Page 37 - Studio International - December 1970

force which echo round and round inside the the walls, floors and ceilings of the room in European art so far.'
square or oblong format. The other aspect of which such a canvas is on display—because, There is only one thing to be said for Don
what happens is this : all those refracted lines as I've said, the shaped canvas seeks to involve Judd : he is clearly intelligent enough to have
of force which escape beyond the bounds of the exact proportions of the surrounding perceived the fantastic limitations of his own
the picture surface by being refracted from a walls. To complete the experience the shaped symmetry-based idiom. And to judge by his
non-vertical, non-horizontal edge project canvas has begun to offer (within its own unfailingly chauvinistic rudeness he also
themselves out across the spaces of the encom- boundaries), we would need to find precise shows that he is aware of weaknesses in that
passing wall surfaces, involving them as if they and exactly controlled formal proportions in whole American art-culture which he stems
were integral to the painting itself, which they the surrounding wall; and this is never there from. In the self-promoting literature (in the
are not. In a word, what I am saying is that because the painter has not also been the fifties Judd wrote a lot of art-criticism),
all shaped canvases, as we have come to know architect. Shaped canvases have therefore examples of which may be seen in the cata-
all those fiat experimental paintings whose always had an unfinished feeling—indeed a logue of his current exhibition at the White-
bounding edges are other than rectangular in feeling of unfinishableness. They have the chapel Art Gallery, Judd tries again and again
format, seek an intimate relationship with the look of medallions or haphazard fragments of to sell his art by decrying painting, as being
walls on which they are situated, which watered-down architectural decoration. They less 'real' than sculpture because it is not three-
ninety-nine times out of a hundred does not lack the presence of painting. This is certainly dimensional! He even asserts that 'it (the
materialize—if only because the painter has what I feel about Frank Stella. Perhaps he painting) lacks the specificity and power of
not been accorded the rights of absolute con- came nearest to a convincing discovery in the actual materials, actual colour and actual
trol of the architectural setting. Most shaped black and silver paintings of 1960, where the space' ! The crudeness of mind which thinks
canvases thus make nonsense, in a formally rectangle format was only minutely modified three-dimensional works are more 'real' and
aggressive way, of the walls and rooms in which by having those little rectilinear slots cut out
they are housed : they act upon the calm of the centre of the sides, top or bottom, or at
rectilinear boundaries of surrounding ceiling, the corners, these incisions being precisely
floor and walls with anarchic centrifugal force. echoed by the absolutely even and symmetri-
In an analogous way one notices that so much cally organized grid-like lines which were the
of the low-flung 'floor sculpture' of today sole occupants of the surface. Certainly there
makes any sense of unity in the shaped aerial was a unity in Stella's works of that kind
volume, which is a room or hall, equally an between the essentially tonal colour of the
impossibility. paint used, its physical application (which
And incidentally such sculpture has problems showed for once a certain sensibility—how
with floor-surfaces which, strictly speaking, Stella and all Americanophiles will sneer at
remain unresolved: that is to say the texture, this concept !) and the nature and scale of the
colour, glossiness or opacity of the parquet, total configuration. But it is a boring unity, as
marble, gravel or mown lawn against which the unity which relies on symmetry very
every surface or edge of the sculpture is seen nearly always is. For years I have been point-
and which fills in the holes between the ing to the fact that ninety per cent of the most
members of the piece—all these surfaces, tex- celebrated painting from America has been
tures and colours, like the wall surrounding based fundamentally on symmetry which gives
the shaped canvas, are too frequently arbi- it its spuriously powerful presence. All sym-
trary and fortuitous, beyond the sculptor's metrical images have a crude natural thrust
actual control in the strict sense— despite the or power, they hit you between the eyes;
fact that they demand full integration with canvases based on a symmetrical format,
the work. The advent of open metal floor- design or image thus possess this easy impres-
sculpture marked the arrival of a centrifugal siveness. But to base painting on simple sym-
idiom which, in splaying itself out, invites the metry is to short-circuit the whole pictorial
ground or background to penetrate its image adventure and to funk absolutely all the
through and through. This is why one feels million risks which attend the fascinating
that the textures of the literal ground or back- search for new unities in asymmetric and
8
ground are crucial to the whole experience; diverse complexity. I have been saying all this Justin Knowles
and why one therefore worries that they have for years and such artists as Stella, Judd and Royal Marks Gallery, New York, Jan. 1967
(works of 1966)
not been resolved. While sculpture remained Noland have shown themselves sensitive about All paintings : Acrylic on linen canvas
centripetal in concept a reading of its en- this issue. In an interview with Bruce Glaser Constructions: Acrylic on fibreglass, acrylic on canvas
on wood
closed and usually solid volumes was not and Stella, Don Judd said : 'My things are
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vitiated simply because the colour and texture symmetrical because ... I wanted to get rid of Justin Knowles
of the apparently contiguous surfaces of its any compositional effects, and the obvious Installation shot, Arts Council Serpentine Gallery,
August 1970 (works of 1969)
actual surroundings were unsympathetic. way to do it is to be symmetrical.' Asked why
10
In the above paragraphs I have been trying to he 'wanted to avoid compositional effects' he Justin Knowles
uncover reasons for the profound dissatis- replied: 'Well, those effects tend to carry with Royal Marks Gallery, New York, Jan. 1967
(works of 1966)
faction I have always felt with the majority of them all the structures, values, feelings of the
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shaped canvases so far produced either by whole European tradition. It suits me fine if Justin Knowles
British or American artists including all those that's all down the drain.... Vasarely's compo- Three stainless steel forms plus white 1968/9
16 ft x 4 ft 4 in.
of Frank Stella. I have suggested an explana- sition has the effect of order and quality that Coll : Devon Education Authority (New School &
tion for the diluted pictorial activity I sense traditional European painting had, which I Community Centre, Ilfracombe, N. Devon)
within the shaped canvas itself, there is also find pretty objectionable.... The objection is
the fact that shaped canvases compel the not that Vasarely is busy, but that in his
spectator into an endless and fruitless search multiplicity there is a certain structure which
for formal satisfaction and significance around has qualities I don't like.... The qualities of