Page 40 - Studio International - April 1969

Robert Smithson
A non-site (Franklyn N.Y.) 1969
161 x 82 x 110 in.

tains two simple 'T' forms diagonally upright of intellectual thought than plastic creation. 1966 exhibition included works whose simple
over the surface of the water in which they will He writes profusely. His 1966 exhibition at the volumes related to those of Morris and Judd in
be moored. Dwan Gallery was involved with concepts of a generalized way. But he used three-part
This integral relation with a fluid context dis- serial order; but unlike Andre's and LeWitt's, form, immediately setting itself off as a centre
tinguishes Grosvenor's work from that of his his concepts were relatively banal and with flanking parts—a 'composition' from a
friend Ron Bladen. Bladen's free-standing unrelated to physical form. An instance of this traditional past which they had rigorously
pieces are conceived as isolated beings, which was Alogon no. 2. It is a serial work in which the avoided in their multi-part pieces. Disturbed
need not be bolted into specific contexts but ten intermediary 'pieces' were differentiated by what he must have seen as a reductive sim-
maintain their presence anywhere. As indi- only by consecutive half-inch increases in the plification of past compositional form, Steiner
vidual objects whose 'presence' has a looming size of their basic units—dimension which was very impressed by Clement Greenberg's
emotional quality to it, Bladen's work is gen- had nothing to do with the basic measure of 1967 criticism of 'Minimal Art' as 'novelty
eralized in its relations with others. But it anything. More recently Smithson has gone form'. Exchanging his recent art-school per-
might well be considered a logical extension into documentation of concepts about 'earth- ceptions for Greenberg's vision, Steiner re-
into three-dimensions of the pictorial effects of works' : a stylistic position neatly between the treated from this 'newness' and in 1968
Rothko and Still, under whom Bladen studied currently fashionable extensions of Andre's presented post-cubist (i.e., still cubist) sculp-
at the San Francisco Institute of Fine Arts in and LeWitt's ideas. Smithson's 'Non-Sites' of ture painted in contrasting colours which
1945-7. As such, the internal life of Bladen's photographs and material extractions from accentuated its differentiation of related parts
objects is not so specified in its associations as real-life rock-quarries are consistently less in- in a neat cross-referenced, trans-Atlantic mix-
Tony Smith's work; it is based more on kin- teresting than rock-quarries themselves. This ture of David Smith and Anthony Caro. His
esthetic feelings than on modular form of the is partly due to the irrelevance of the segmented recent exploration of this stylistic position
whole. rhomboidal or repetitious square format which seems more integrated, and with his rough
If the work of Bladen, Grosvenor, and Smith his non-sites impose on their content. But it is determination Steiner may yet find himself
seems less conceptually complex and individu- also partly due to the basically academic in his niche.
ally particularized than that of Judd, Morris, nature of the artistic problem posed. 'Contain- The ability with which Steiner and Smithson
Andre, Flavin, and LeWitt, it does have a cer- ment' is parallel to 'memory' for a scholar, and pick up styles points out the fact that dis-
tain consistent unity. Their generalized con- when Smithson is confronted by a sublime site- cussion in terms of morphological style does
cepts are embodied in congruous forms; one experience, his primary artistic question is nothing but discourage a critical appreciation
has the impression that they understand what `How can one contain this "oceanic" site?' of art. Style is a cultural term—even Meyer
they are doing to its own limits. This does not (cf. his 'A Sedimentation of the Mind : Earth Schapiro writes about it in Anthropology Today.
seem to be the case in the work of Robert Projects', Artforum, September 1968, p. 50). Critics and artists who deal with style rather
Smithson and Michael Steiner. They seem to His answer is literal to the point of pedantry: than art are bound to leave no concepts of
be working in styles whose implications they he collects rocks and exhibits them in 'con- sufficient integrity to last longer than the time
do not control or perhaps understand. Which tainers' as sensuous in expression as a doctoral of their formulation. And the faster the notion
does not mean that their work has no interest thesis. of 'minimal style' is dropped, the better able
or aesthetic value. But compared to the others, Michael Steiner is more an academic aesthete everyone will be critically to appreciate the
theirs seems academically involved with style than intellectualizer. He seems involved more art of particular men. q
rather than art. with working in an idea of currently fashion-
Robert Smithson is more involved with styles able plastic rather than intellectual style. His