Page 31 - Studio International - December 1970

Gonzalez is unique in the history of the Hair (1933-6) and the Large Maternity (1930- graphs Gonzalez's most fully-achieved large sculpture. In
modern movement as being a trained and 3) are again quite small, with very fine both pieces, the wholly linear mode seems to have gone
far beyond the original model (Picasso's Construction in
practising maker of craft objects before he details. Both are in the linear style deriving
Wire) in complexity and formal invention.
found himself as an artist. His connection with from Picasso's Construction in Wire of 1930,
2 While the organizers of the present exhibition had
Picasso and Brancusi, who separately trans- and in both the sculptor has left the com- done their best to replace bronze casts with the originals
formed sculpture in the years before the ponent parts clean and simple and has con- in iron, a great many of the pieces shown were casts.
First World War from a figure-based to an centrated on their joining and juxtaposition. Gonzalez himself apparently expressed the wish to have
his work in bronze, which except in one or two instances
object-based art, is therefore crucial to his The former is more original in structure, but
he was unable to afford. In my view one must question
development. Yet I have the feeling from the is somehow tight and predictable in articula- whether the artist was right; or if indeed he would have
Tate exhibition that even in the early 30s, tion. The latter shows an unexpected casual- approved the copies made after his death. An artist so
when the stimulus and confidence he must ness and variety, an individual character that, sensitive to material would surely not have allowed the
have derived from working with Picasso was as with the silver pieces, reveals a flash of a casts from silver and carved stone, for example; and the
practice of reproducing constructed rather than
still operating strongly, Gonzalez was torn clear and lively personal idiom that trans-
modelled sculpture in bronze means that a more than
between the competing claims of 'art' and cended both the immediate presence of mechanical element is introduced; while the definition
`craft'. He was incapable of the inspired Picasso and the recurrent pressures of a craft of surface may be correct, a degree of distortion that
simplicity, the directness of response to sensibility. might be acceptable in a continuously modelled volume
materials of his mentor; Gonzalez cannot These sculptures are enough, for me, to becomes crucial in terms of the 'drawing' of a linear or
planar sculpture. The essence of the constructive process,
leave well alone; almost every piece is over- establish Gonzalez as a fine, if rather limited,
as with carving, is that the sculptor is working in the end
crafted, over-worked; not the structure, but artist. However the major problem with material, and that the form of the finished object is
the surface and details are often elaborated to Gonzalez is emphasized rather than resolved conditioned by his interraction with that material. One
the point of obscuring the sculpture's funda- by the present exhibition : how can one must regret that Gonzalez, through poverty and lack of
mental rationality. reconcile his evident historical importance recognition in his own lifetime, could not have faced
this problem himself, and taken the final responsibility
Notable exceptions to this, and to my mind the with the modesty and hesitancy of his physical
for the work by which he has largely to be judged.
most beautiful and resolved of all Gonzalez's achievement? Without him the history of
sculpture, are the very small silver pieces modern sculpture would be quite different,
which he made in the middle 30s; of which and much poorer: Picasso would possibly 4
there were two in the Tate exhibition, the never have made the iron constructions of Small Dancer 1934-7
Silver 8¾ in. high
Head with a Triangle (1934-6), and the 1929-31, and David Smith would probably Coll: Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Little Dancer (1934-7) — both unfortunately never have turned to sculpture at all. Some- Photo : Galerie de France, Paris
in bronze casts, and the former badly bent. one had to be first in iron; the idea of con- 5
In these tiny sculptures Gonzalez's training struction which derived from cubist painting Bust of a Woman 1935-6
Iron 19⅛ in. high
and his aspiration are at one; all the parts are and collage had to find its ideal material in Photo: Francois Walch, Paris
made, rather than found; yet there is a clarity, sculpture. But Gonzalez's peculiar qualifica- 6
a control and an inventiveness about those tion for the role involved a corresponding Woman Combing her Hair 1933-6
Iron 511 in. high
works that suggest their scale and material limitation on his artistic potential, nor does
Coll : Moderna Museet, Stockholm
were ideal for Gonzalez's talent. There are his priority guarantee a more than circum-
7
other sculptures in the exhibition that show an stantial originality. In the last reckoning Montserrat Head (No 2) 1941-2
effective balance of ends and means, such Gonzalez's total output will not stand rigorous Bronze 12⅝ in. high
as the Harlequin (1927-9), the Gothic Man comparison with the originality and daring of Photo : Galerie de France, Paris
(1935), and the Large Venus (1935-7). The his predecessor or the ambition and breadth 8
Harlequin 1927-9
largest and most ambitious pieces, the Woman of his great successor. q Iron 161 in. high
with a Basket (1930-3) and the Woman with Photo: Galeric de France, Paris
a Mirror (1936) seem over-extended and dis- 9
1 At the time of writing I have not seen either of these Head called The Tunnel' 1933-5
organized. The most successful of the larger
two pieces in the flesh. The Woman Combing her Hair Iron 18¼ in. high
pieces, the Stockholm Woman Combing her looks to me from several years' acquaintance in photo- Photo: Galerie de France, Paris