Page 35 - Studio International - September 1968

below Louise Nevelson Shadow and reflection pursues themes such as the isolation of two figures vations, after the work that was shown in Kassel.
separated only by a windowpane (The restaurant The first impression of all three sculptures —Cubi
bottom Fernandez Arman Torso with burnt violin window) or a woman washing one of her feet in a (twice) and Zig—was that this could not really
washbasin with her back to the observer—in other be the work of the master: should one check in the
words, when he confines himself to his main theme catalogue to make sure ?
of distance, alienation and solitude—he proves his The difficulty of ageing gracefully is not restricted
position as the leading sculptor of figurative art. to Pop Art. The next surprise after David Smith
When he attempts a plot-like theme, however, as was the feeling of insecurity conveyed by Al Held's
in The legend of Lot, the magic of renunciation recent work. Al Held produced the exhibition's
vanishes. In a similar way the work of Shusaku longest picture—Greek garden, 17 metres long—and
Arakawa is dependent on an implicit story, which the clearly undigested giant format witnessed to
fulfils the function of an aesthetic stimulus struc- the crisis which Held is clearly going through at
ture. His application of the mental approach of the present, as did also his attempt to induce a space
Far East to the formal language of modern painting element through surface echeloning— something he
results in paintings which hover expressively be- formerly strove to avoid (Mao). Richard Smith,
tween familiarity and alienation. Nevelson and Arman, however, are nothing if not
Insofar as the predecessors and protagonists of secure: they seem to have landed on the safe
Pop Art have not developed further in the direc- terrain of elegance, perfection—and, unfortunately,
tion of this New Representation, their work reveals standstill. Smith's shaped canvases have lost much
either stylistic discrepancy— vide Rauschenberg—or of their visual conviction, together with their
a lowering of the general level, as in the work of expressive, forceful shaping. Smith, however, is not
Dine, Johns, Kitaj and Lichtenstein : it may be quite so obviously moving into the field of the
that the assessment of their work to date needs decorative as is the case with Louise Nevelson. By
correcting altogether. It is to the credit of Docu- transposing her constructions from wood into
menta 4 that stress has been laid on this phenome- plexiglass she has lost considerably in artistic sub-
non, with works from different stages of each artist's stance, as the new element of transparency profanes
development. Robert Rauschenberg is represented the particular magical and sacral values of her art.
in the Fridericianum by two of his best paintings— Fernandez Arman seems to have but little of his
Wall Street (1961) and Almanach 1962. His more former aesthetic agressiveness: he now produces a
recent work, which is shown in the Galerie sort of 'art in aspic'—smashed-up violins and open
Schone Aussicht, is a sell-out of the many-levelled paint tubes in serial form, nicely packed in plexi-
combine painting to the mechanical function: glass cubes, or busts for the salon.
the rotation of plexiglass sheet and the automatic Whereas recent art reveals, to some extent, a
mechanism of a sliding door take on a greater worrying tendency to weakness and a lack of sty-
importance than the artistic intention underlying listic cohesion, the work of the older generation
these works. Jasper Johns has kept strictly to the often shows unbroken freshness and vitality. The
medium of the painting, but unfortunately the most exciting example of this is the room in which
three works shown conform to their dates of origin works by Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis hang
—1964, 1965, 1968—in their disconcerting decline front to front. As against the more recent work of
in quality, the more so as the significance of the ear- Noland, Louis must almost be considered an avant-
lier work is underlined by a special show of thirty- garde painter. The 'open form' that Noland so
one of his prints. The most recent productions of Jim consistently took over from his master, and which
Dine and R. B. Kitaj are in no better case. The he was so careful to develop further, seems to have
artistic intelligence which otherwise characterized been given up in favour of a traditional, nearly
the literary leanings of R. B. Kitaj is sadly lacking; constructivist approach. His stripe formations are
Dine's assemblages now confine themselves to massed in such a serialized fashion that they seem
the citation of sparse associations by means of almost to compete with Op Art. What is new in art
super-abstract references. However, the big dis- does not necessarily correspond to what is new in
appointment is the negative development of Roy the calendar; what technically belongs to the past
Lichtenstein since 1967. Without seeming to arouse is not necessarily superseded by the developments of
the impression that he has changed more than his the present. This is also true of Rupprecht Geiger's
subject—why not classicistic for a change, instead of monochrome pictures and Joseph Albers' squares'
comic strip or action painting ?— he has in reality although some offence may be taken at Geiger's
basically revised his concept. Instead of using a use of luminous paint, and in the case of Albers
ready-made image in his pictures, he exploits such the organizers are to be congratulated on their
an image—in this case the dot grid—for the con- selection of six outstandingly good paintings. The
struction of a totally new and abstract work. dominance of the older over the younger generation
Among the pop artists who seem to have been is especially clear in the field of sculpture, where
rated too highly, on a retrospective view, is Robert Eduardo Chillida has hardly any competition to
as proved by the example of Allen Jones's work. His Indiana. (In the case of Richard Hamilton, it face—and this impression remains valid even when
sexual symbolics have now come so close to simple would perhaps be preferable to say that he is one considers that one of the most interesting
psychological release phenomena that the real hardly represented at Documenta his best work.) phenomena of modern art, the new sculpture of
identity of the picture is dominated by the picture's Indiana's favourite colour-contrasts—red-green, England and Italy, is only very scantily repre-
effect on the observer. Richard Lindner and Tom blue-red—do not really satisfy aesthetically on sented at Documenta 4.
Wesselmann, however, have succeeded in preserv- a long-term basis—just as little in fact as the The success of the older masters is closely con-
ing the individuality of the erotic image. Lindner's numeral theme or the word 'LOVE', however nected with the observation that many significant
armoured matrons and business bosses with their much sympathy this particular theme may have problems in modern art, although posed years ago,
extreme surfaces are right up-to-date artistically. succeeded in winning. All it amounts to is attractive have not yet been solved and that radicalization of
Wesselmann has an odd companion in the Italian stencil painting. The nine works that Hamilton the problems themselves has in no way helped to
Domenico Gnoli : what breasts and bikinis are to the has on show do not, any of them, fully convince; bring about a solution. First of all there is the
one, upholstered chairs and collars are to the other. they are all the products of careful reflection and problem of reduction : is it possible to reduce
Their fetishes are sharply and precisely rendered delicate preparation, and yet often academically artistic content to basic, atomistic elements—or
in large-dimensional terms and form a magic lifeless— I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (1968) — would this mean that an analogy with science is
interim between image and reality. or commercially perfectionized (Guggenheim re- taking the place of the artistic content itself? This
George Segal is less concerned with the represen- liefs). Nevertheless, Hamilton's conceptual sure- question seems all the more inevitable after the
tation or fetishization of objects than with man's ness enables him to maintain a certain niveau, which aesthetic positivism of Primary Structures and
relationship to the things around him, and the can only be said of the sculptor David Smith, Minimal Art. Then the problem of colour-form: is
interrelationship of human figures. When he another key figure of the moderns, with some reser- there a specific colour-form—or is the primacy of