Page 31 - Studio International - June 1970

Perhaps it is—though I have heard him use it An answer to hostility toward any young artist not interested in
himself many times. Whether radio-active some form of Expressionism. Her calling my work
from that time `De Stijl' is about as sensitive and
waste is 'pollution' or not, there is enough of it
stored in vats underground in Colorado for criticisms intelligent as the early dismissals of Judd and
LeWitt as 'Neo-Constructivists'.
one earthquake to destroy the Pacific Ocean. Anyway, since Miss Ashton had very little contact
There's a game of nuclear tag going on under with me and my activities someone has supplied
the polar ice-cap with submarines from which Joseph Kosuth her with a lot of information. I wonder who?
Apparently the hunger of the mediocre has no
some accident is statistically inevitable. A
bounds. While Mel Bochner found it necessary to
Russian nuclear sub was presumed lost only a
pull Miss Ashton away from her pastels for a little
few weeks ago. Strontium 90 levels have been history-stacking in his favour, I can't see how he
measured in the Mediterranean (where there hopes to impress anyone. Miss Ashton has been so
shouldn't be any) equivalent to the amount cynical toward nearly everything that has been
In light of Miss Ashton's letter and the attitude of done since Abstract Expressionism that her opinions
on the surface. It will take expenditure
a substantial minority of the artists discussed by on 'Conceptual Art' strike me as a joke.
equivalent to sixty moon-shots just to
me in the November portion of my recent three- A word on Miss Ashton's specific points. 1. That
cleanse the rivers of the USA. What do you part article 'Art after philosophy', I felt some `term paper' is listed in the bibliography to Ad
do with a vast stockpile of nerve gas? With word—though I suspect at least from my end that Reinhardt's retrospective catalogue. 2. Re Ad
polythene bags and plastic cups ? Bucky it will be the last—is in order. Reinhardt 'whose presence in such a time is sorely
My purpose was never to 'write the history of Con- missed'. Pure hypocrisy. She never took Reinhardt
believes in emergence through emergency.
ceptual Art' but rather, to be explicit: seriously while he was alive—at least Reinhardt
You don't persuade society to do anything. (1) in a typically uncritical climate make clear my himself didn't think so anyway—and to say that
You do your work, think out the problem, intentions and thinking and subsequently differen- now is just bad taste. 3. An interest in Xerox
organize the solution, and then wait patiently tiate my work from the work of Robert Barry, machines was 'in the air' but not for an art purpose.
for society to catch up with you and ask for Douglas Huebler, and Lawrence Weiner, as well Bochner's use of them came after mine but he
as others. It was no easy task for me to do this, and didn't get the idea from me. 4. Bochner's 'book',
the answer. It is perhaps the greatest irony of
doing so hasn't exactly made life in New York which he has recently been mentioning at every
his life, devoted as it has been to the well-being
particularly comfortable for me. opportunity, was originally compiled by him (with
of all men, that most of his structures have It is regrettable that Mr Claura and other petty a great deal of assistance) for an exhibition of
been used in the hot and cold wars—for the politicians like him thought only enough about my working drawings. They were Xeroxed in order to
military and the trade fair—but to accuse comments as to make political hay from them. As keep the exhibition from becoming a precious
is well known, Mr Claura 'withdrew' me from drawing show. No one thought they were contri-
him of it is as senseless as to accuse anyone
his Paris exhibition because of my reaction, public buting to Mel Bochner's art at the time because
who has ever used a radio, refrigerator or
and private, to his unprovoked attack. Mr Claura they weren't. (Later, much to everyone's amaze-
non-stick frying pan (all fall-out from war or sent all of the invited artists a letter telling them of ment, Bochner tried unsuccessfully to donate the
space technology) of being a war-monger. my rejection, because as he says, 'this show is `book' to the Museum of Modern Art as his work.)
