Page 57 - Studio International - September 1969

John Latham
Skoob tower 2 (Punch)
burning outside the Senate House, London, 1967
2
Barry Flanagan
card for
A hole in the sea (Scheveningen, Holland)
in the film Land Art,
Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum, March 1969
3
Carl Andre
144 pieces of lead
12 x 12 ft
exhibited at Dwan Gallery, New York
April 1969, together with 144 pieces of magnesium
and 144 pieces of copper

life from that of their fellow men, and as a effect our physical environment, but it will he has seen it: not in its familiar role or func-
scar of the battle to reconcile the two. The change the means by which we feel able to tion, but as the potential embodiment of a
amount of attention devoted to the artist's assert ourselves within this environment. changed attitude to life. In the artist's hands
shown work by practised observers—let alone `Once a perceptual change is made, one does passive materials become potent. 'Art is what
casual spectators—is very rarely, in situations not look at it but uses it to see the world. It is we do. Culture is what is done to us' (Andre4).
like ours, an even remotely adequate return only visible at the point of recognition of the A medium is no more than the means of
for the commitment which attended its reali- change. After that, we are changed by it but isolating, by emphasis, what has been selected
zation. The apparent irrelevance of an art to have also absorbed it' (Robert Morris2). It is or conceived. Conceptual works, which mani-
the functions of the society that has harboured no longer necessary for the artist to make his fest themselves solely through information,
it may sometimes best be seen as a condemna- work finite in terms of area or form; it need demand the same degree of precision as other
tion of the society rather than of the art. At be neither tangible nor visible so long as his work in the relationship between idea and
such times the artist and those who respond particular intention will carry into 'mental medium. The conceptual work of art will be
unequivocally to his art will be particularly space' without an object to remember it by. potent to the extent that its means of formula-
hard pressed to maintain their commitment `The event is permanent' (John Latham3). tion and presentation secure its isolation from
and their vision. No one over-riding theme has been imposed the contaminated areas of our previous experi-
So far as they manifest themselves through the upon the exhibition 'When Attitudes become ence. Joseph Kosuth's categories, extracted
official organs of patronage, our 'permissive' Form', but virtually all the artists represented from the thesaurus and published without
democracies effectively work to subvert the would appear to share a dissatisfaction with explanation in newspapers or journals or on
real power of art. A commitment to radical the status of the art work as a particular object hoardings, operate in situations where our
art is a commitment to change the circum- in a finite state, and a rejection of the notion attention is focused upon their absolute
stances, however personally gratifying, of one's of form as a specific and other identity to be abstractness and separateness; i.e. where there
own life. An exhibition like 'When Attitudes imposed upon material. Where particular is no use for them and no justification of their
become Form' can act as an encouraging show objects are involved they tend to be anony- presence. The categories selected — 'space',
of strength. The exhibition is characterized mous and as easily taken for granted as `matter in general', 'quantity', etc.—might be
by its extreme internationalism,' by its possible—chairs, tables, trestles, etc. In the best considered as relating to sculpture (certainly
variety, and by the breadth of the possibilities work materials tend to be used, if at all, as not — and this is important — to painting or
it suggests. objectively as possible, in situations where architecture) ; at the least they operate in an
Consciousness is easily tinged with grey and their inherent qualities act for themselves. art context. The possibility of 'Art as Idea as
soon becomes opaque. No one is entirely free. The artist reconditions life as we perceive it Idea' (Kosuth's phrase; a conscious reference
But the artist who can give to a gesture, a by invoking the possibility of a different to, or development of Reinhardt's 'Art-as-
material, a process or a state ofmind a purpose order of priorities. In a culture where materials Art') is maintained through the anonymity of
and potency which we had not previously are assessed according to their scarcity in the presentation. Once the 'idea' is embraced
conceived has enlarged our potential range of relation to their usefulness for economic, it can be explored within an art—i.e. useless
activity and response. Such work often acts military or propaganda purposes, Carl Andre's —context, through its multiple aspects, for as
primarily to negate particular uses or qualities series of sculptures involving different metals long as the mind can conceive in terms of
associated with things or actions in a specific in identical configurations acts powerfully to words and their meanings rather than lang-
cultural context, replacing these with other redress the balance. First make sure you have uage and its message.
associations. By thus apparently realigning the assessed the material objectively; then use it By a splendid paradox, Kosuth succeeds with
behaviour of natural materials or readjusting in the way its nature suggests. The implica- words as an artist by being essentially non-
the potentialities of certain processes of tions of Andre's works are not confined to the literary in his use of them. To formulate a
thought and action in relation to our previous specific cultural situation but, like all signifi- concept and to isolate it thus is not necessarily
experience of them, the artist emphasizes the cant art at any period, they can be seen `easier' than to construct an abstract sculp-
relative mutability of what we perceive in objectively to bear upon it. ture. Both need to be purged of those refer-
contrast to the enduring faculty with which we Such art acts essentially by isolating. The ences to other things, states or ideas which
perceive it and the enduring will with which artist focuses our attention upon the material might subvert their particular identity.
we order it. A changed attitude to life may not in a context which will enable us to see it as That one should be able to conceive of both