Page 21 - Studio International - December 1970

Hudson's contribution was one of several dozen News and notes Technology
and the content and standpoints taken varied con-
siderably. It was unfortunate that Mr Benthall
chose to be at Coventry on the one day when, and art 20
agreed, there was, manifestly, a 'lack of intellectual
coherence' which was well exemplified by the
panel game led by Jasia Reichardt. Mr Benthall
would have found the other ten days much more
intellectually stimulating, coherent and satisfying. Mrs Lilian Somerville, Director of the British
Secondly, the impression, is given that the Con- Council Fine Art Department since 1948, retired at
gress was mainly concerned with 'art-school art' the end of last month. Mrs Somerville organized the
whereas, of necessity, the main concern was the first British contribution to the Venice Biennale and
contribution art education makes within general has been responsible for all major British exhibitions
education. Whilst the training of artists and abroad since the year of her appointment as
designers is important it is only so within a SOcietal Director. She alSO represented the British Council
context and, after all, the number of individuals it on the Arts Panel of the Arts Council and was a ANTONIONI AND INDUSTRIALIZATION
affects is minimal compared to that of the general member of the Court of the Royal College of Art
education sector. and a member of the Purchasing Committee for the It was interesting to see again Antonioni's film
Over the last few years a lot of headway has been collection of the Stuyvesant Foundation. The Red Desert (now some six years old) just
made to take art education out of the aura of after the Hayward kinetics exhibition. This is
romantic woolliness Mr Benthall sampled. The Pop 70, the exhibition currently at Mayfair Fine not Antonioni's best-integrated film but it
identification of aims, purposes and the specifica- Art, 100 New Bond Street, London, offers a rare contains some powerful images of industrializ-
tion of objectives within art education has been opportunity to see recent work by Wesselmann
paralleled by a great deal of work in the field of (Bedroom Tit Box 1968-70), Rosenquist (States 1970, ation and machinery: the grey factory chim-
capacities and capabilities in relation to learning 102x 120x 120 in.), Indiana (Apogee 1970, 60 x neys smoking white or a sulphurous yellow,
in art. It is true that much remains to be done and 50 in.), Lichtenstein (Modular Painting with 4 Panels, and the robot toy which batters itself against
that, although there are fundamental questions No. 9 1970, 90 x 120 in.), Paolozzi, Segal and other the wall of the little boy's bedroom.
waiting to be answered, a solid foundation, which artists asSOciated with Pop. The exhibition also Antonioni's aesthetic fascination with tech-
is neither 'unacademic' nor 'vague', has been laid includes a scene from Warhol's film Trash.
for experimental and empirical investigation along nology is evident from this film : the shots of the
with philoSOphical analysis of roles and functions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York huge radio-telescope at Bologna can only be
The vacuum is nowhere near as mighty as Mr has introduced a new general admission charge at described as romantic. But the poisoning of
Benthall would have his readers believe. the main building at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. nature is more strongly stressed. It is hard to
Brian AlliSOn The policy went into effect at the Museum's branch forget the image of the factory complex where
Senior Lecturer in Education for medieval art, The Cloisters, in August. The new
Leeds Polytechnic Department of Art Education admission is hoped to provide critically needed (we are told) no birds fly, as they know the
Leeds income for the Museum which had a deficit for sulphurous fumes are lethal to them; or of the
1969-70 of about $1 million and anticipates an heroine (Monica Vitti) munching at a sand-
operating deficit for 1970-71 of $1.5 million. The wich she has just hysterically bought from a
admission is on a Pay-What-You-Wish-But-You
Henryk Gotlib Must-Pay-Something basis, which has SO far proved workman, amid scrap and detritus—she in the
Mrs Henryk Gotlib is compiling a catalogue of the very successful. Per capita admission for the first most elegant Parisian dress, some of the factory
works of her husband, Henryk Gotlib. She would show attended on these terms averaged $.74 and workers in protective clothing; or the shack
be very grateful to hear from present owners of his only 2 visitors out of the first 188,940 complained at beside a polluted river, where the executives
pictures, drawings or water colours, with details the introduction. and their women come for obscure weekend
such as when and where purchased, date of recreation; or the greyed fruit and vegetables
execution (if known), medium, size, subject and/or The Penwith Society of Arts is having a draw
title (if known) and if possible, a photograph. for over £2000 of paintings, sculptures, pottery, sold on a barrow; or the arrival of a ship in the
Replies to: The Grange, South Godstone, Surrey. drawings, prints etc., by St Ives artists on December fog flying a quarantine flag.
19. Tickets are £1 each and details can be obtained The poisoning of nature, and the physical
from The Penwith Society of Arts, Back Road West,
Downalong, St Ives, Cornwall. Money raised will
Correction go towards a new Print Work-shop in St Ives.
Charles HarriSOn writes: 'I made three unfortunate Electronic tactile device, multiple, by John Wood
errors in my article, 'A very abstract context', in The exhibition Les Arts en Europe will be held
the November issue: 1) In footnote 11, I omitted the in June 1971 at the Centre International Rogier at
name of Roger Cutforth from the constituents of the Brussels. Work in any of the arts is eligible and
Society for Theoretical Art and Analyses*; 2) The there are numerous prizes. Information and forms
date of Robert Morris's Metered Light Bulb is 1963, can be obtained from The Secretariat du C.E.A.E.,
not 1961 as I stated; and 3) the date of his Card File 35a rue Murillo, 1040 Brussels. Applications must
is 1962, not 1961. I am in good company in mis- be made by December 31, specifying in which field
dating the latter. Jack Burnham, in his review of of the arts the work is being entered.
the Morris retrospective in Detroit (Artforum, March
1970) gives both works as 1961 (following the Flatsfixed, a new experimental downtown gallery
catalogue perhaps?), and as apparently unim- has opened in New York at 453 West Broadway,
peachable a SOurce as the (otherwise thorough) New York 10021 (Tel. (212) 533-0690). Perform-
catalogue for Morris's recent Whitney Museum ances of avant-garde dance, music, theatre, film etc.
show lists the Card File as 1963. The CardFile itself, of will be held as well as exhibitions.
course, provides the answer where one would expect
to find it, under 'DATES' : July 1962. Some con- The International, Artist's Invitational, One-
fusion may have been caused by the first entry in the Man, One-Work, Continuous, Free Exhibition
file, under `ACCIDENTS': 'Accident 7/12/62, opens at the New York Cultural Centre on January
1 :03 p.m. Three minutes late from lunch due to 1 with the work of an artist invited by Robert
trip (See Trip 1.).' This could conceivably be read Rauschenberg and Sol LeWitt. Donald Karshan,
either as 12 July 1962 or as 7 December 1962; if the the Director of the Centre, describes it as a 'radical,
latter it would be reasonable to suppose that the new approach to meeting several of the more
file was completed early in 1963.' urgent needs of today's artist.' As the title suggests,
*Although I understand he is no longer a member artist will invite artist, the exhibitions will be free
of the group he did contribute to their earlier pub- and one work will be exhibited by one artist con-
lications. tinuously, each show lasting 2 weeks.