Page 23 - Studio International - December 1969

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of it. This being so, it follows that it is the Corres ondence authenticity which the expanding concept confers
linear character that I give to the frontiers on the frontier issues is conferred only for a short
between colour-areas that finally determines time and extends only for a short distance into the
interior, meaning in effect that those issues at its
the apparent colour of my colours. This must centre are more dead than those beyond its
be the reason why I have found myself in­ perimeter.
creasingly indulging, since about 1962, in This expansionist motivation lies at the centre of
ever sharper and more complex linear frontiers the idea of conceptual art. What strikes me as
between my colour-areas-because I had al­ important is the fact that the concept of expansion
which has taken place in twentieth-century art has
ready raised those colours to an undiluted been a multi-lateral rather than a multi-dimensional
maximum chromatic intensity by that date: expansion only extending the horizontal frontiers
yet despite this fact-that by 1962 my colours of art by a spreading encroachment on to already
were as bright and strong in themselves as it existing territory, conferring art status on all it
was physically possible to make them-my encounters. Expansion has proceeded by inclusion
and annexation. The flaw in the motivation is its
works since then have appeared to get steadily outer limitations. The idea that art can continue its
more brilliant in hue yet again. And this is multi-lateral extensions indefinitely smacks of the
attributable, firstly, to the increased sharpness contentions of the 'Flat Earth S9ciety', for it can
of the frontiers where the areas meet; and, only continue to expand until the art world and
secondly, to their linear nature, to their the real world are one.
Painting's self-questioning has also helped to extend
'drawing' in fact. And that drawing is spon­ the frontiers of art, but with Reinhardt's contribu­
taneous and unplanned. Perhaps I am the tion a crisis was precipitated in the relationship
first 'wobbly hard-edge' painter? between painting and art, or to be more specific,
Complexity of the spatial illusion generated the relationship between painting and Modern
along the frontier where two colours meet is Cybernetic Congress Art. Reinhardt, by employing rejective and
eliminatory procedures had, in his Ultimate Paint­
also enormously increased if the linear With reference to your extensive and informative ings, sufficiently isolated painting's essence to
character of those frontiers is irregular, report of the International Congress of Cyber­ establish a usable definition of painting's nature.
netics held in London from September 2-5, 1969,
freely drawn, intuitively arrived at. I have published in your Journal of October, 1969, may I Reinhardt thus became the last painter who, in
always been intrigued by observing the way point out that the General Meeting of the Congress extending the boundaries of painting, extended the
in which first the colour on one side and then adopted two far-reaching proposals: Firstly, that boundaries of art. Subsequent work (and here I
the colour on the other side of a common, but the Secretary be asked to explore the possibility of am thinking of Judd, LeWitt and Morris) through
eliminating painting's essence pushed forward the
irregularly drawn frontier dividing them, establishing a World Organization of Cybernetics boundaries of art beyond those of painting, thus
under UNESCO; secondly, that a Foundation
seems to come in front. As your eye moves be established backed by a capital of three million locating even the furthest outpost of that medium's
along such a frontier the spatial positions of dollars, its aim being to publish journals, sponsor territory well within the frontiers of art.
I agree with Mr Kosuth that the function of much
the colour-areas alternate-according, how­ research, found institutes, etc. Modern Art has been to conduct a dialectic with
ever, to the nature of the loops in that fron­ ·1 have to add that my exploratory work, consisting its own possibilities and to add to the concept
of contacting societies and individuals all over the
tier, rather than to any change in the colours­ world, is nearly at the end. With very few excep­ 'Art' by expansive inclusion, but I don't agree that
since these do not change. tions, the replies indicate wholesome support for this imperialist extension of art's boundaries is art's
These, then, are a few of the considerations the Congress resolutions. only fruitful dialectic nor its only v,alid function.
effecting my work and leading me into Yours sincerely What the continuing creation of art within these
boundaries does is to internally enrich, rather than
explanations which, in retrospect, have, I J. Rose externally extend the concept of art. It is true that
must say (and I am surprised to see it), the Hon. Secretary Modern Art has since Impressionism been pri­
appearance of having followed a logical and International Congress of Cybernetics marily concerned with the lateral extension of art's
c/o Blackburn College of Technology and Design
consistent course. But this logic is only Blackburn frontiers, but painting (and sculpture to a certain
apparent in retrospect, I may add. In painting Lancashire extent) at this historical juncture is seeking an
alternative to this laterality, an alternative' to
one proceeds intuitively, never knowing Modern Art, and this alternative lies in a Conserva­
which way things are going to go. Even an The case for conservation tionist, though not Academic, Abstraction.
account such as the one I have given here is Joseph Kosuth's contribution to the October Studio If the convervationist function of art is not accepted
only possible in retrospect. The 'explanations' International contained a fine exposition of the it will be because the validity conferred by the
I have just written down have for the most tenets of Conceptual Art and an able attack on the internal, vertical, domestic painting dialectic on
validity of painting. As a painter mys�lf I would
certain activities will be regarded as inferior to that
part only just occurred to me-because I am like to offer a defence. validity conferred on certain other activities by
having to write something about my painting. The central notion of the article was, as I under­ art's perimeter dialectic with its own possibilities.
Yet the linguistic form one's thoughts take, if stood it, that an artist's primary function is to It is my contention that this alternative source of
one has been requested to write, does some­ question the nature of Art, framing new proposi­ validity will provide sufficient motive power to
how take on the character of 'theories'-as tions as to what art is. These activities have, to be assure painting's present and future viability.
sure, added to our concept of art, but the style of
Painters cannot embrace the avant-garde virtues of
though the ideas expressed in this essay pre­ this addition leads me to think that it might not be the 'tradition of the new' nor can they emulate the
ceded the paintings they are in fact an the only form of enlargement that the concept subversive character of art frontierism, but the
attempt to comment on. All I can say to this could use. alternative values will no doubt prove as stimulat­
is that it often takes me weeks or months to This notion that art is only valid at its edges is not ing as the others and innovation and creation will
come to the point of accepting what I have brand new. In a piece from The Tradition of the progress, though maybe at a different pace.
New, probably written before 1959, Harold
painted. The only rule I follow while painting Rosenberg says: Painting is certainly a beleagured and horizontally
finite concept but it will survive because its makers
is this: I always allow my hand to surprise me 'With the Academy as his sole alternative, the and audience alike will continue to derive some
( the lines of all the frontiers in my recent contemporary artist must either find his way to the nonaesthetic satisfaction from it. Maybe the mesh
paintings are drawn-in in a matter of a few frontiers of art or cease being an artist.' covering the appreciation mechanisms of Mr
seconds): also, I always follqw impulse-for This form of art frontierism, which I take to be at Kosuth and others is not of the appropriate gauge
to permit this satisfaction to filter through.
the centre of Mr Kosuth's article, could involve
instance in the choice of colours; deliberation two modes of expansion; one, that art moves out­ Yours sincerely
is fruitless. But this does not mean that every ward from a centre, say Cubism, gradually David Sweet
act connected with the painting of the picture swallowing up objects and procedures and incor­ Hull
is not deliberate: it is. D porating them forever as art; or the other, that the Yorkshire
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