Page 32 - Studio International - September 1969

Cover
Structurist work # 351959-64, Red Wing
Painted aluminium
122 x 96 x 19 cm
Coll: Mr & Mrs M. A. Lipschultz, Chicago
1
Structurist work # 651968-69, Red Wing
Painted aluminium
97 x 71 x 7 cm
2
Structurist work # 26 1956-68, Red Wing
Painted aluminium
81 x 114 x 17 cm

artists have claimed Courbet and Cezanne, `The constructive syndrome',11 at the level of tion, presupposes a kind of constancy and
Monet and Mondrian, as prime sources of the work itself. uniformity of perception. But the opposite is
their creative sensibility, and none more than One clear ramification in this respect lies in true, for the final experience is one which
in the early post-war period. But Biederman, the function of colour, and those who have not impinges on human perceptions in a way that
in doing so, offered at that time a coherent, seen Biederman's reliefs before are often sur- is continuously diverse. For Biederman, the
uncomprising and committed proposition for prised at the intensity of colour and its optical presence of natural light is an agent of
a radical alternative to painting and sculp- complexity. This complexity depends upon singular significance in the process of pro-
ture which received an affirmative response certain conditions of viewing for its full jection from the object out into the natural
from this small group of English artists, and realisation, one of which is the presence of world, that completes the work, and, for the
was sustained with varying degrees of intensity natural light, which we are unfortunately spectator, effects the transition from a sense of
through later contacts. The effect of these con- denied at the Hayward Gallery. For Bieder- the actual to a heightened and sublime sense
tacts should not be underrated. But nor should man, colour and light12 are as essential of reality.
they be exaggerated or distorted, for this ingredients for each work as the substance What is finally made clear by this exhibition,
would do a disservice to both Biederman and and form of the structure itself. Natural light is that Biederman's work cannot be contained
those who have been in communication with is never constant or stable, and with its within the boundaries of any narrow ortho-
him. There are clearly many aspects of parallel changing intensity, variations of quality and doxy, but relates to a much wider context
concern, but equally there are areas of funda- temperature, and shifting emphasis of shadow than had previously been supposed. It illus-
mental disagreement, (regarding, for example and reflection across the surface, yields a con- trates as well the gap which, to my mind,
colour, mathematics, historical antecedents, tinuously transient and mobile relationship of separates Biederman's practice as an artist
and connections with the organic world,) and parts. There is an aspect of paradox in a from his exhortations as a pioneer theorist.
the present exhibition provides the first oppor- Structurist relief: the object itself, with its Whilst realizing that Biederman's writing
tunity we have had to focus on those aspects of orderly interior structure, its sense of presence represents a substantial contribution to the
dissimilarity between Biederman and other and corporeality, the visible facts of its parts dialectics of modern art, I personally find his
practitioners of what Anthony Hill has called and the dimensional character of its construc- arguments sometimes veiled in a mixture of