Page 59 - Studio International - January 1969

Paris

commentary

`Art interests me in the
same way as tribal mores
interest the anthropologist—Buren

Buren at 'Prospect '68' at Düsseldorf, September 1968

There are, I feel, a few basic ideas to be con- noticeably changed since man first made hand hand they present an objective analysis of art
sidered before discussing the work ofBuren and imprints on cave walls. The only development, and on the other new concepts which, to my
his friends. First of all, these ideas are the out- the only progress that has been made, is ex- mind, are connected with art only in so far as
come of an objective look at art from its begin- clusively in the means of expression. Thus, they fundamentally question the whole role of
nings. Each work of art is the fruition of its when all is said and done, our advance has art.
creator's sensitivity and is directed at the sen- been of a technical nature only. So far as art is For more than a year Buren and three friends
sitivity of the beholder. concerned, the change has been in form with- put on a series of demonstrations.
The forms taken by an artist's sensitivity, and out affecting the fundamentals. It is a purely On January 3, 1967, at the Salon de la Jeune
indeed by its opposite, can be manifold, but it technical development. The history of art is the Peinture at the Paris Museum of Modern Art,
determines his choice of subject — flowers, a history of the technique of art. Illusion's great the four of them painted in public from eleven
woman, war, his environment, movement, the attraction remains undiminished because tech- in the morning until eight in the evening to
contrast or harmony of colours, the contrast niques have continuously developed. Thus the show how simple their techniques are. They
or harmony of form— and whatever his subject outcome of the creative act can only be illusion, also distributed a leaflet which said :
the artist's aim is to translate his personal feel- in that an artist's job is to select from his en- `Because painting is a game,
ings into a work of art. Artistic creation thus vironment or from within himself an object, a Because painting is the application (conscious-
boils down to the exploitation of his personal light, a form, a movement, and to remove them ly or otherwise)' of the rules of composition,
problems, either by translating his problems from their context in order to transform them Because painting is the freezing of movement,
into universal terms or sinking his own in- into a work of art. The illusion lies in the fact Because painting is the representation (or in-
hibitions in his work. 'Everybody, hence me', that a work of art is a space in which material terpretation or appropriation or disputation
or 'me, hence everybody'. To express himself or spiritual odds and ends taken out of context or presentation) of objects,
the artist must both receive and transmit. are deposited and which, we are persuaded, Because painting is a springboard for the
If art is both an illusion in itself and the illusion form an entity. imagination,
of communication, what does it mean to the This problem of illusion in art is the problem of Because painting is spiritual illustration,
public? A doubtless unconscious complicity is communication. As art has always been a Because painting is justification,
established between artist and spectator. The pseudo-realistic or symbolic representation of Because painting serves an end,
artist offers an illusion which the public non-communicable feelings, what else could it Because to paint is to give aesthetic value to
accepts. In so doing, the public, consciously or be but the illusion of communication? flowers, women, eroticism, the daily environ-
otherwise, in fact rejects reality. Which re- Communication takes place at the level of the ment, art, dadaism, psychoanalysis and the
duces art to the level of entertainment. artist's own proclaimed beliefs, and to see war in Vietnam,
During the time that a spectator takes to look something more than this in a work of art is to We are not painters.'
at, or even to think of, a work of art, he is no bring one's own sensitivity into play. But by Throughout the day a tape-recording in
longer quite alone, alone with himself, alone clinging to an illusion, this very sensitivity will French, English and Spanish repeated 'Buren,
in a hostile environment. Thus the complicity be lost in the gulf which separates the signi- Mosset, Parmentier and Toroni advise you to
between the artist and his public reaches a ficant from the expressed, intent from deed. use your intelligence'.
state of blindness—the one blinding and the The beholder will have had no more than the That evening they withdrew their canvases
other allowing himself to be blinded. illusion of communication. from the Salon saying they opposed Paris
It is, however, possible to find another criterion This cursory but fundamental analysis of art is salons as the 'heritage of nineteenth-century
—which alone explains the fact that there is a possible today because art is more in evidence salons' and 'galleries which abet public laziness
history of art. The artist is constantly striving than ever. It is an obvious illusion, an illusion (each gallery being a place of pilgrimage for
for greater perfection of expression. His aim is of communication, an aesthetic hedge against a public intent on self-consolation)'.
to progress, to reduce the distance between the inflation, a technical entertainment: today art On June 2, 1967, at 9 p.m. in the auditorium
significant and the expressed and to give is more self-conscious than ever. Seen in this of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (entrance 5
greater universality to his own problems. Prob- context, the attitudes of Buren and his friends Fr.), four canvases by Buren, Mosset, Parmen-
lems are not hard to acquire. They have not are perhaps more comprehensible. On the one tier and Toroni were displayed on a platform
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