Page 45 - Studio International - January 1969

which are basic to the formation of art—the
line, the circle or the square. These works fulfil
Tucker's dictum that sculpture is 'a proposi-
tion about the physical world ... and by impli-
cation about our existence in the world', but
where the sculpture of the New Generation
works as person to person, physically, the
sculpture of younger artists like Long works as
person to person metaphysically. It is that
much more abstract. His outdoor sculptures
embody particular experience in the context of
landscape just as certain places—ruins, church-
yards, battlefields or ancient camps—tran-
scending the picturesque, embody as evidence
the human experiences for which they have
been the occasion. 'Sculpture is another poetry,
not painting's poor relation'14; if so, then Long
is a landscape poet. He is undoubtedly a sculp-
tor of real originality.
Younger sculptors in Britain now are explor-
ing areas of unprecedented breadth and
variety. It is important to stress the role
which has beers played in the development
of this situation by sculptors of several genera-
tions who have all contributed to open up the
field of possibilities. The preoccupations of
younger sculptors must be different from those
of their predecessors and their mentors. I hope
that I have not given anyone grounds for sup-
posing that, by emphasizing the originality of
certain younger sculptors, I wish to discredit
the achievements of those whose works have
posed problems for them to overcome. Its
strength and variety in depth is the most
valuable aspect of British sculpture at this
time. The climate of serious commitment and
investigation over a wide area, and the pre-
sence of individual sculptors of real originality
within each age group, will ensure that sculp-
ture in this country continues to develop. That
development will be of vital interest and im-
portance for many years to come not only for
the development of art, but for the vitality of
our whole culture at its most exalted leve1.0

1 It is important to realize that most of the sculptors
of consequence who have emerged from St Martin's
have passed through the advanced course and arc
not simply graduates of the Dip. A.D. course.
2 In Studio International, June 1968.
3 In First no. 2.
4 Notes by Tucker published in the catalogue of Tim
Scott's exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in
June July1967.
5 Tucker, ibid.
6 Tucker, ibid.
7 In conversation.
8 See Studio International, February 1968, p. 87.
9 See Studio International, October 1968, p. 164.
10 I discussed King's development from single-
object sculpture to sculpture with separated forms
in an article in Artforum, December 1968.
11 Illustrated in Studio International, September
1967, p. 99, together with 4 casb 2 '67.
12 From an unpublished statement by Louw, 1967.
13 From a letter to Anthony Caro dated June 1963
and subsequently published in Silas, a magazine
which Flanagan helped to edit at St Martin's be-
tween September 1964 and June 1965.
14 Tucker, in First no. 2.