Page 51 - Studio International - June 1968

To see the work of art as something receptive, no
longer autonomous, runs right through modern
art, with Malevich's White on White canvas,
Brancusi's reflecting volumes, Schwitters' Merz-
column, Vantongerloo's prisms, Moholy-Nagy's
Light-space modulator, Yves Klein's 'traces' of
natural forces. Today the idea embraces poetry,
music and architecture, and the actual existence of
a work may depend on it, as in David Medalla's
foam-sculpture where air generates the structure, or
in Lygia Clark's work, where the spectator does.
The responsiveness of Camargo's sculpture must to
some extent be constrained by the special em-
phasis of a gallery environment and fixed lighting.
Guy Brett

Camargo Wall in Foreign Ministry, Brasilia, during
construction

100th exhibition (mixed show) and untried artists, and incidentally expressing His first exhibition opened on February 5, 1959.
at Grabowski from June 18 their directors' inclinations more than their skill at On June 18, a little short of ten years later, he
manipulating the art market. presents his hundredth exhibition. It will be a kind
It is normal and not wholly unreasonable to blame One such is the GRABOWSKI GALLERY. Mateusz of party. Thirty-six artists, selected out of the many
the gallery system (as well as the critics, of course) Grabowski runs a business with one hand and the more that appeared in the ninety-nine preceding
for the ills that befall art. The survival of the sys- gallery with the other. I should guess the two hands shows, will be represented by one recent work each.
tem, however, suggests that artists' discontent is not never play in harmony. The gallery venture stems The range and the quality of this exhibition, in so
absolute and if we look for the reason for that we from his enjoyment of art. It probably also com- far as is possible, illustrates the range and quality
soon find ourselves distinguishing between galleries pensates for the career in architecture he had to of Mr Grabowski's activities. Apart from British
and galleries in the light of their activities. Some waive in favour of the more immediately practic- and Polish artists, he has shown artists from
blatantly sell rubbish to people feeble-minded and able one of the pharmacist. Certainly the enjoy- Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and
wealthy enough to take it. Others specialize in ment is there: Mr Grabowski obviously gets fun (as Norway as well as the East. He has shown groups
gilt-edged art objects, which may or may not mean well as trouble) out of the gallery. There is also a
high standards but usually goes with personality kind of piety about him— a sense of filial piety that
Below left, Jeffrey Steele Aallotar 1967,
cults; these tend to invest time and effort in direct keeps him putting Polish art before a not too
oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in.
and indirect publicity campaigns to persuade the responsive British public in spite of rather incom-
world of the former and inflate the latter. Others plete co-operation from the Polish authorities. And Below, William Tucker Untitled 1968,
operate much more simply and on a broader front, also a sense of reverence before man's need to create plaster and wood, 5½ x 11½ in.
presenting the work of a wide range of often young images. Grabowski Gallery, London