Like Bucky's argument about Malthus and opened, and everyone must be informed of every- 5. Bochner never had anything to do with the
thing'. Characteristically, he however has refused Museum of Normal Art, though it's true he wanted
Darwin, his proposition is disarmingly simple:
to distribute my reply to that letter. to. I find it rather amusing that Miss Ashton would
if we can develop resources with such exquisite
Seth Siegelaub's involvement with Mr Claura in bring up the Museum. When I invited her to the
skill for the death-game, why not for the life- the Paris exhibition is, from my point of view, premises she declined, saying, 'You're not real
game ? quite unfortunate. It is however a matter entirely artists, you're under thirty'. We never took her
The dilemma I have never been able to separate from my dealings with Claura, who was very seriously after that. 6. 'Vogue' for Conceptual
solely responsible for the artists participating. Art in 1967 ? Up until recently the abstract-ex-
resolve is to relate the global vision to the
(2) In order as to not leave the impression that I pressionist critics were calling Larry Poons's paint-
world as we know it, muddling through
felt that the only artists relevant to the discussion ings 'Conceptual Art'—maybe that's the vogue
issues of such complexity that it is impossible (i.e. Conceptual Art) were Barry, Huebler and Miss Ashton refers to. 7. I suspect it will take more
to imagine a world society of such integrity Weiner, I preceded to list, in a quasi-chronological than my having been enrolled in one of Mr
and rational behaviour that it could ever order, work that was also relevant—more or less—to Bochner's classes to give him a claim to fame. Mr
that discussion. The point is that it was a listing, Bochner was a good instructor because he is
accept a simple truth, let alone act on it. It is
not a critical evaluation, of the artists mentioned. eclectic, but at that time his ideas about art were
just too simple.
Some have accused me of 'stealing' the idea of rather conservative and we argued a lot. You can
Bucky's sincerity and compassion are un- `Conceptual' Art from, among others, Sol LeWitt. bet if he hadn't been conservative Dore Ashton
questionable. The attraction of simple argu- Even if such an action is possible, anyone that read wouldn't have hired him (she appointed him to the
ments cogently put is obvious. When you hear Part One could see immediately that the art I am faculty, as chairman of the humanities department).
discussing is one quite apart from Sol LeWitt's. Since Miss Ashton wrote the letter and not Mel
him speak you are lifted way above your mun-
Ultimately the term 'Conceptual Art' is irrelevant Bochner, I'll refrain from 'spilling the beans' any
dane everyday affairs and glimpse world-wide
anyway, so instead of the idiotic attacks one would more on Mr Bochner—except to say that his recent
patterns and possibilities. Afterwards every- think it to be to their productive advantage to connection to 'Conceptual Art' is about as believ-
thing is different, but nothing has changed. You consider the art ideas presented. Obviously, many able as the Serial Art movement he tried to construct
go back to your work either with a profound of them aren't capable. around himself a couple of years ago. The only
(3) I am concerned about the feelings of Sol LeWitt, connection he could possibly have to anyone's con-
sense of futility or an awareness that after all
as well as the feelings of Barry, Huebler and cept of 'Conceptual Art' is his conceptual depend-
now matters. You know that the grand Weiner—they are all serious artists and deserve ence on Sol LeWitt's work for the past couple of
strategy and the great global universal pat- attention and respect. Mel Bochner is however years. Bochner as art critic was more credible.
terns are relevant and important. You know another case, and while I've tried to ignore his I find it curious that an increasing number of
that comprehensive anticipatory design science vendetta in New York, I felt this new tactic people, like Miss Ashton, that had absolutely no
(Dore Ashton's letter) deserves my reply. The interest or sympathy in my activities in the past,
makes sense. But you know too that you can-
`facts' again need straightening out. are now claiming to be my biographers, and
not abdicate the present to a postulated
While it is true that I was enrolled as a student at attempt to give the impression that they have some
future, and you know above all that you the School of Visual Arts as Miss Ashton notes (I am sort of intimate knowledge of my activities and
cannot leave out the human equation. now an instructor there), my role in the school at work. It's a perverse form of flattery. q
Read The Buckminster Fuller Reader* —and that time far exceeded such a simple classification.
I was also enrolled in other art schools and uni-
make up your own mind. q
versities before that—dating back to the age of 10. References: 'Art after philosophy part II', Joseph
I never knew being a former student was an item Kosuth, November issue, 1969, Studio International;
for embarrassment. I don't get Miss Ashton's Michel Claura, correspondence, January 1970;
point. Nonetheless, my contact with Miss Ashton Dore Ashton and Joseph Kosuth, correspondence,
was short and brief—mostly due to her terror of and February 1970.