Page 53 - Studio International - February 1969

New York

commentary

John McCracken at Robert Elkon; George the room, and that the traffic is necessarily McCracken wishes to introduce. The viewer
Segal at Sidney Janis; Robert Whitman at uncontrolled. McCracken's softly finished must pace in measured steps in order to
the Jewish Museum; Isamu Noguchi at white columns could, under other circum- derive the kind of visual and kinetic pleasure
Cordier and Ekstrom; Sven Lukin at Pace; stances, appear sepulchral. As it is, there is this architectural art provides. As austere and
Brice Marden at Bykert. the intrusion of the designated function of that undifferentiated as it is, the piece still sug-
room—commerce—to deal with. gests the kind of aesthetic effects sought by
The student of gallery announcements will
McCracken's exhibition is nevertheless one of the more inspired landscape architects at one
have noticed a shift in style. What with the
the most successful of the recent exhibitions time. It does, in this sense, create an environ-
emphasis on 'environmental' art of late, the
of so-called environmental art. The nature of ment.
dealers have taken to sending out photos of
the experience he offers is essentially archi- As soon as the word environment is introduced,
environments—sometimes just plain environ-
tectural. But in removing the functional aspect however, I always wonder what it is the
ments, like somebody's kitchen or backyard,
of architecture, he forces the spectator to environs of. These disembodied architectural
and sometimes adorned with the faces or
experience this series of related shapes in gestures which are sometimes called sculpture
derrieres of members of the family, either the
terms of a single articulated spatial pheno- decidedly raise the question. McCracken's
artistic or real family. If the artist is eager to
menon. The fact that these are not load- columns, for instance, are more compelling
shock, these rather large photo posters can
bearing columns gives them the air of without the messy and uncontrollable presence
range from mug shots reminiscent of the
fantasy that a Bibiena stage-set might have if of the human being. But bereft of the human
police station, to orgy scenes calculated to
removed from its natural environment. Cer- being, they are rather wan. They give a
rouse the interest of police stations. These
tainly the illusion of diminishing perspective fleeting promise of being some place, but it
announcements, however, are sharing the
is indispensable to the space sensation turns out that they are really no place. They
mails with another, quite different variety of
announcement.
I don't know quite how to categorize these
others. They are cool, sophisticated and some-
times baffling. They contain algebraic formu-
lae; scenarios for events; mysterious numer-
ologies and graphs of all sorts. They could
either be seen as intellectualistic put-ons, or
genuine symptoms of the eclipse of painting
and sculpture. All the talk about the dis-
appearance of the art object as such might be
confirmed if the evidence of these announce-
ments is to be trusted, for no art objects are
ever represented.
On the other hand, last year's announcements
on graph paper have been superseded by
announcements on architects' blueprint paper.
When I received the ELKON GALLERY'S
announcement of the John McCracken show,
it turned out to be an authentic blueprint for
simultaneous shows in Los Angeles and New
York. McCracken appeared to have studied
the spaces of each gallery, and composed his
exhibition accordingly.
As I've never been good at reading floor plans
on blueprints, I went to see McCracken's
show. It had been described as a single piece
consisting of fourteen plywood units to fill the
entire gallery space. The description was
exact. McCracken has constructed in gener-
ous proportions fourteen squared white
columns which march along the rectangular
gallery in precise rhythms, creating a centre
alley that has something of the allure of
Hadrian's wall.
Since gallery-plus-columns is conceived as a
single spatial experience, there is certain
distraction in the fact that a door opens into