Page 28 - Studio International - December 1968

Canada Council had so generously arranged for me, modern youth.) Going further, we could perhaps re- 6. The door (1917) 'breaks with a monolithic con-
I was pleased to know that this was a conservative sort to a socialist realism, concerned with the depic- ception of sculpture'. We could do without this dreary
estimate. I had to restrict my choice to painters who tion of napalm-scarred babies, but at this point art is old cliché about Brancusi and the monolith. We
in my estimation are at the height of their powers and reduced to the level of propaganda. Strictly speaking, could also do with a bit of historical perspective:
capable of stating what Canadian art is all about at political ideologies have no place in art, where com- Rodin made sculpture which sprawled, so Brancusi
this very time.' munication takes place on a non-verbal and un- made sculpture that was concentrated and refined.
Yours sincerely, conscious level. Is Picasso's Guernica greater than As for monolith, it means 'a single block of stone, esp.
Richard Demarco a painting of apples by Cezanne simply because it one of notable size shaped into a pillar or monument'
The Richard Demarco Gallery takes as its subject-matter an act of wanton violence (O.E.D.). How many of Brancusi's sculptures fit this?
Edinburgh by tyrants? Obviously not. Its true content is some- What Brancusi was doing was making carved con-
thing behind the ostensible subject-matter, something structions: although he did put one element on top
Art and democracy intangible which unites form and feeling. of another in a generally vertical way, the internal axes
Dear Sir, In truth, the pop culture with which the young poli- are often anything but vertical.
Modern art has recently been subjected to a barrage tical agitators identify themselves is far more the 7. Brancusi's 'childishness' etc. 'Nothing irritates one
of unfair criticism (I am thinking of the protests made product of capitalism than is modern art, which has more with middlebrow morality than the perpetual
by rebel students at the Documenta IV exhibition and never been condoned by the Establishment. I might needling of great artists for not having been greater'
at the Venice Biennale) and I feel thatsomething ought also point out that the notion of a free society in which (Cyril Connolly). If Mr Bowness wants to throw a
to be said in its defence. It is paradoxical that the artists are told what to paint is a contradiction in few punches for once, he could surely find a few
avant garde should now be used as a scapegoat by terms. targets for 'demythologising' closer to home. The
agitators of the extreme left, just as, in its germinal Yours sincerely, character assassination of dead artists on the basis
phase, it was berated by the Establishment. This Roger Sutherland of secondhand information is not my idea of objective
attack from both sides, each viewing it as a symbol of Sunderland, criticism.
the opposition, seems to be due to an ambiguity in- Co. Durham 8. Nude men are not as beautiful as toads, period,
herent in its social position. On the one hand, its let alone in sculpture.
iconoclasm identifies it with social revolution—it is 9. To sum up: even if one does not think as highly
viewed as a threat to The System. Hence in Soviet Brancusi review of Brancusi as I know most sculptors of any intelli-
Russia modern art is suppressed. On the other hand, Dear Sir, gence today do, this does not affect the value and
however iconoclastic, modern art is a form of com- I feel that Alan Bowness's dismissive review of Sid- interest of a remarkable book, intended to be read and
merce, is placed on pedestals in state-run museums, ney Geist's 'Brancusi, a study of the sculpture', in thought about, not to grace the coffee-tables of
and so can equally be identified with capitalism, your November issue, should not be allowed to pass Knightsbridge; the fruit of many years' research on
totalitarianism, bourgeois decadence and the entire without comment. and looking at the sculpture itself is not to be
Establishment Order against which the students rebel. 1. Books on Brancusi are rare as books on Moore are shrugged off in a spasm of faint prejudice and mis-
What is worse, it is predominantly non-figurative and common for reasons that have nothing to do with directed critical indigestion.
thus risks charges of escapism, an attempt to flatter a the quality of the sculpture in either case, but a lot to Yours etc.
complacent bourgeoisie with decorative forms and do with the manipulation of popular interest in art William Tucker
colours, to create an atmosphere of phoney culture by publishers, critics and exhibition organizers follow- Leeds 6
which will cover up the machinations of repressive ing the line of least resistance.
forces. 2. The book in question concerns itself with pro- Malevich's essays
However, the more extreme artists of the avant viding a mass of detailed information not otherwise Dear Sir,
garde are doing much to erode this latter image: available: it does not pretend that photographs are We were delighted to see in your November issue
(a) By producing perishable works or transient substitutes for objects (which all expensive art pub- a long and complimentary review of the 'Essays on
'events' which are opposed to the art of the museums lishing implicitly does). Photographs are for reference Art 1915-33' by Malevich.
