Page 54 - Studio International - July-August 1969

London

commentary

TONY SHAFRAZI AT TABERNACLE STREET;
ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER AT MARLBOROUGH,
TO JULY 4; ROBERT DOWNING'S SCULPTURE
AT THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY,
9 JULY-24 AUGUST

centre of the floor, each of these volumes of shape and surface which seemed to me
glowed with its own special blend of pearl- the basis of Shafrazi's successes. His app-
escent and translucent cellulose lacquer. In roach to achieving his surfaces was also
the traditional, decorative sense of the word `serial'. Each piece was given three successive
they were beautiful—like fabulously irridescent layers of sprayed lacquer in different permuta-
jewels shifting and changing under different tions of three colours selected from red, yellow,
light conditions and spectator's positions. And blue, and green. (Four colours were chosen so
in the foggy land of flatly enamelled 'post- that each surface could be—not seem—differ-
cubist' sculpture, this direct and literal rad- ently composed.) The base layers were always
iance is extremely striking and refreshing. even, the middle layers varied in 'cloudlike'
Three aspects of Shafrazi's three-dimensional concentrations, the top layers were always
shapes contributed to the surfaces' artistic pearlescent and even. As an operative serial
vitality. As three-dimensional objects, their idea, this acts less artistically than as a recipe
basic format of a dominant plane parallel to for working procedure. And the results, again,
the wall or floor alluded to the traditional were uneven. Sometimes the combination of
category of `painting'; this association with three primary colours gave a truly light-filled
the 'pictorial' was nicely congruous with the brilliance and merged into something as new
colour-light basis of their surfaces' impact. as the mauve-ochre irridescence of the 7 x 1
And the slowly turned curve of all edges and ft piece now in the Arts Council collection.
corners—demanding fibreglass rather than the Sometimes the components were unevenly
less laborious vacuum-formed construction— operative in the results : like the red-yellow-
both : 1) acted to internalize each piece to- green 4 x 4 ft piece which came off with a
Most artists complain of the lack of working wards some central hidden focal-point, accent- red-green irridescence. And sometimes the
and exhibition space in London. It is a uating its special integrity as an isolated results were more colouristically muddy than
problem, but one solved with resourceful `beautiful object'; and 2) provided a varied anything else.
ingenuity by the young artists who lease the planar surface for light reflection which was If Shafrazi seems to be working with unre-
building at 45 TABERNACLE STREET, EC2. Not as subtly integrated into the dominant planar solved ideas and aims in this exhibition, it is
only have they found ample studio space, smoothness as were the modulations ofsprayed not totally surprising. He is very young;
but they converted the ground floor into a colour. And the extremely simple quasi- he has jumped rather far from his previous
white-walled, well-lit exhibition area for them- geometric shapes with slow curves accentuated flat-coloured separated-surfaces of less sen-
selves and their friends. Instrumental in this the sensuous elegance of their surfaces' optical sual 'minimal' objects, which I remember
conversion was Tony Shafrazi, who was the qualities. (Shafrazi seems to have developed as really awful; he also has the awkward
first of this group to publicly exhibit his work a penchant for this sort of three-dimensional position of being in London and very in-
there. His exhibition was set forth with great shape isolated on a flat plane: one sees it in volved with artistic ideas strongly operative
panache—with champagne served by an ex- his more 'Dada' series of progressively used-up on the West and East coasts of America. One
wrestler at the well-attended opening, a full- bars of soap and photographic series of pills cannot help thinking of the involvement with
page 'advertisement' in Artforum, an Arts and tablets.) colour and light from pseudo-metallic sur-
Council purchase, and work which would not The most disturbing thing to me in Shafrazi's faces on the part of Californian artists like
embarass any commercial gallery in town show was the over-all employment of simpl- Larry Bell and (particularly) David Novros;
(which is not exactly a compliment). As an istic serial ordering processes which seemed to simple quasi-geometrical forms and much
art-world event, Shafrazi's exhibition was a contribute nothing but irrelevant labour and more complex and completely operative serial
stylish work of art with tremendous internal sometimes inhibited the possibility of con- orders have been used in New York for years.
vitality. But I feel very ambivalent about the centrated achievement in optical beauty. To see such 'distant' styles synthesized with
contents—the 'object-matter' — of his show. It Shafrazi took the trouble to construct four such determined incongruity in London is in
was strikingly beautiful, but on second look its separate fibreglass moulds to achieve the simple itself amazing. It could only be done by some-
vitality seemed to rest mostly in the brashness serial progression of his dimensional shapes one with unusual courage, determination, and
of its stylishness and the quantity of work (all 6 in. deep) from 4 x 4 ft 'squares' to 7 x sophisticated naivete. These are important
necessary to its execution. 1 ft 'lines'. Yet this 'serial order' was rendered properties for an artist. If Shafrazi can get
Don't get me wrong: there is a great deal of irrelevant by the self-contained individuality past this stage of stylish experimentation to
visual magic in the colourful light-sensitized which he attributed to each piece. And this something more personally demanding and
Murano finishes of the two sets of fibreglass irrelevant 'necessity' of serialized working pro- internally consistent, he ought to blaze forth
volumes which dominated Shafrazi's show. cedures produced some shapes (like the in real rather than applied glory. q
Ranged along one wall and laid down the `squares') which inhibited the sensuous fusion BARBARA REISE