Page 47 - Studio International - January 1968

though he is not primarily interested in the sculp- principles of a work of art are at the same time the
tural form. Kampmann resolves Lenk's dialectic of first criteria by which it is judged. Anthony Caro
element and monolithic, taking as his starting sets up a standard for the English avante-garde in
point the volume to be achieved rather than the these words: '...your only limitation in a sculpture
means of achieving it. Instead of developing a or a painting is whether it carries its intentions or
structure from element, he splits up a block form not'. To assess German sculpture this should be
into segments, which he then re-composes, as if amended to 'whether it carries out the implications
they were forming a whole for the first time. In of its medium or not'. Again, this cannot be
this way Kampmann resolves the dichotomy be- equated with Henry Moore's principle of 'truth to
tween preservation and negation of form by means materials', for this would express no more than a
of a clearly visible process, so that he may then neutral identification of material with treatment,
the more effectively present his central concern, without involving that element of dissociation
which is colour. Colour confers independent signi- which is the fundamental characteristic of German
ficance on the block segments. As independence is sculpture. The demand of the Symposium for a
only directly attainable via the medium of form, new direct access to nature, or Hajek's idea of
Kampmann first simulates a formal progression, so covering our urban districts with 'colour paths', so
that he may then verify this through colour. In the that they may be experienced as 'Lebensraum', have
work of Nagel and Hajek, colour is used to inten- different implications. The aim of the work is not
sify; for Lenk it is used to specify; and in the work to progress towards an objective, self-sufficient
of the other sculptors, to whom it is of secondary reality. On the contrary German sculpture is per-
importance, colour is a matter of chance. Kamp- meated by the paradox that the task to be carried
mann, however, attempts to turn it to account as a out can, a priori, only be projected when we al-
plastic substance. The illusionistic manipulations ready have its solution behind us. This is why the
required for this cannot conceal the fact that these German sculptor prefers the method of taking 'one
colour objects are created on exactly the same pace back', through objectivity, towards the ori-
principle as Prantl's sculpture: through the 'trans- ginal unity of subject and object which has always
formation' of a 'uniform set of given factors'. The served to inspire speculation in Germany. q

Right
Otto Herbert Hajek
Colour paths 1966
wood and steel, coloured
52¾ x 21¾ x 13¾ in.
Galerie Anne Abels, Cologne

Far right
Utz Kampmann
Colour object 1966
coloured wood
13 x 10¾ x 11 in.
Galerie Bischofsberger,
Zürich

Facing page
Far left
Ed Sommer
Sculpture 1967
transparent acrylic glass
12 x
x 19f in.
Galerie Denise René/Hans
Mayer, Krefeld
Above right
Kaspar Thomas Lenk
Structure 26 c 1966
aluminium
x 17i x 6 in.
Coll: Bertz, Krefeld
Galerie Müller, Stuttgart
Below right
Ferdinand Spinde,
Hole in home (with Spindel)
1967
habitable room in foam rubber
159 x 197¾ x 95 in.
Galerie Gunar, Düsseldorf