Page 55 - Studio International - February 1970

London KENNETH PRICE CUPS AT KASMIN UNTIL FEBRUARY (2 PARTS), MAKONDE SCULPTURE
commentary 8 FEBRUARY; NEW YEAR EXHIBITION AT THE AT THE GROSVENOR UNTIL FEBRUARY; POLISH
ART AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY UNTIL 1 MARCH
LEICESTER GALLERIES CONTINUING THROUGH
It is a sad fact rather than an opinion that for scale. It has been said that the group's work
the vast majority of museums of modern art was 'the most ingenious regional adaptation
and for the commercial galleries in particular, of the spirit of Abstract Expressionism',3 at
clay, as a medium for contemporary sculpture, any rate 'it opened the way for polychrome
is a non-starter. The galleries generally con- sculpture on the West Coast'4 and gave a
sider it an uneconomic proposition since it is hitherto unrealized significance to Herbert
rather an 'unfashionable' material with Read's statement that 'pottery is plastic art in
sculptors and consequently with collectors (or its most abstract essence'.5 The use of paint or
vice versa?) lacquer instead of glaze, sticking pieces to-
As a sculptural medium clay does have con- gether after the firing if necessary or desired,
siderable physical disadvantages and these, removing the aspect of function so as to deal
together with its rather burdensome craft and with form without regard to utility, allowed all
terracotta tradition, often prejudice the kinds of formal and conceptual possibilities to
potential of this particularly versatile material. emerge.
The outcome of this is that the aggravating Price's forms and their surface treatment have
controversy persists—where does the Craft evolved slowly over a long period. This is
thing end and Fine Art begin? When Picasso, particularly true of the cups. His preoccupa-
Miró or Fontana do it in clay then it's Art tion is with the reductive process, but in a
with a capital A; if Peter Voulkos, John most personal vein quite alien to the mini-
Mason, Bob Arneson' or Kenneth Price do it malists. He is concerned with smooth contour
then it is art too, especially when the clay and eruption, with acid and sweetly coloured
object is qualified sculpture and not, for surfaces unerringly contrasted and combined.
example, 'cup' or, God forbid, 'pot'. What His inspiration stems from a consuming
then of the sculpted cups or possibly even interest in nature (biology and zoology) to-
cupped sculptures currently on show at the gether with a fascination and 'unsentimental
KASMIN GALLERY: art or craft ? — or screw the respect for the shiny armoured surfaces of a
difference ? luxury civilisation'.6
If one accepts that the only true craftsmen of The making of cups has for a number of years
our age are precision engineers working to been a parallel activity to that of making the
incredibly fine tolerances and often producing eggs and specimens, so there is quite naturally
objects and events of immense visual power, a strong relationship between them, and never
then all the rest are simply artists of greater or more so than in the more recent cups, of
lesser merit and the 'hierarchy of media' is which Nose Cup is a consummate example.
just so much bunkum! Cup-making, however, seems to be an al-
Amongst the major contemporary sculptors together more relaxed and enjoyable process
who work in clay is Kenneth Price whose first in that the cups display an exuberance and
exhibition in this country was at Kasmin in whimsy which is nowhere evident in the 'eggs'
April 1968. At that time he showed 'eggs and and only barely discernible in the 'specimens'.
specimens', minute biomorphic forms which Originally the cups were made for Price's
were beautifully mounted, almost jewel-like friends to use, and perhaps the most marked
in their brilliant colour and presentation. development is that they have become in-
The 'egg' forms evolved from the dome- creasingly useless and precious. One very
shaped pots and jars which Price was making positive attribute of the cups, as opposed to the
in the mid-fifties when, working in Los `eggs', is the way in which they demand to be
Angeles, he was one of a group of potters, held—the handles are rounded and chunky,
painters and sculptors including Billy Al comfortable and very satisfying from both
Bengston, John Mason, Mike Frinkess, Jim visual and tactile points of view, particularly
Melchert and others who gathered around by comparison with the finger-cramping
Peter Voulkos and who worked together in a offerings of the pottery industry. Unfortun-
spirit of friendly competition, spurring one ately the pieces are displayed in glass cases,
another to push the clay thing beyond its pot- presumably for security reasons, perhaps in
bound limits and break down the quasi- isolation to expand their ubiety, at all events
oriental conventions of clay usage and expres- to negate their instrinsic `touchability'. The
sion. Much effected by the work of Picasso,
Miró, Noguchi and especially by the abstract Kenneth Price
California Snail Cup 1968
expressionist paintings emanating from New
6-Pak Robert Arneson —Pop Art Exhibition, Hayward Ceramic
York at that time, inspired by the undiminish- Gallery, 1969. 6 x 2¾ x 3 in.
ing vitality of Voulkos himself, and aided by 2 John Coplans—Catalogue 'Abstract Expressionist 2
technical advances in the development of Ceramics', 1967. Nose Cup 1968-9
Ceramic
3 Ibid.
epoxy glues and paints, the group, sub- 5 x 3 x 3 in.
4 Ibid.
sequently labelled Abstract Expressionist 5 Herbert Read `The Meaning of Art', 1951. 3
Ceramists,2 produced as individuals a volume Lucy R. Lippard— Catalogue 'Robert Irwin and Wart Cup 1967
Ceramic
of work of an unprecedented quality and Kenneth Price', Los Angeles County Museum, 1966. Private Collection
75