Page 38 - Studio International - January 1969

It is an important truth that abstract art,
Some recent especially abstract sculpture, is potentially not and by bringing in younger teachers whose
work was at a comparatively early stage of de-
less but far more specific as to its identity than velopment, including Caro Paolozzi, and Frank
sculpture most figurative sculpture, and furthermore Martin, who had been head of the sculpture
that its references are less easily compromised department since 1952, was able to supervise
in Britain since they cannot even in part survive the kind the creation by the later fifties of an open ex-
ploratory situation. The fact that sculpture
of misuse or outright prostitution to which
Moore's work has often been subjected. The was being made and taught at St Martin's out-
by Charles Harrison quality of abstract sculpture cannot so easily side the diploma courses must have helped to
be verbalized, if it can be verbalized at all, nor attract those younger artists from many coun-
can its references be provided with literary tries who felt that the pursuit of sculpture
parallels which might offer verbal analogies in needed no excusing and was its own end.'
which to confine them. Artists understand that Six of these sculptors, Tim Scott, Phillip King,
what cannot be expounded is not necessarily William Tucker, Isaac Witkin, Michael Bolus
the less specific : its meaning may be superbly and David Annesley (all born between 1934
precise—we are deceived into thinking it in- and 1937), who had worked full- or part-time
comprehensible only because that meaning at St Martin's for various periods between 1955
cannot be decoded and reissued as language. and 1962, and who had received direct teach-
Truths and insights can take visual form. ing from Anthony Caro, were shown together
Sculpture is an entity which we experience at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1965 as a
visually; any non-visual interpretations and New Generation. The grouping has now lost
associations to which it is left open will com- most of its usefulness as individual styles and
promise its identity unless the formal logic of interests have diverged, but these sculptors had
the work acts to exclude them, or unless it is and still have in common the desire to make
specifically tailored to make particular use of constructed sculptures in which the sum of the
them. Sculpture which is truly abstract main- parts shall be a discrete experience perceptible
tains its identity by refusing to assume any other. only in visual and physical terms.
Henry Moore's sculpture has relied heavily The fact that the major stimulus to all ad-
Richard Long moveable sculpture Spring 1967 on our capacity to make associations and upon vanced British abstract art of the later fifties
white-painted hardboard and wood
the unpredictability of what is thus evoked was the influence of recent American painting
2a
Installation view of Richard Long's exhibition at the from the storehouse of our past experience of gave the younger sculptors two great advan-
Konrad Fischer Gallery, Düsseldorf, September 1968 animal and vegetable forms. However specific tages : a measure of real independence from the
2b the sculpture may be in its form, the response is recent past of European sculpture, which had
Card for the exhibition
showing the source of the sculpture inevitably random and uncontrollable to a cer- become, as Phillip King has said, 'an inter-
tain extent. Despite the scale and breadth of his national style with everyone showing the same
work the sculptor's responsibility is diminished neuroses' ;2 and an insight into the possibilities
in respect of the using of his ideas. of a large-scale abstract art which was not an
It is ironic that the great respect which Moore intuitive reflection of forces felt to move man
generated for the medium of sculpture in this from outside himself but, according to each
country, through the combination of his rig- man's singular experience and understanding
orous professionalism of practice and his deter- of his own world, a reflection of the order or
mined aiming at international stature, should disorder within him. A good painting by Pol-
have been largely responsible for generating lock or Newman is an object which takes its
the reaction against him. Moore's legacies have place in the world of things to represent the
been a conviction that major sculpture can be person of its creator in the light of his most in-
produced in England and a real concern for the tense experiences and with all the individuality
integrity of sculpture as an art. The concept of and independence of his particular character.
integrity has been modified and hardened by In the magazine of the St Martin's sculpture
sculptors from Caro onward into a standard by department which he edited in 1960 William
which Moore now appears to fall short in some Tucker, the most articulate sculptor of his gen-
respects. It is significant that Brancusi, who in eration, wrote in response to a question about
Moore's view had restricted sculpture to too tradition: 'Not a sculpture tradition. The pre-
narrow an area, became an example for the cedents are probably in painting and poetry'.3
new generation of how sculpture could become And later: 'Sculpture ... must have the gener-
more real by becoming more abstract. ality of the world : the identity of the object :
Anthony Caro worked as an assistant to the character of a human individual'.4
Moore from 1951 to 1953, when he began Where Moore's sculpture relies heavily on the
teaching at St Martin's. The advanced sculp- references it can establish outside itself, the
ture department at St Martin's was developed sculpture of the New Generation relied at first
partly to circumvent the restrictions imposed on keeping as self-contained as possible, making
by the N.D.D. courses upon those who wished itself felt entirely within the frame of reference
to experiment, especially to experiment with which is established by the very processes of its
the possibilities of abstract sculpture. (The formation. 'The object is a proposition—"sup-
N.D.D. assessments were made upon figurative pose such a thing should exist". There is no
work submitted to the Ministry.) By opting out longer any resistance in the traditional limits
of the N.D.D. altogether at a time when there of sculpture, Imitation and Material. The
was a clear-out of staff within the department, sculptor must now take responsibility for every-