Page 29 - Studio International - May 1970

Correspondence Haven, Conn., USA in November 1969.
I would have liked Jonathan Benthall to enlarge on
what he says about the BSSRS's action against
pollution being admirable 'but in an important
sense negative'.
As he points out we need a language to describe
Veiled majesty and criticize art in terms of social responsibility,
and of course not only art but also science. Though
The Queen's latest Portrait is a symbol of courtly I entirely agree that Cybernetics and Ecology are
dignity and pride with a mere tint of prejudice means of increasing our understanding of the inter-
opposed to certain narrow aspects of life.
relationships among all disciplines, till now both
The veil is just enough to incite interest and belief fields seem to be producing a highly specialized
in a Royal Personage. terminology able to be understood only by cyber-
Sincerity so well-defined has nothing to do with neticians and ecologists: words like feedback and
loneliness. environment, though being used by an increasing
Francis B. Willmott public, are acquiring distorted meanings because
Birmingham 5 they can be applied to give prestige in rather in-
definite situations. This is why I feel that the
Dialogue on African art BSSRS should have an educational—in addition
to its informative —role, able to create new social
The criticism by Dennis Duerden of Makonde
structures in which every man will become some kind
sculpture in Studio International (February 1970)
now makes a healthy dialogue on African Art of authority morally responsible for his acts in front
of the others.
possible.
If we are rash and believe without proof that all On the other hand, though the BSSRS is indeed
contemporary Makonde art is tourist art, then we concerned with the physical repercussions of our
present technology, what about the metaphysical
might as well go the whole hog and call ALL con-
temporary African art tourist art with a fair ones ? To use technology to neutralize the physical
amount of sniping at recent missionary art in side effects of technology may even aggravate meta-
physical ones. Someone if not the BSSRS will have
Mrs Beeton, whose sumptuous recipes were Africa too. to educate men as educators of broadly minded
It is far too easy to go into ecstasies over the
used. `specialists'.
modern art of the black man or to go to the other
Around thirty guests turned up for a buffet extreme and condemn it all. The true evaluation J. Mena-Abraham
meal before settling into easy chairs in the is much more complex and let me admit with London, NW3
dimly-lit music room to watch the seven-course humility that there are no 'authorities' in Africa on Wanted-works by Dora Carrington
meal (accompanied by sherry, moselle, claret, modern African art.
When I was at the German academies recently We are planning an exhibition of the works of
madeira, port and brandy) being consumed
and asked what aesthetic was being used to evalu- Dora Carrington, the life-long friend of Lytton
over a period of 1 hour 20 minutes. ate African art I was told it was a European Strachey, to be held at these galleries in the
`I must admit I wouldn't have gone to watch aesthetic applied rather uneasily to Africa. So this to Autumn. The exhibition, to be entitled 'Carring-
but I did enjoy the meal', says David Hock- me is the real crux of the matter: there seems to be no ton and Strachey', and towards which the Arts
ney, who regards Gilbert and George as one who can adequately evaluate modern African Council are giving us some assistance, will coincide
art let alone any new manifestations. To call an with the publication by Messrs Jonathan Cape of
`marvellous surrealists, terribly good,' though
African style 'surrealist' is to use a word with Carrington's letters, which have been edited by
adding that the conversation during The Meal European connotations. For whites to be amused David Garnett. As she did not exhibit during her
was 'rather banal'. `I think what they are by its distortions is evidence again of an inadequacy lifetime, her work was mostly given away or sold
doing is an extension of the idea that anyone to comprehend an art foreign to European taste. privately, and we would be most grateful if any of
can be an artist, that what they say or do can The Makonde artists are, whatever else is said, a your readers who possess anything interesting of
very interesting people 'who prefer carving to hers, such as paintings, drawings, tiles, glass and
be art. Conceptual art is ahead of its time,
eating'. A Makonde sculptor who has meaning for coloured tinsel pictures, painted objects or craft-
widening horizons.' me is Samaki and there are others who are equally work, photographs or unpublished letters, would
Gilbert and George reckon The Meal cost creative and I refuse to connect the art of the get in touch with us.
around £100 (including £8 15s for Richard Samaki School with the usual tourist trash of Suzanne St Albans
West), which left them well out of pocket but Dar-es-Salaam and Mombasa. 19 Upper Grosvenor Street
was worth it. 'You could feel that the guests African art in the European museums is safe and London, W1
hallowed but to be fair what chance is to be given
in the room were soon feeling hard-pressed to `Kandinsky:
the new creative artists of Africa? What one pleads
compete—with so fixed and special and exclu- for is sympathy towards them. The Language of the Eye'
sive a happening they felt they had to estab- Prof. Walter Battiss I would like to question the practice of giving a
lish themselves', says George. P.O. Box 392 book to review to someone who has recently pub-
Pretoria
`During the tapioca-soup course one woman lished a book on the same subject. Obviously a
had hysterics. Laughing, I mean, she had to `Social responsibility in science' reviewer should be knowledgeable on that subject,
leave. Richard West almost cracked at one but he should not, surely, have a vested interest.
I would like to express my sympathy for articles No doubt Frank Whitford was attempting to be
point. After a second helping of Saxon Pud-
like that of Jonathan Benthall in your last issue — absolutely objective in his review of my Kandinsky:
ding, the fifth course, a man went to the piano `Social responsibility in Science'—not because I The Language of the Eye in your March book supple-
in a corner of the room and began to play it think it proposes any means of achieving the ment, but I can't help feeling from the general tone
very loudly. Richard West must have thought involvement of laymen in the BSSRS but because of the review and the specific points he tries to make
things weren't going very well because he I believe it is essential for any post-industrial, highly- that he must be well aware of the fact that if he can
populated society to redefine social consciousness in sufficiently put people off buying my book, they
came along with the coffee ice cream and was
terms of its larger number and complexity. As an might well buy his book instead.
going to put it on the Saxon Pudding to speed
architect I would say that very little of this kind of For instance, Mr Whitford chides me for not men-
things up. reflection is going on among my colleagues with the tioning in my bibliography articles by Troels
`I told him everything was alright and he exception of a small group of the editors of an Andersen and Sixten Ringbom which (of course)
relaxed. I think it was just etiquette when, at ideological pamphlet, ARSE (Architectural Radi- appear in the short 'selected book list' in his own
cals Students & Educators) and the underlying book. I could of course respond by citing many
the coffee and brandy stage, David Hockney
feeling of the radical students which occasionally books or articles not mentioned by Mr Whitford
asked for tea and Richard West said quite breaks through at institutional events—like that of which are cited in my own notes or in my biblio-
firmly: "I'm sorry, we don't serve tea in the the Vienna Manifesto or the Statement read at the graphy, but to do this would be childish.
dining-room".' q AIA (American Institute of Architects) in New Mr Whitford misrepresents in two places. He