Page 52 - Studio International - November 1967

SAO PAULO At 36 Richard Smith may have seemed very young Cesar, angrily refusing the sculpture prize because
he felt he should have had the Grand Prix, but I
to be winning the Grand Prix at São Paulo this
Impressions of the Bienal year, but this decision should be compared with the thought that in both cases they were artists of
awards made at Venice in 1964 to Robert Rau- substantial achievement and greater promise. How
by Alan Bowness
schenberg, then aged 38, and in 1966 to Julio le pleasant to be able honestly to compliment young
Parc, then aged 37. Giving prizes at all for art is a French artists again! The French section too was
curious practice, and it is really more dignified for much more satisfactory than anything seen at
any well-established older artist to place himself international exhibitions for many years, and here
hors de contours in any competition—as Barnett New- Michel Ragon deserves the credit. It was frank too
man did at São Paulo two years ago. For younger to put a small retrospective of Cesar's work on
men a big prize really means something—not in display, even though it is hard not to feel that he
terms of the cash so much as of the international still hasn't found a way through to the sculpture of
attention that it brings. the sixties. (I feel confident that he will, but
Richard Smith's prize at São Paulo, in the context whether the joky pornographic plastic pieces are
of the exhibition, wasn't in fact all that controver- the answer I rather doubt.)
sial. For one thing, he was very well shown, and In general though there was little that was out-
the concentration on recent work made a sharper standing: one was aware of a sound competence
impact than the exhibitions at Whitechapel or at spread over much of the Bienal, and enough frankly
São Paulo is said to be the world's fastest growing Venice last year. Then his work, with its very hedonistic art—Jack Bush of Canada for example—
city: the population is more than 5 million already, measured, very beautiful, manipulation of shape to leave a feeling of the pleasurable if not of the
and it is expected to be larger than London by the and colour, seemed to offer a way beyond the momentous or the vitally exciting.
end of the century. The teeming streets and the pop/op situation, and in the Brazilian setting this The notable exception to all this was the Brazilian
skyline of crowded skyscrapers underline this im- was a lesson that Brazilian artists would do well to section, where most of the work shown was very
pression of intense activity, but the activity is heed (I will revert to this later). poor indeed. Given the great hospitality and gener-
chaotic, unplanned and largely directionless. There was very little doubt about Smith's prize. osity of the Brazilians and the tremendous personal
In a certain sense the Bienal is the microcosm of The jury this year comprised nine independent effort on the part of Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho
São Paulo. It is modelled on Venice of course, but writers on art, and we worked with a minimum of which the existence of the Bienal represent, it
instead of the individual positions dotted about the the nationalistic bickering and horsetrading that grieves a guest and visitor to have to say this. Yet
garden, here everything is housed in one vast exhi- has apparently characterized São Paulo juries in it remains true that for all the exposure to modern
bition hall, said to have been originally designed the past. Seven out of the nine of us had to agree to art which Brazil has undergone in the last sixteen
for the display of agricultural machinery. It is not the winner of the Grand Prix, and that the decision years very little seems to have been learnt. What is
in fact too disagreeable a setting, though it is was reached in the first session indicates a substan- perhaps worse, no standards have been established,
becoming architecturally less acceptable now than tial measure of common ground. True, this is not and much of the Brazilian work on display seemed
it was at the time of the first Bienal in 1951. quite how it appeared to the São Paulo public, or almost amateur—a facile reworking of current fashi-
Each participating country is allotted an area of to the international merry-go-round of artists, ons. One was told that the best artists were not
floor space, and left to make its own selection and dealers, critics, museum officials who attend such exhibiting, and this may be partly the explanation,
presentation. The United States has by far the openings. 'The prize will go to Cesar or Turnbull' but even so one does not get the impression as one
largest and most central position, and there is a declared a reputable local paper. 'The jury can't does in Argentine for example of a vital artistic
certain justice in this, though buying a better instal- make up its mind.' The story was completely with- situation. In Buenos Aires there is a whole group of
lation than the other countries are permitted does out foundation, but this didn't stop the same paper artists on the point of an international break-
smack of cultural imperialism. All the major art- from announcing that Richard Smith was a com- through, and Le Parc's dominance in the kinetic
producing countries have much the same space, promise choice when the result was finally an- field has helped enormously to lift the whole level
and then there are smaller sections for a vast num- nounced. In general the Press seemed to carry of artistic activity in the Argentine.
ber of other countries, even more I think than one much reportage and gossip about the Bienal, but In Brazil it is still the unplanned disorder of São
sees in Venice. very little that would pass as serious criticism. Paulo that prevails, but such is the potential in this
Of course these Bienals invite criticism, and one is It is true that Cesar and Turnbull were Smith's too neglected part of the world that it must be only
inevitably wearied by the vast quantity of ephem- strongest contenders. The Americans were virtually a matter of time before things begin to happen. q
eral art on display. Yet they serve a number of hors de contours by the nature of the American
useful functions and I for one would be sorry to see contribution— an excellent and interesting two- The Grand Prix (Premio Itamarati) was awarded to
them disappear. Part of the trouble lies in their part exhibition conceived by William Seitz on the Richard Smith of Great Britain. Ten prizes of equal
functions being contradictory. It is certainly valu- subject of the artist and the city. One part was value were given to jasper johns, United States (paint-
able for the artists of a small country to be able to devoted to a Hopper retrospective, the other to an ing); Cisar, France (Sculpture); Flavio de Carvalho,
appear in an international exhibition : it gives them anthology of mostly pop artists, with first-rate (and Brazil (drawing); Fumiaki Fukita, japan (print-
a context in which to consider their work and it sometimes very well-known) works by Rauschen- making); also to David Lamelas, Argentine; Carlos
helps break down their sense of artistic isolation. berg, Johns, Segal, Indiana, Warhol, Rosenquist, Cruz Diez, Venezuela; Tadeusz Kantor, Poland;
Yet such work blurs the picture for those of us who Lichtenstein, Oldenburg and some less familiar Michelangelo Pistoletto, Italy; Josua Reichert, West
go to a Bienal to get some idea of what is happening names. The Italian section was also outstanding I Germany; jan Schoonhoven, Holland.
to painting and sculpture here and now. This thought, but with only three or four works from Members of the international jury were Alan Bowness,
audience is looking primarily for novelty and is each artist none could make a very strong impact, Great Britain; Geraldo Ferraz, Brazil; Robert Giron,
disappointed not to find it. though for me Pistoletto, Adami and Bonalumi Belgium; Sadaziro Kubo, japan; Ignacio Pirovano,
The prizegiving accurately reflects this dilemma. stood out from the others. Argentina; Andrew Ritchie, United States; Mrs Ida
The big prizes now tend to go to artists whose work Turnbull did look impressive, and the exhibition Rodriguez de Goeritz, Mexico; Werner Schmalenbach,
seems to offer some new way forward; the smaller established him internationally as someone to be Germany; Ryszard Stanislawski, Poland.
ones are spread as widely as possible among the reckoned with: had not Smith also been present
participating countries—and at São Paulo there is with him he would almost certainly have been
an unwritten rule that no country gets more than a among the major prize winners. The younger
single award. On the whole this procedure works French artists—Alain Jacquet and Jean Pierre Ray-
reasonably well, compromise solution though it is. mond—were also rather eclipsed by the vociferous
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