Page 27 - Studio International - April 1971

weekend will be largely concerned with Henry Moore's engravings and sculptures Bochner and
theoretical issues and the second will consider inspired by an elephant's skull are on show
how well the present system provides the kind of at the Musée Rodin in Paris this month. The
education desired. A very wide range of Orangerie des Tuileries is showing work by Max photography
different speakers have been invited to take part. Ernst. Both the latter and the Charchoune
Each weekend will close with a formal debate. exhibition at the Musée National d'Art Moderne Technology and art 24
(Full details with a list of speakers are published have been organized by the Centre National d'Art
in this issue). Contemporain.

Richard Lohse, the Swiss artist, was awarded Paintings by Richard Demarco are on show
the 1971 Sikkens Prize. The presentation will at the Zaydler Gallery, London, this month. I used sometimes to be disappointed on meeting
take place on 3o April in Eindhoven, Holland. On an artist whose work I admired and finding him
the same date a Lohse exhibition opens at the Van David Mindline's photographs and photo- much the same as men of lesser achievement.
Abbe Museum. Richard Hamilton was awarded objects are on show this month at the Curwen
the Talens Prize for 1970. The presentation took Gallery, r Colville Place, London Wt. Some of I now know that the work is what counts, and
place on 5 February at the Stedelijk Museum, the materials used have not been seen in this that many artists put so much into their work
Amsterdam. His exhibition opened there on the country before and some of the techniques were that they have nothing left for personal
same day. specially developed by him. encounters but the dregs of their creative
resources; also that someone who is really
The Universities Art Association of Canada Christo's first exhibition in London was held confident in his work may be less concerned
held their meeting this year at the Nova Scotia at the Annely Juda Gallery. The illustrations to
College of Art and Design in Halifax 4-6 March. the article by Lawrence Alloway published in than most about the management of his personal
`The Role of the UAAC in Higher Education', our March issue were by courtesy of Annely Juda. front.
`Papers on Criticism and History in Canadian This principle comes under some strain with
Atr', 'Art Education Processes : Towards a Global Richard Robinson's 'Constructions' in an artist like Mel Bochner. I had known for
Society in 198o' and 'The Role of the College Art perspex and acrylic, and wood and polyurethane, some time that he makes `installations', such as
Gallery' were among themes considered.
were on show last month at the Circle Gallery, Measurements: Group B, exhibited in May 1969
9-13 Grosvenor St., London WI. It was his
The programme of the Stedelijk Museum, first one-man exhibition. at the Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich, where
Amsterdam, this month includes American the various dimensions of a room, e.g. the width
artists working with air as a medium (until 9 Work by contemporary Catalan artists is of a door, are marked in feet and inches. In
May); ceramics by Pierre Culot (until 18 April); being exhibited by Galerie Hachette, 4 Regent another installation, two white strips are laid on
audio-visual objects by Dutch artists Dick Place, London WI. Prints by Tapies were the floor of a room to form a St-Andrew's cross,
Raaymakers, Ton Bruynèl and Peter Struyken shown until 27 March. Work by Ponc are on
(until 18 April); recent paintings by neo- show until 2 May. with the letters 'N', 'S', 'W' and `E' marked at
expressionist Amsterdam painter Jan Sierhuis each of the four ends. Bochner seemed to me of
(to April-23 May); a retrospective exhibition of a piece with a score of conceptualists who are
Daniel Spoerri's objects (until 6 June) and 13 Correction currently enjoying a brief shot of publicity.
Icelandic artists (at the Museum Fodor until We regret that the name of HALIMA NALECZ of What is so depressing about their output is the
25 April). Drian Galleries appeared as `Halinma' in the
advertisement on page ii of the March issue. narrowness of the experience which it stimulates.
But Bochner is an impressive man to talk to,
Concerts, a symposium and an exhibition
at the City of Leicester Polytechnic from One of two works (illustrated here is the one and it is clear to me that he is not one of those
15-20 March, included music composed and displayed inside the Guggenheim) made by artists who like to flog tiny ideas to death. He is
performed by John White, Hugh Shrapnell, Alec Daniel Buren for the Sixth Guggenheim head of humanities and art history at the School
Hill and Christopher Hobbs, Erik Satie's International with the museum's approval. This of Visual Arts in New York. For a short time he
`Vexations', Howard Skempton's 'Waltz' and work was removed before the opening as the
`Highland Dances' and Gavin Bryars' 'The ride result of pressure placed on the museum by worked as an EAT-sponsored artist in the
cymbal and the band that caused the fire in the several participating artists. Singer laboratories, but he withdrew from this
sycamore trees'; a symposium on the theme situation. I should guess that he has too much
`Creativity in a Machine Environment' in which discrimination to want to do any of the obvious
artists (Stroud Cornock, Edward Ihnatowicz, things with modern technology, but too volatile
John Lifton, Stephen Willats and Joe Tilson
among others) and technologists (among them a temperament to undertake concentrated
Ernest Edmonds, Mark Lee and George Mallen) research in a new medium. His work is now
took part; an exhibition including a pared down to physical minima, but he regards
communications game, 'Interface', an 'Object- `conceptual art' as a philosophical nonsense.
Text-Light-Interval' system (Adrian Nutbeem), Mel Bochner says that his work is a kind of
an 'Interactive State Generator' and a 'Visual
Automatic' piece. `distillate' which you are invited to 'complexify'
for yourself— or rather, recomplexify, as he
Roy Ascott the artist has been appointed claims that though his output is apparently
President (principal) of the Ontario College of simple, this is not true of the experience which
Art in Toronto. he puts into it. I came nearest to understanding
Bochner's work when he mentioned that he
The Portsmouth Festival (art, drama and admired Samuel Beckett, and we spoke of
music) runs from 24 April to 8 May. Activities
include exploration of visual communication Beckett's 40-second wordless play Breath,
from the artist's point of view, an exhibition of where a sequence of human sounds is heard from
naive painters, lectures and a photographic a pile of rubbish on the stage. This can be
exhibition. thought of as a kind of programmed sculpture
as much as drama. George Steiner the literary
Soviet cinema in the 20s, a series shown at the critic would no doubt take Breath as an
National Film Theatre during February and
March in conjunction with the 'Art in illustration of what he sees as the `retreat from
Revolution' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, the word'. I think the retreat is more general
London, included Vertov, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, than a retreat from language and literacy; it is a
Dovzhenko, Shub, Turin, Kaufman, Protazanov retreat from articulation, and both Beckett and
and Eisenstein films.