Page 54 - Studio International - June 1968

New York commentary

'Dada, Surrealism and their heritage' at
the Museum of Modern Art; Isamu No-
guchi at the Whitney Museum; George
Sugarman at Fischbach; Richard Van
Buren at Bykert; Robert Goodnough at
Tibor de Nagy; Franz Kupka at Spencer
Samuels'.

Raoul Hausmann Tatlin at home 1920, collage of pasted papers and Antonin Artaud Minotaur 1946, coloured pencil, 25½ x 19¾ in., Coll : Dr and Mrs
gouache, 16 x 11 in., Museum of Modern Art, New York M. Zara, Paris

There are times when the reading of press rhetoric protest against the bourgeoisie, yes, but by the ses images of the mind's eye.' The intellectual basis
is instructive. Reactions to the MUSEUM OF MODERN aristocracy, not by the man in the street.' By of Surrealism and its consequences in more recent
ART'S 'Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage' tell a contrast, Newsweek, a shade more liberal, quoted art are ignored, Calas complains, when an 'art
great deal about the psychological set of the art Dali in his other, more ingratiating voice: 'The for art's sake' approach is salient. Images of the
world and a great deal about the effective con- hippies are the Dadaists and Surrealists of today. mind's eye go far beyond the stylistic limits
fusion strewn about by those two movements. Dada and Surrealism still live, they still have imposed by the museum.
The main reaction seems to be disappointment, in teeth.' Another critic, John Perreault, could not forgive
both popular and specialized press. Expectations This is what everyone, or nearly everyone, still the museum for having failed to suggest, either in
primed by the wild mythology of those movements wants to believe, and why the more serious critics its installation or its catalogue, the extent to which
were left cruelly unfulfilled. Both the mass maga- of the show could not bring themselves to accept Surrealism was involved with revolution, political
zines and the specialized magazines complained William Rubin's calm historical and stylistic ap- and otherwise. For him it was a grievous occasion,
that the museum, in tendering an orderly art proach. Nicolas Calas, himself an old surrealist since it served to place both movements in the
historical survey, had controverted the principles and the most justified critic, chastised Rubin for limbo of dead art history, where he does not want
they meant to elucidate. Not even the so-called having attempted to excise dada and surrealist art them to be.
hippie demonstration at the opening, complete from its poetic matrix. 'It is in the name of style Yet, there they are, neatly ensconed and cata-
with stink bombs, satisfied the hungry press. Time that he undertakes to emasculate Surrealism,' Calas logued, blandly remarked by thousands, and the
found it a comedown from the bad old days when writes, pointing out that, historically, Surrealism subject of countless university papers. Who is to
more than 2,000 people rampaged at the 1938 sur- was a reaction to movements which interpreted be blamed? How could it have happened, especi-
realist international, and quoted Dali's peevish perception in terms of images produced according ally since the conditions of moral disgust that kept
comment that 'Unfortunately, many of the young to Impressionist, Cubist or Expressionist assump- alive both movements do not seem to have altered
people today have no information. Dada was a tions. `To images of the perceived, Surrealism oppo- appreciably?
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