Page 45 - Studio International - September 1968

through the total form of the work. It is an abso- mon a determination that the intimacy and in particular, the lines of luscious acrylic impasto
lute demand of abstract painting of a non-formal integrity of their own experience shall never at the edges and along the bottom of the painting
kind that it shall be of a size which compels the be compromised through the misuse or misunder- (as it was hung when I saw it) close off a wide
spectator to respond physically, to think of height standing of their art. But there is a danger, in central area of transparent blue which is emotion-
in relation to his eye-level and breadth as a prescribing the precise function of art in life, that ally empty. These lines, however richly painted,
distance to travel. The greatest change the Ameri- our experience of the art so produced may cease to can never save a bad painting; they can only
cans have made to our concept of art has been in be relevant, as the conditions of life change under destroy or confirm a good one. The element of
establishing the painting or sculpture as an object pressure, to our experience of life outside the risk must already have been exhausted by the time
which represents the person of its creator in a gallery. It seems to me surprising, where emphasis the colour area of Gearing up was established. In the
relationship to the spectator which is as intimate as is laid so heavily by the artists on the integrity end the expression of sensation through colour de-
the physical relationship between two people. of personal and particular experience, that criticism mands a deep involvement with surface on the part
(Perhaps the explorations which Noland, Olitski, of their art that should hitherto have been so of both painter and spectator, and I found the
Poons and Caro have been making into horizontal markedly restricted to consideration of the success surface of this particular work as empty and mono-
extension may be seen as attempts to break the or failure of the means of expression, and should tonous as I found the surface of Six steps mannered
formal restrictions imposed upon them by their have been so little concerned with the quality of and composed. If a figurative association develops
conception of art as personal and intimate, with- the experience expressed. It is possible that the at this stage there will be no alternative experience
out at the same time losing the sense of human experience of an exhibition like Olitski's at the strong enough to dislodge it and the intention of
physical involvement.) We are at present, quite Kasmin Gallery (and to a certain extent Noland's the painting will have been frustrated. Olitski was a
rightly I'm sure, suspicious of art with pretensions which preceded it—though I concede that neither matter painter in the mid/late fifties and on this
to heroism and of artists who achieve public was necessarily representative) demands a sub- showing he is at his best when his surfaces are rich
success. The success of a painting by Picasso jugation to sensual (or optical—to use the patrician and, in terms of sprayed paint, heavily worked.
depends upon our ability to recognize its subject term) experience which becomes increasingly The deep coating of yellow which builds up across
and thence to perceive how the painter's dexterity costly in terms of our other involvements. There's the centre of Yellow Looshe sustains a considerable
has transformed it in the interests of his self- nothing against an art which makes heavy demands emotional intensity. One senses the clash of green
expression. The approach of a painter like Olitski —all great art is demanding in some way—so long and red around the sides of the painting as the
is the exact antithesis. It is as if the modern as what is required of us is an extension and not a edges of a background area of tension against
abstract artist were unwilling to take liberties with limiting of our sympathies, our understanding or which this yellow has been weighted until re-
anything outside himself and hesitant to impose our critical faculties. We need to be sure that we're solution is achieved in a grand diagonal sweep
himself upon anything he has not created. Olitski's getting taken out, not in. across the centre of the painting. Once again the
paintings demand to be seen as wholly abstract. There was a coolness and wit about Larry Poons' pacing is vital. It is as if one becomes involved,
It is reasonable to assume that whereas the subject recent show at Kasmin's which saved it from look- through involvement with colour and its structure,
of a cubist painting will assert itself increasingly ing indulgent. The least successful of the Olitskis, in the episode of composition and the event of
as a physical reality, the accidental reading of a for all the astonishing technical accomplishment resolution. Whether you like what you get in-
landscape reference into a painting by Olitski—in they display, have the air of giant invitation cards volved in—who you are getting involved with—is
Six steps (Kasmin), a division of colour seen as a to a party at which every marvellous girl is wearing what really matters in the end.
horizon, a spray of paint as light off a field—will the same exquisite dress and where all the guests Charles Harrison
in time recede, if the painting is formally successful, are getting high on the same soft drug. There is an
as the abstract reality of the painting's mood as- emptiness about some of these paintings which is
serts itself as the only truth which that shape and in direct contradiction to the intention, which
those colours will sustain. sustains Olitski's best works, to open their surfaces
Noland, Olitski and Caro seem to have in corn- to rich feeling generously acted upon. In Gearing up

Jules Olitski
above Pink Sleep 1968
water-based acrylic on canvas 43½ x 133½ in.

facing page Gearing up 1968
water-based acrylic on canvas 84 x 144 in.
Courtesy Kasmin Gallery