Page 28 - Studio International - February 1968

A cultural heatwave in New York

Jean Clay

In 1945 there were thirty-five galleries in New York. New York critic asked in amazement what I wanted with
Today there are 400, 200 of which are devoted to living that 'old has-been'.
artists. In 1966 there were 2,100 openings—eighty a week The situation in New York reminds one of a series of
in mid-season—in addition to the special shows in the concentric circles. In the outermost ring are the grand
museums. Even the most agile critic, let alone the old men of art, wholly hostile to—and scornful of—what
general public, cannot possibly keep up. Hence the New they call this 'circus' with its incomprehensible values.
Yorker's dilemma: what to see so as to miss nothing vital, These men usually live some hundred miles out of town
where to look for trends, how to find time to step back for and go in as rarely as possible. Apart from Albers,
a broad view? In New York a generation lasts three Naum Gabo, perhaps the greatest living sculptor, comes
years; by forty you are considered old. People there talk to mind. In his rural solitude, he commented that his
about Rauschenberg (born in 1925) as Europeans would last American exhibition was twenty-eight years ago.2
refer to Bonnard or Vlaminck. In the second ring are the remaining Action painters
In contrast to French art dealers, who tend to sin in the who have survived from their period of fame in the
opposite direction, New York dealers concentrate their fifties. Pollock and Kline may be dead, but de Kooning
energies on boosting the new and keeping tabs on the is still painting twenty-five miles outside New York.
latest tendencies. They will even go so far as to form an Others live in New York, selling their works and re-
alliance to foist upon the public some such new craze as presented in all the museums. But they are melancholy
Cool Art, now generally supplanting declining Pop Art. men. They feel themselves outside the mainstream,
As for the critics, they present their varied and sometimes forgotten, filed away.
mutually contradictory theories under some contrived In the third ring are the Pop artists, still on stage but
label which they then try to pass off as a revolution in the being eased unwillingly into the wings. Some, like
history of art. The aim is to get in on a new trend at all Rauschenberg, escape into the theatre or ballet; others,
costs. But no sooner is the preparatory work done than it in a typical New York mutation, become personalities.
becomes a lament for the dead. This is true of the astonishing Andy Warhol, who, with
These quick fashion changes cause near panic among an adroit mixture of silence and rowdy posturing, has
artists. One told me, 'If you don't exhibit for 18 months, gradually won a wide audience for his shrewd affecta-
you're out. You've got to be seen.' Hardly has a tendency tions and his 'Tiffany' blues. An exhibition of his at the
established itself around four or five original artists, than Castelli gallery consisted of 73 red flourescent cows on a
a whole gang of camp followers tag along with bag and yellow ground. While in New York, I made my way to
baggage.' Where today are the New York Pop artists? Abraham & Strauss's, the big Brooklyn store, enticed
Apart from the five who started the movement, they have by an invitation in the New York Times to see Andy
disappeared; they have switched to Cool Art. The Warhol paint a paper dress on Nico, a happening not to
paradox of this state of affairs is that the spectators are be missed. The store was that day introducing a new paper
soon bored. Submerged in a sea of identical forms, they model at one of those ridiculous shows at which Warhol
are no longer capable of distinguishing good from bad, is always ready to make himself conspicuous (Nico, a
original from copy, rejecting originators and imitators starlet, enveloped in a white paper tunic had the word
alike with the same feeling of disgust. Hence the need to `fragile' stencilled all over her). A sparse audience
find something else—and the same vicious circle. An watched this sad eroticism.
artist, a whole school of artists, is launched like a new This is where fashion reaches the apex of perversion. It
product. During my stay in New York, Reinhardt was also dictates the attitude of certain artists, who, upon
the man of the moment. But for how long? After all, this learning that some major exhibition or other is to be held
also happened to the high priests of Op Art, thanks to at the Museum of Modern Art in three years' time, set
the 'Responsive Eye' exhibition at the Museum of feverishly to work so that when the time for a final
Modern Art. There's not a trace of them today, two years selection comes they will be thought of as indispensable
after the opening. This was when Joseph Albers, who
played a key role in the pre-war movement, had his 1 Certain French artists have not escaped this chain reaction. The
moment of glory. All the museums and big collectors 1967 Salon de la Jeune Peinture was almost entirely derivative of the
work of artists who have taken over from Bacon and the Pop artists:
suddenly descended on this old man living so very
pseudo-Rosenquist, pseudo-Lichtenstein, pseudo-Martial Raysse.
modestly in a Connecticut cottage. Today no one bothers
2 In all fairness we must recall that his last exhibition in France was in
him. When I suggested a visit, a young and influential 1924.