importance. Painters such as
Pfahler's work, which has always been more open, internationalism; it is rather one of avoiding the Bechtold, Berner, Dienst, Jürgen-Fischer and
holds promise for the future; his serial compositions spurious security of regionalism. The value of Micus, devote themselves to an integral art between
circle around three different themes-individual Ursprünglichkeit is too often advanced without con- the informal and the concrete. This concept, how-
symbols, repetitive structures and three-dimen- sidering just how questionable this criterion be- ever, depends on a certain alienation from the pic-
sionalism, without so far finding a true balance. came through the ideology of the 'original value of torial medium.
Pfahler was represented in the 'Shapes of Colour' the German race'. Repeated emphasis on national Surely the task of the German galleries and groups
exhibition in Amsterdam; when the exhibition characteristics only serves to underline how un- of artists over the next few years is to achieve a
came to Stuttgart in March, works by Quinte and certain these characteristics are; the truly 'Ger- rational internationalism, overlooking mere quirks
the Sculptor Kaspar Thomas Lenk were added to man' characteristics of the nation, with its many and trends of fashion, as a necessary background to
those of Pfahler. In Lenk's work the earlier uncer- and varied origins, have often been determined a new awareness of their own significance?