Page 37 - Studio International - September 1969

The centrality The initial assumption of this article is that age, may offer qualities that are of great
the works and writings of Charles Biederman value to the more sophisticated artist. But
of Charles are almost unknown to the wider public, as neither of these examples applies in any sense
they are to a considerable number of artists
to Biederman. In his case, it is not a matter of
and critics. The second assumption is that certain qualities which are embodied in his
Biederman Biederman is a central figure in the develop- work being capable of absorption within the
ment of contemporary art. There is a paradox gamut of contemporary styles. On the con-
here, which perhaps has the first claim on our trary, the salient feature of his work is the fact
attention. that it cannot be absorbed or assimilated. It
Stephen Bann What does it mean to be a central figure, constitutes, in its entirety, a powerful critique
but one who is at the same time virtually of the stylistic boundaries and divisions which
unknown ? we are liable to accept without question: a
There are, of course, a number of ways in critique that does not arise from the implicit
which an artist who has worked on the peri- statement of a primitive, but from the explicit,
phery may become interesting, and indeed entirely conscious statement of an artist who
influential, in the centres of artistic activity. is well-versed in the Modernist tradition.
The so-called primitive or naïve painter, The issues which I shall raise in this article
whose work cannot be accommodated within are all related to Biederman's critique. In
the range of contemporary styles, may achieve particular, they converge upon a notion which
a secure reputation precisely because of the is central to his thought, the notion of artistic
unexpected novelty of his pictures. On a few `evolution'. How does Biederman stand in
occasions, a figure like Alfred Wallis, who relation to the historical evolution of Western
passed his life quite oblivious of the art of his Art, which he has both analyzed in critical