Page 53 - Studio International - February 1968

the lab laughing. For him, the homunculus per- result much like a rose window. Matta's familiar Above left, Dieter Krieg Tableau tuyaux 1966
sists into middle age and, presumably, unto the figures and configurations, febrile and erotic, are oil, 52 x 40 in.
grave. For Krieg a foot can be as absurd and as distributed about the sections of the imploded sur- Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris
obsessional as a nose was for Gogol. But the inter- face which acts as a vessel or superstructure. This
Above, Matta Pastel
esting point is that Krieg's humour and his willing framework, in turn, absorbs its content and be-
Galerie Alexandre lolas, Paris
voyage into the representational seem to free him comes the point, and a very ideated one, not a
plastically, precisely in creating a plastic challenge. plastic one, but in the pastels Matta has focused
In that sense, the exhibition breaks down into one again on his biologies and anatomies, and in a key
and five. The pop techniques of Klasen's doors or of dark, muted, all-bracing colour far stronger than
Klapheck's industrial close-ups, or the absolute that of the many fantasies or political allegories.
polish of Bubenick's patterns, or Wunderlich's or
Lausen's, seem almost predetermined as vehicles; Finally, Zoran Music at GALERIE DE FRANCE, a
retrospective more directly significant as a per-
Krieg, however, finds himself with a bigger prob-
sonal cogency than as a case in formal develop-
lem, one that necessitates an evolving technique to
ment. For the exhibition begins with the drawings
meet an inevitably evolving vision. The others
Music made as a political prisoner in Dachau.
begin and end with a solution that is generally
After the war, his work became lyrical—if at first
effective and resolute. Krieg's explorations are en-
diminutive—under the influence of Yugoslav folk
riched by the difficulties of the terrain.
influences, and with time it climaxed in an efful-
Matta's latest work at GALERIE ALEXANDRE IOLAS gence of pure colour or, rather, pure light. There
moves in two directions. One he calls Le Centre du is no because in his work, no inductive leap. His
Milieu Mise en Marche de l'Intelligence par Implosion, affirmative sense is prodigiously whole, and it is
each of whose words is easily translatable while somewhat awesome to see a pure lyricism survive
their sum is not. The other is a series of pastels not only the monstrosities of Dachau but also the
which recalls much earlier Matta. stresses of this nuclear peace. Of course, his surviv-
The implosion is actually the flattening of a ing the first experience may have a great deal to do
domed surface into structural components, the with his capacity to survive the other. q