Page 45 - Studio International - April 1968

The work needs them in order to be. This is social significance? And immediately. he thing future and not something retrograde in
one of the great problems for the plastic arts replies: Yes! And he begins speaking about the way of an outmoded depth.
as for the modern cinema. the war in Vietnam. and he says: Look, I am
aware that the Americans are not participat­ Yet, there may well be a plastic crisis ocur­
But in the plastic arts. what specifically ing deeply in the idea of this war. There are ring. An impasse brought about through an
interests you most? deaths. there are Vietnamese dead. there are extreme limitation of means. especially
In contemporary art I have been very close American dead, but for the people it all goes conceptually.
to the experiences of Roy Lichtenstein and of on as though they were comic-book deaths. But an impasse is a very good thing. Art has
all that followed-which is to say, the inte­ They don't really suffer in any depth. What.I always been in an impasse. Only the boule­
gration in a plastic work of. on the one hand. show in my paintings is the state of flatness vard is worrisome.
the object belonging to an acquisitive society to which they are reduced. and in sum I show
and. on the other. the images belonging to the level of abjection at which they exist. Though an impasse can be dangerous as
that society. for example the comic strips­ What does that mean? It means that this well.
but in fact. everything that can be included flatness represents the critique of flatness. Ah. yes! And danger is excellent for art.
in some vague way under the name Pop Art. and that. consequently, when Lichtenstein
without limiting it to a school in any precise and the other American artists have reformed I was thinking especially of the elimination of
way. And I have been. let's say. closer to that American society, the people will understand metaphor. For example, Minimal art, an art
revolution than to the one preceding it. that that this flatness is-how shall I say?-an without references.
of lyric abstraction. Yet, I've often been abasement of the human element. And they Yes. but at the outset I think it's quite
struck by the fact that even the creators of will be able once again to participate with all simple. Metaphors are always humanistic. So
this modern art seemed to misunderstand their heart in the world, and will be able to that to reject metaphor is in the last analysis
the interest implied in their discoveries. I will paint like Rembrandt again. It would have no to fight against this completely depasse
try to explain why. In an interview that further interest. The experience would be humanism, this transcendant humanism, if
Lichtenstein gave to a French weekly-it was finished. you will. But I think one will discover
La Ouinzaine litteraire. I think-they ques­ In other words. if the experience really has subsequently a new sense of metaphor. And
tioned him about his conception of his work. to be limited to a superficial critique of at that moment something will have been
And they asked: how were you led to society, which is in reality a humanist discovered.
inscribe comic book images in your paint­ critique, a nineteenth-century critique, that
ings? He replied: well. struck by the lie that has no interest. What is so striking is that Which implies an enormous shift in vision.
existed in the search for a depth of sentiment almost all contemporary artists whose formal It does. in fact.
in lyric abstraction. I thought it necessary to thought is very much in advance of their
restore a certain flatness. In other words, the conceptual thought say precisely the same Almost biological.
flatness that Cezanne discovered, surely. It is thing. When they ask Godard why there is Almost biological. Yes. Except for the fact
vain to abandon it now. On the contrary, one blood in his films. he replies: It's not blood, that even those artists shackled by this
ought to search out an even greater flatness. it's red paint. Very interesting reflexion. The transcendant humanism are going to con­
Now, everything he said at that point was red paint is flat and the blood exists in depth. tinue to push further in the formal domain.
fascinating. Wonderful because he spoke He shows what can be rediscovered there in Which is encouraging all the same.
about form. because he was speaking of the way of a certain flatness of image. Then
plastic form. He said: I have the feeling that they ask him: Fine, and what does that There are those who see a future in Kinetic
these flat images conform 'far more to what mean? And exactly like Lichtenstein he art.
really goes on inside us, to what really goes replies: Well. I want to show people in what Well ... Kinetic art has principally impressed
on in our heads, than those false depths they state they are now. etcetera, the acquisitive me in its decorative aspect. It may be im­
are still trying to introduce into painting, in society, the capitalist. and all that. Same portant. but I am less sensible to it. This is
the name of abstraction; not flat abstraction story. Which is totally limited to a vaguely not a critique. It's just further from my own
as in Vasarely, but in lyric abstraction. humanist critique. completely depasse. Well. sensibility.
Well, that's terribly interesting. But then it's essential to situate these modern ex­ In any case, that is pretty much what I
they ask him: what does all that mean? Is periences in flatness, to find instead a true think about art today.
there a meaning? In particular, is there a level having to do with a search for some- □

John Boulton Smith is Staff Tutor of the Univer­ Cyril Barrett is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Corrections
sity of London Extra Mural Department and has Warwick University and a frequent contributor to art In the list of contributors to the March book supple­
made a special study of Scandinavian art. magazines. ment Michael Levey was described as an Assistant
Keeper of the National Gallery. He is. of course. a
David Thompson was formerly art critic for The Dore Ashton, the American writer and critic, con­ Keeper. We apologize for the error.
Times and now writes regularly for Queen magazine tributes a regular commentary from New York to The work by Robert Morris reproduced in the adver­
and Studio International. He has also worked in Studio International. tisement on the back cover of the March issue
television and the theatre, as well as writing art is owned by the Dwan Gallery of New York.
criticism. Douglas Hall is keeper of the Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art. He studied at the Courtauld
Scott Burton teaches at the School of Visual Arts, Institute.
New York, and is an editorial associate on Art News.
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