(Metzger's acid paintings, Kaprow's environments and identification, and the device of reproducing Your readers may be interested to know that this
of scrap and Latham's book-burning demonstrations). them to scale admirably serves this purpose. edition will be distributed in this country by us and
The same end is attained by an art which exists solely 3. For anyone interested in Brancusi, the 'endless' orders can be sent to Rapp Et Whiting Ltd, 76 New
in the mind of the viewer, exemplified by Klein's description of the sculptures in order of their making Oxford Street, London WC1.
empty gallery show or Le Witt's projected invisible is invaluable. The book is entitled 'a study of the Your readers should note that ours will be the only
underground sculptures. In these cases the value of sculpture' : it seems pointless to attack the author for edition available now in the English language
the work is reduced to the mental influence it can doing so well what he clearly set out to do. The inter- market. The two volumes will cost £6 15s, and
exert rather than to its value as an enduring artifact nal relationship of the work, the way one piece leads should be available sometime early in the new year
which can be bought and sold. (b) By producing to another, the relationship with the work of Rodin in a casebound edition. (The original Danish edition
works so uncompromisingly big, stark and unwieldy and his own contemporaries, Brancusi's use of tools reviewed in your November issue is paperbound
that no bourgeois could seek to use them as flattering and materials, the relationship between techniques and therefore less suitable for library use.)
decor or status sumbols (Morris, Bladen, Judd). and available materials and the finished object—these Yours sincerely,
(c) By producing works of an impersonal or non- and other general topics are probed in the context of George Rapp
gestural character which lend themselves to mass- a careful examination of the work by a writer who has London W.C.1
production, and which, therefore, everyone can own the experience to make such an investigation physi-
rather than just a wealthy elite. (Takis's signals, for cally meaningful as well as scholarly. Information requested on F. H. Varley
example.) 4. 'After a marvellous period in the 1910s what Dear Sir,
By such means the avant garde is producing work happens to Brancusi?' Presumably Mr Bowness has I am anxious to obtain any information whatsoever
which is fundamentally democratic in character, de- hever heard of the Bird in space, the Cock, Leda, concerning the painter Frederick Horsman Varley,
signed for the everyday environment and for con- Adam and Eve, among the distinctively new sculp- born in Sheffield in 1881, for an Inventory of his
sumption by all. (I could also mention the boycott of tures which emerged after 1910 (in any case Bran- works being prepared with the assistance of The
Chicago art galleries carried out by some American cusi's thematic way of working prevents the allo- Canada Council and The National Gallery of
painters in protest against the despicable actions of cation of his work into convenient historian's Canada.
Mayor Daley, but we are concerned here with the 'periods'. Mr Geist takes great pains to illustrate the Before my father emigrated to Canada in 1912, he
intrinsic nature of works themselves rather than with development of themes, to indicate the difference yet was a student at the Sheffield Art School and then
personal gestures made by their creators. Nonetheless completeness of the various 'versions', or of Bran- studied in Antwerp for two years. After returning to
it does demonstrate that many artists are far from cusi's attempt in the thirties to make a new kind of England in 1902 he worked at various times in
complacent.) public sculpture: to make this private vision available London, Doncaster, and Sheffield. He married Maud
I fail to see how more politically or socially pro- without regression to a dead monumental rhetoric. Pinder in 1910.
gressive art could become. If direct political or social 5. Mr Geist in his foreword explains his intention not I will be very grateful if those readers with know-
comment is demanded, there is the work of Fahlström, to discuss the bases, or Brancusi's tools, furniture, ledge of Mr Varley or his work, no matter how slight,
Lindner, Kitaj and Kienholz, and more especially, of doorway, etc. In this he follows Brancusi's own dis- will communicate with me at the address below.
Wolf Vostell, whose happenings are overt indictments tinction between the sculpture and other made things. Yours truly,
of the Nazi atrocities. (I fail to see any comparable Other artists may have been more influenced by the Peter Varley
evidence of social commitment in the field of pop bases and furniture, but they are explicitly not within 97A Bloor Street West
music, which allegedly reflects the sentiments of the scope of the study. Toronto 5, Canada
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