Page 30 - Studio International - July August 1968

It had to be established what facilities existed in the Age of Baroque four colour etchings by William Tillyer;
building: machinery came to light which had never Dear Sir, three etchings by Terry Warren;
been seen before. Unfortunately I was ill when Michael Levey's and three etchings by Shane Weare.
So now the whole ramshackle structure of art review of my Age of Baroque appeared (Studio The average size of the editions is thirty and they
education, with its false premises, its immoral International, Art Books supplement March 1968), are priced between 8 and 15 guineas per print. The
barriers, strait-jacket attitudes and multifarious and later abroad, so I have only just seen it. I am not gallery is concerned with the young contemporary
authorities has been rocked. The challenge doesn't narked by its tone; I might plead good intentions printmaker and travelling shows have been arranged
stop there. but a book must be judged on results. However, I'm to universities in England, Western Canada and the
Clare Francis not going to let him get away with his complaint that United States.
Harry Munn there is no mention of Longhena ("the absence from Finally we should like to point out two further mis-
David Page text and plates of S. Maria della Salute is scarcely takes. In the directory of galleries you state that some
Hornsey College of Art, credible"). On p. 39 there is a paragraph devoted to artists who are with Gorner and Millard are dealing
Hornsey, London the Salute (and other comparable baroque buildings) through the Fulham Gallery with which we have no
in relation to its setting, and the painting by Guardi connection. You further incorrectly state that this
Cybernetics on pl. 70 has the Salute as its principal subject. with gallery stocks a wide selection of 'velvet prints'. In
Dear Sir, due reference in the caption. Why, both architect and your print supplement of December 1967 you also
Mr Gordon Hyde (June 1968) was quite right to building even appear in the index ! Not a large ration incorrectly stated that we stocked 'velvet prints'.
draw attention to the careless and uninformed use of perhaps, but space was limited. Let me assure Michael Since that time we have tried to find a gallery which
the term 'cybernetics' in art journals. As a fashionable Levey that I admire S. Maria della Salute (at any rate stocked them but as far as we can ascertain they are
cliché, about to be institutionalized by the ICA, it is from a distance and quite a lot close to) as much as completely unobtainable.
abused in studios and art schools across the country. he does. Yours faithfully,
But for the record, as the artist responsible for first Yours faithfully, B. M. Gorner
introducing cybernetic theory into art education in Michael Kitson Gorner 8- Millard
this country (Ealing 1961) and for having dissemin- Courtauld Institute of Art, London SW5
ated the concept of a cybernetic vision in art through London
various art and scientific journals in recent years, I
must inform Mr Hyde that neither I nor my associates June print supplement corrections
are unaware of Wiener's message nor of the Dear Sirs, The following entry to the June 1968 Directory of
particulars of the discipline he established. In your June issue, the publishers' guide omitted galleries dealing in lithographs and original prints
While the behaviourist aesthetic of process and the fact that Gorner and Millard is actively publishing appeared in an incorrect form. We apologize to those
system is only at a formative stage, and while art and small editions of original prints. In fact over the past concerned and take this opportunity of publishing
design schools are only near the brink of becoming few months the following editions have been, or are the correct information—Ed.
instruments of a cybernetic culture, it cannot be said in the process of being published :
that art today is unaffected by this new discipline, four aquatints by the American Colin Connor; Fulham Gallery, 361 New King's Road, S.W.6
however ignorant the art journalists may be of its two etchings by Hilary Beauchamp; Original graphics including poetry-posters, screen-
history and meaning. three colour etchings by Silvia Dingwall ; prints, lithographs, etchings. Artists include Tom
Yours faithfully, three colour etchings by the Australian Charles Adams, Sandra Blow, Dick Bixby, Mark Boyle,
Roy Ascott Lloyd ; Adrian Henri, John Piper. Poets include Adrian
(Associate Member of the Institute of Computer four colour etchings by Michael Oelman ; Henri, C. Day Lewis, Christopher Logue, Edward
Science) four aquatints and four screen prints by Christopher Lucie-Smith, George MacBeth, Brian Patten. Prices
Wolverhampton Orr; from 10s. 6d. to 10 gns.

News The Magic Theater Exhibition which opened at tested the subtle relationship between his own
the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, on actions in the circumscribed space and the reciprocal
May 25, is the most ambitious undertaking in the programme of lights and sounds—can explore its
field of environmental art that has yet been attempted deeper significance.
in Europe or America. It has been mounted by the Howard Jones' Sonic games chamber sets up a
Performing Arts Foundation of Kansas, which more immediate contact between the work and the
secured the co-operation of manufacturers and intervening spectator. Aluminium units arranged on
technical experts throughout America and was also three sides of a dimly-lit room contain fifteen
able to count on much enthusiastic local support. sensitive points which release different tracks of
The exhibition consists of seven distinct projects sound as the shadow of the spectator falls upon them.
forming a carefully graded sequence. Charles Ross' The staggered polyphony provides a direct cor-
Forest of prisms and Stephen Antonakos' Walk-on relative to the timing of individual movements and
neon are situated on the periphery. The prisms, which the relationship of individual movements to those of
The allocation of the Premio Marzotto for occupy the centre of the main hall of the gallery have the group.
Figurative Painting in Europe 1968 was decided in a remote perfection that tempts but does not entirely Boyd Mefferd's Strobe-lighted floor offers a much
Valdagno near Vicenza on June 1. The first prize of seduce the spectator. Their remarkable limpidity, stronger sensation of inter-relationships between a
5m. lire went to Alechinsky, the Belgian painter which derives from the fact that they are filled with group of spectators. The strobe lights fire at random,
living in Paris. Two prizes of 3m. lire each were distilled water, is echoed and intensified in Anton- picking out instantaneous phases in the movement
awarded to the Spaniard Genovese and the German akos' Multi-coloured neon tubes. The conception of of the group, and challenge each member to re-
Antes. One prize of 2m. lire was awarded to the Pole Antonakos' piece is still basically sculptural. But the compose the sequence of movements from a series
Tadeusz Kantor. spectator is invited to walk across the toughened of disconnected stages. Stanley Landsman, on the
Although there were seven prizes of 20m. lire in all, glass panels of the platform and make closer contact other hand, provides the most intimate and personal
the international jury of eleven members (two of them with the flashing lights that are arranged beneath. experience of the exhibition in his Walk-in infinity
from Great Britain: Sir Robin Darwin and Dr J. P. James Seawright's Electronic peristyle occupies the chamber. Every surface, except the black curtain
Hodin) could not find enough works of quality first darkened room of the exhibition. This seems at through which the spectator enters, appears to be a
among those sent in by the thirty invited artists to first sight like the shrine of a mystery cult with the recessed cube with mirror surfaces reflecting
justify awarding all seven prizes. The 150 pictures central perspex globe enclosing a complex battery thousands of miniature lights. The black bands which
will tour Europe during 1968/9 and will be shown in of electronic equipment. The direct effects of this occurwhere the cases join, become chasms stretching
Vienna. Milan, Prague, Nuremberg, The Hague, project are entrancing enough. Tiny bulbs flash on into infinite distance.
Brussels. Paris and London. The English painters and off in the surrounding black columns and the Terry Riley's Time-lag accumulator and Robert
taking part in this exhibition are: Louis le Brocquy, central 'brain' itself contains a rapidly revolving Whitman's Vibrating mirror room provide additional
Erich Kahn, Philip Sutton and Keith Vaughan. scanner. But only the initiate—the spectator who has variety in this carefully-planned display.