Page 29 - Studio International - February 1968

representatives of whatever trend is being shown. At
the 'Responsive Eye' exhibition, ninety-six of the one
hundred and twenty-three pictures were painted after its
announcement. For some time a number of artists have
been actively studying elementary mechanics in prepara-
tion for the 'Art and the Machine' exhibition being
organized by Pontus Hulten for 1968.
It is only fair to say that some artists do try to oppose the
influence of fashion. A whole ethic of social rejection has
developed among a small circle of sculptors during the
last five years. Their protest takes the form of the creation
of over-austere, over-fragile or over-large works—some
impossible to move from the studio—unsuitable for
inclusion among the trinkets of a private collection. This
atmosphere of protest was behind Cool Art, whose
outsize sculptures were for a long time considered anti-
commercial. Other artists prefer to avoid publicity and
take refuge in anonymity, sometimes for years, while they
work at another trade. But such attitudes are increasingly
rare. Most Cool artists have already reduced to some
extent the size of their works and are gradually re-
establishing relations with their regular dealers. It is in
this continuing conflict between revolt and integration,
doctrinal purity and worldly success, that one of the
tensions in the American art scene lies.
Chauvinism is perhaps one of fashion's most sinister
effects in that it tends increasingly to turn American
culture in upon itself. Here it is only right to recall with
what post-war Paris—to speak from personal
experience only—regarded the sudden eruption of
American art. Men like Pollock and de Kooning or even
Johns and Rauschenberg are still almost unknown in
France where, for example, the affected flourishes of
Mathieu have for so long received attention. Such great
artists as Barnett Newman and David Smith have
hardly been seen in our museums, and several important
exhibitions which have travelled round Europe have
been unable to find a roof in France. This scorn has been
resented by the still-diffident American intelligentsia,
which has sublimated its self-doubt into self-complacency,
coupled with a deliberate disregard of European develop-
ments.
The provincialism of Americans leads them to over-
estimate certain peripheral developments in their
country. I have already mentioned their excessive regard
for a painter like Ad Reinhardt, whose originality to
those familiar with Malevich, Albers, even Barnett
Newman and Rothko, is difficult to detect. The same
applies to Stuart Davis, a minor post-cubist, who is
better known in New York than Leger. On the other
hand, men like Soulages certainly compare unfavourably
with Franz Kline or Motherwell.
It is more serious still when chauvinism creates injustice.
I heard Peter Selz, one of the most lucid and courageous
of American conservatives, complain in a debate of the
reactions of his fellow-countrymen to the award of the
last Venice Grand .Prix- to Julio Le Parc, an Argentinian

Events at the 5th annual New York Avant Garde Festival last
September: top, the poet Jackson Maclow and the Don
Heckman Jazz Group; left, Charlotte Moorman, the 'cellist. The
festival included a number of performances of electronic and