Page 32 - Studio International - September 1968

On June 25, the day before the Press View at the public opening of Documenta. There were grave
Kassel Documenta, a gigantic sausage balloon, 255 faults of management and organization. Nothing
feet high, hesitantly began to rise above the sculp- was completely satisfactory. Tempers were frayed
ture park. As soon as it began to go up it began to and a good deal of steam was let off. The fact that
come down. Christo, creator of this, the 'biggest Documenta had no widow's cruse at its disposal
sculpture in the world', had miscalculated. What had little to do with it.
had been designed as the symbol of Documenta 4 To read the reviews you would have thought that
straggled across the grass like the wreck of the all was sweetness and light at Kassel. But a
R-37. Burst and inert, watched over by a solitary determination to be friendly can be positively
uniformed guard, it was a better symbol of the damaging. If the faults are not isolated and cured
Documenta than it could ever have been erect and the danger is that Documenta might never take
tumescent. For Documenta 4 went wrong. place again. Already dissatisfied artists have vowed
Documenta has established itself as one of the not to participate in the future. It is in all our
biggest and most important of the international interests that the dust should settle, the air be
art fests. It can be argued that it has proved itself cleared, and some radical changes made.
the best. No exhibition of this size can be uncon- Transport difficulties explain why most of the ex-
troversial and all those concerned with its organiza- hibition wasn't ready for the Press View, but they
tion and management must reckon with difficulties, don't explain why even a provisional layout of
accidents and near disasters. During the last four Documenta wasn't ready until as late as May. On
years the Documenta Committee have had more June 11 no-one had any idea of who was going
than their fair share of these. Committee members where in the sculpture park and none of the impor-
resigned; Arnold Rüdlinger, in charge of the paint- tant foundations had been made. On the Saturday
ing section, died and important artists left their before the opening the roof of the Alte Galerie
decision not to participate until the eleventh hour. where most of the sculpture was to go was still
There was a dockers' strike in America and the letting in the rain. Artists were arriving in Kassel
situation in France also caused transport problems. during the week of the opening to find their work
Student demonstrations in Milan and Venice sent there but unpacked. Workmen were in short supply,
shivers down the spine of the German members of carpenters and electricians worth their weight in
the Committee who had learned not to under- gold; they adamantly refused to do overtime. Tools
estimate the consequences of politically-inspired were scarce and necessities as obvious as ladders
mischief-making. A few weeks before the opening just couldn't be found anywhere. Communications
it looked as though many important dealers, among between artists and officials were non-existent and
them Leo Castelli, would boycott the exhibition. frustrated painters and sculptors thought that the
And finally there were the costs which rose as fast best thing they could do was get on with the un-
as time ran out. Some would argue that it was a packing themselves. The day before the Press View
miracle the show took place at all. all the lights went out promptly at four because
Near disaster is no stranger to Kassel. In 1959, the electricians had gone home and it was several
year of the second Documenta, a series of financial hours before anything could be brought in order
crises began. Public funds which had paid for the again. During the night after the Press View artists
exhibition had to be further raided to the tune of were still building screens, painting them and set-
£400,000 to wipe out the deficit. Since then the ting up their exhibits. At least two artists, having
holders of the purse strings haven't been too free been invited to exhibit, turned up in Kassel to find
with promises of money. Budget difficulties and that no space had been allotted them. Many of the
local intrigues postponed Documenta 3 by a year, sculptors, busily working through the night, were
and eight months before the opening only a speedy wondering what would have become of the exhibi-
and generous series of donations from artists tion if they hadn't bothered to pay their own fares
enabled the exhibition to take place at all. In over, preferring to save their money and stay at
spite of these donations and the creation of the home. In the haste, things got damaged. An Olitski
Documenta Foundation to sell them there was had buckled at the edges; several frames had
Documenta 4: again a massive deficit. Kassel and the State of splintered; a Phillip King had been chipped and
looked like an old enamelled cup.
Hessen who had already donated £70,000 had to
come up with £40,000 more. Things were also difficult for the Press. No idea of
a critical review After 1964 the number of pessimists grew. In an the show was given by the Press View because only
implied criticism of the liberality with which the about half the things were up and they were still
Documenta Committee disposed of the taxpayers' covered in polythene. Next day, when the public
money, city and state demanded that an organiza- was let in, the hanging in the Fridericianum was
tional committee, composed of professional less provisional at least, but nothing could be seen
comments from Frank Whitford committee-men and politicians, should be set up of the paintings for the best suits, print dresses and
Et Robert Kudielka to dampen the zeal and restrict the freedom of the picture hats. Writing up the show from the cata-
selectors. In spite of this, Documenta 4 looks like logues, a well-worn ploy, was on this occasion as
making a bigger deficit than ever. difficult and afterwards as revealing as criticizing a
Organisers of full-scale art shows must reckon with play from the programme on the night the theatre
gigantic costs. Exhibitions rarely stay within the burns down. To judge from the reviews it was what
limits of original budgets. In America donors can most critics resorted to. In spite of their definitive
always be found to guarantee unforseen additional and substantial appearance the catalogues proved
costs; in Europe the situation is very different. In to be as provisional as the exhibition on Press Day:
spite of generous helpings of taxpayers' money, it full of misprints and misinformation and never
seems clear that Documenta is not getting enough. sure of what was being exhibited and what was
The Federal Government, for example, allows only not. The biographies were sketchy and often down-
£10,000 for a piece of propaganda which, staged right wrong and the documentation, details of
hard up against the border between the two exhibitions and so forth, were incomplete and mis-
Germanies, does the Federal Republic more good leading. At £4 for the two the catalogues were
than either Kassel or Hessen. Compared to the pretty much a useless luxury.
money flowing like water from Bonn to Munich If the critics on Press Day were bewildered by
for the next Olympics, it is a laughable contribu- the advanced chaos in the museums, they grew
tion. angry during the Press Conference. If they arrived
But these grave difficulties do not explain all of at the Rathaus at the announced time, they found
the chaos which reigned in Kassel even after the the tiny Conference Room in a state not unlike a