Page 43 - Studio International - December 1971

opposite end of the I-beams a diagonal relation Late Afternoon 197o
occurs across the horizontally positioned beams. Steel 38 x 84 x 108 in.
The semicircles, by creating a movement up 2 Crown 197o-71
and out of the ground connect with the stepped Steel 424 x 82 x 32 in.
I-beams to create an over-all ellipse causing the 3 Tempus 1970
Steel 45 x 464 x 47 in.
eye to constantly circle, re-circle, and encompass
the work, defining the space in which it exists. 4 Anthony Caro, Side Step 1971, Steel, painted brown
51 x 115 x 58 in., shown at his recent exhibition at
The dark green Tempus declares its space much Kasmin Gallery, London
more specifically by using two thin verticals to
lay a negatively defined square horizontally in
space. Through this square, beginning with a
ploughshare at the top, a downward diagonal
movement is implied ending in only a grid and
curving pipe for support at ground level.
Tempus does not use the ground as a source
of movement up and out of it in the way that
both Late Afternoon and Nocturn do. All of its
elements rest on, as opposed to rising from, the
floor. In Tempus the ground is used as a
naturally blocking obstacle, a way to terminate
the sculpture's movement. The ground was
important to this exhibit in that it was used
many times to assist Caro's compositional
devices leading to weightlessness, illusion,
opticality, even deep space—concern that 4
dominated all seven works.
Necessarily, by the size of the gallery, there
were too few works to make this show definitive
of Caro's activity during 1970. But there were
also too many flaws and too many
disappointments to make it a flattering
representation of his 197o work. Still, one left
impressed by the knowledge that those 'flaws'
and disappointments were necessitated by the
very fecundity and prolificacy of his talent. In
fact not only for his sculpture but for sculpture
generally did this exhibition raise expectations.
And it should have demonstrated that the
immediate impression of extreme tastefulness,
even profound elegance asserted by a Caro in the
gallery setting is not always reinforced by a
good composition, that weightlessness may be
the sole pleasure of an otherwise impressive-
looking work, and that colour can be conveyed
to the viewer through so seemingly small a
detail as a sloppy coat of paint.5 For Toronto
the Caro exhibition revealed the many levels of
quality that a genuinely high style such as his
can contain. It brought home to us again the
enormous optimism and breadth of possibility
that remains to sculpture at this moment. q
W. NEIL MARSHALL

1 I was reminded of Clement Greenberg's observation
during all of the show. 'Anthony Caro', Arts
Yearbook, No. 8, 1965.
2 Mr Caro told me that while some may consider his
method of composition different from certain other
types of sculptural composition it nevertheless is
composition.
"Caro in London' by Jane Harrison Cone, Artforum,
April 1969, p. 66, last paragraph.
4 I perhaps should question the validity of this
criticism. As Wölfflin wrote, ... it is fundamentally
in its (i.e. pictorial sculpture's) interest to limit the
possible points of view.' Hottinger transl. 'Principles
of Art History', Dover 195o reprint p.61.
5 The thick enamel paint on Celeste had wrinkled and
the cylinder of Nocturn had whitish streaks where the
paint was not mixed properly.
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