Page 41 - Studio International - December 1970

Dutch

commentary:

drawings in

Holland

Carel Blotkamp

Armando
Untitled 1970
Pencil on paper
75 x 200 cm.
International Gallery Orez, The Hague
2
Armando
Untitled 1970
Pencil on paper
75 x 100 cm.

In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, an emphasis the Nulgroep (the Dutch equivalent of the
on ways and means of drawing has been German group Zero). This period ended with
noticeable in a number of recent exhibitions. the international review of Zero-tendencies
I have in mind shows of work by Armando, held in 1965 at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam.
Carel Visser, Gilbert and George, Ad There were a few of his paintings, mono-
Dekkers, Joseph Beuys and Sol LeWitt. I can chrome surfaces in red, black and white with
discuss here only the work of the first four. constellations of heavy bolts, but he does not
The wall drawings of LeWitt have been well- appear in the group photograph of the partici-
dealt with in Studio International and the draw- pating artists gathered around the director,
ings of Beuys can hardly be done justice when De Wilde, which was taken for the catalogue.
isolated from the rest of his work. It was as if he had already disappeared from
Armando is the only artist of those mentioned this scene.
who does not sculpt. This May, at the Inter- Two retrospectives of his work (one exclu-
nationale Galerij Orez, The Hague, he sively of drawings of the previous twenty
exhibited earlier paintings as well as a couple years) were held at the end of 1969. Con-
of drawings made in 1969 and 1970. With few tinuity is more easily recognized in Armando's
exceptions he had exhibited virtually nothing drawings than in his paintings. Drawing does
since the busy years, roughly 1958-1965, when not seem to raise so many problems for him.
he was a founder-member, with Peeters and He did his first drawings in the early fifties, in
Schoonhoven, of the Informele Groep and the last days of the Cobra-movement, which
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