Page 30 - Studio International - March 1969

Neurath memorial lecture Technology ordinating or organizing technical resources.
By this I do not mean any simple superimposi-
The most important reason for the success of tion of order, but a more elusive organization
Thames and Hudson was possibly the personality and art
of its founder, the late Walter Neurath. He was which often cannot easily be analysed or para-
almost unique among publishers of art books in phrased by an observer or by the artist himself.
that he took a deep personal interest in art, archi- It is likely that the next generation of artists will
tecture and history, and brought to his enthusiasm not be physically and psychologically isolated
a high degree of learning. The list that the firm in studios, but professionals of the same kind as
produced while he was there reflects his broad THIS ARTICLE INTRODUCES A NEW COLUMN TO
taste and his belief in the necessity for a new APPEAR, MONTHLY, DEVOTED TO THE RELATIONSHIP architects or film directors. (Of course, the or-
approach to the publication of art books in this BETWEEN SCIENCE AND ART. CORRESPONDENCE, ganizer of a project has his own loneliness to
country. It is therefore particularly fitting that CONTRIBUTIONS AND INFORMATION WILL BE WEL- cope with, if all the members' separate activities
Thames and Hudson should now organize an COMED. can only be comprehended as a whole by him.)
annual lecture to be given in Walter Neurath's Essentially, technology may be seen as a storm-
memory. The lecture, held under the auspices of
Birkbeck College, will be on some subject in which Anyone who wishes to explore the new media ing of the citadel of memory: a progressive
Neurath was particularly interested. The first of expression offered by technology faces vari- systematization, or making explicit, of func-
lecture will be given by Professor Pevsner at the ous obstacles. One obstacle is the problem of tions for which human skills were previously
Beveridge Hall of London University on March 3. acquiring technical skills which may have been necessary. At a simple level, it is plain that the
His subject will be Ruskin and Viollet le Duc: lacking from an education in the arts. An artist computer supplants the office clerk, the wash-
Englishness and Frenchness in the Appreciation of
Gothic Style. The lectures for the next two years can acquire such skills for himself or he can ing-machine, the laundress, and so on. Occa-
have also been arranged. They will be by Professor borrow other people's. sionally a new invention presents a completely
Trevor-Roper on an aspect of the Baroque and It may be possible for him to acquire them new dimension of experience, or appears to;
Professor Murray on Piranesi. Thames and Hudson himself. Hopefully, there will soon be better but as it is developed the original skills that
plan to publish the lectures as a book. They will institutional structures than exist at present for made it possible become quickly redundant.
be given to the firm's friends as Christmas presents
and then sold to the general public in the following helping people trained in the arts who wish to One example, from the field of computers, will
January. extend their technical and scientific education. suffice. The 'operating systems' now available
It is not just academic teaching that is required, enable many of the computer-room functions
but also practical experience of the kind which previously performed by operators, schedulers
Rhythm magazine can only be got by making a contribution to and other staff to be taken over by sophisticated
The catalogue of the recent exhibition of the some technical project. At present, most artists software (programs) supplied by the manu-
paintings of Anne Estelle Rice, held at Hull who want to acquire specialist skills and know- facturer with the hardware. Interestingly,
University during January and February, includes ledge will have to use their own initiative. some of the old computer hands who have been
an interesting essay about Rhythm, which must have The alternative is to borrow other people's involved with electronic data processing since
been one of the most interesting undergraduate
magazines ever published. It came into existence specialist skills. This raises the issue of group its beginnings are having the same difficulty,
in the summer of 1911. Its editor, in his third year collaboration in art, an issue which nowadays on a reduced scale, in re-orienting to a new
at Brasenose College, Oxford was John Middleton seems to me rather important. It has long been environment as did the office staff whom they
Murry, who was assisted first by Michael Sadler one of the most telling criticisms levelled by the originally supplanted. The balance of respon-
and then by Katherine Mansfield. It ran to 'plain man' against artists that they are in- sibility has shifted to highly-qualified soft-ware
fourteen numbers, a long life for a publication of
this sort. Murry got to know a Scottish painter in capable of teamwork. The criticism is of course experts who design 'operating systems'.
Paris, J. D. Fergusson, and persuaded him to absurd if the term 'artist' is understood to in- As technology opens up more and more of the
become art editor of the magazine. Fergusson clude professionals in architecture, films, secrets of memory, so the true technological
exhibited with the Salon d'Automne in 1908 and theatre, opera and so on. But it has some valid- elite becomes smaller and smaller (with huge
through him Rhythm attached itself to the Fauvist
ity where the post-romantic visual arts are con- potential economic power, which we have only
cause. Anne Estelle Rice was a member of
Fergusson's group. She was born near Philadelphia cerned. The Groupe de Recherche d'Art seen the' beginnings of in the BOAC pilots'
in 1879 and died in London in 1959. Her work, Visuel's 1961 manifesto (quoted in full in Jack strike and similar incidents). So while it is at
before this exhibition to me at least completely Burnham's Beyond Modern Sculpture) attacked present an excellent thing for artists to learn
unknown, includes some good examples of the the 'cult of personality' in art—and the phrase about electronics, or computer programming,
Fauve-derived style that Mathew Smith, for with its political resonances is apt. Unfortun- the artistic imagination is unlikely to be satis-
example, also adopted. The exhibition included a
ately the orthodox career-path open to an fied for long with narrow and ephemeral skills.
portrait of Anne Rice's friend, Katherine Mansfield.
artist today—via galleries and museums—de- If technology is explicitness, then intelligence
pends very much on his establishing some per- becomes knowing what can safely be forgotten
Tart art sonal unmistakable style. Where collaborative or delegated. Once the principles of computer
groups have been formed, they have tended to programming, for instance, have been learnt,
One of the most unlikely pieces of post to reach
this office recently was a letter from a publication break up for one reason or another. the artist will want to press on to consider more
known as The British Baker. The writer, who wanted It may be helpful to compare the activity of, `comprehensivist' problems such as man/
to plug the journal's cake decoration competition say, a sculptor with that of a modern architect. machine communication, systems analysis,
to be held on March 20 at Caxton Hall, is anxious The sculptor may delegate some of his work and project planning and control.
that cake decoration and marzipan modelling
should be recognized as an art form. I didn't (for instance, procuring the right materials) to 'Comprehensivist' is a term borrowed from
know there was ever any doubt. Russian architects specialists, but on the whole he will be relying Buckminster Fuller, who has said 'If nature
have believed it for years and the famous marzipan entirely on his own experience. An architect wants to develop a specialist, she does, and if
mice from Lubeck are among the best pieces of has to coordinate the work of numerous con- nature wanted you to be a specialist, she'd
figurative sculpture I have seen.
tractors, sub-contractors and specialist ad- have you born with one eye and a microscope
visers, but the result may bear his personal fastened onto it.' In this column, I hope not
[News and comment is compiled by FRANK
individual stamp as clearly as does the lone only to keep track of developments in the field
WHITFORD]
sculptor's output. So in a way it is unimportant of art, science and technology, but also to open
whether the skills they co-ordinate are prim- discussion on ideas which are consolidating to
arily their own or primarily other people's : form a new comprehensivist sensibility.
what is important is the creative process of co- JONATHAN BENTHALL