Page 40 - Studio International - July August 1971

but lacks ambiguity. In order further to detach of art, he states, the eye as an organ of reception desire to discover and construct a world 'in
artistic activity from the 'material' Bernea has and control has been educated and over- which one could believe'. Since his first series
begun to concentrate on 'space' (the dumb- educated by a process of reciprocal influence of 'Butterflies' (earlier than the recent series of
bells period coincides with his adoption of the between it and the work of art. Successively or `Constructions% Apostu has revealed to us the
third dimension) as a concrete object of study, simultaneously stimulated, the eye has been horizons of such a world. 'The Butterflies' are
again giving greater importance to the relation- deceived, exploited, used, exhausted by an groups of threads —not unlike gimlets, often
ships between the formal entities than to their excess of solicitation. Neagu wishes to transfer two metres high, spirals that appear before us
materialization. Given the studied 'zone' he this strict dependence to other means of like mysterious question-marks—carved by the
finds it natural to give greater importance to communication. To achieve a deeper under- artist with the freedom of the old wood-
double meaning and ambiguity as a standing of the artistic object he tries first to cutters.
`programmed' means of investigation. give it a palpable expression. He began some Ovidiu Maitec (b. I925) gives pre-eminence
In I969, Paul Neagu (b. 1938) launched his years ago by devising geometrical reliefs. to the wood mass; the craftsmanship and the
famous Palpable Art Manifesto. Its content is He then turned to making objects (boxes with perfection of finish sometimes giving the
the following: I. The eye is fatigued, drawers and doors) which demanded the active pieces an air of having a precise functional
perverted, shallow, its culture is degenerate, participation of the public (handling). Finally role. They are works with which we instinctively
degraded and superannuated, seduced by he created a cellular universe, compart- and spontaneously want to play, in defiance of
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photography, films, television.... 2. The eye is mentalized, closed, based on a parallel-elepipedic their massive character. By turning them
losing its primary role in aesthetic responses, module with multiple combinatory possibilities round or balancing them we create fascinating
while remaining secondary in this regard. and susceptible to handling. The principal evolutions of light and shade, of mass and
3. Art must renounce its visual aesthetic if it work in this series is The Cake-man and its space. In an exhibition held recently in
wants to survive specifically as plastic art and different variants. Another coincidental new Bucharest, Maitec showed a sculpture composed
must move towards a functional and unified idea, suggested also by the title—the edibility of a pivot on which there were balanced two
aesthetic that will make use of senses that are of the artefact (of the happening type) and so parallel wooden plates of approximately the
still fresh, pure. 4. Let there be one, public, its perishability. But Paul Neagu tries to same shape, but each one differently carved
palpable art through which all the senses—sight, convince us this is not an art of the ephemeral. inside so that the prolonged balance created a
touch, smell, taste— will supplement and devour `I can conceive a type of geometrical space with alternating gentle winding lines. It is
each other so that a man can possess an object in construction made of "frivolous material" the space that Lucian Blaga identified as specific
every sense. 5. You can take things in better, more such as ashes or flour. Durability can be to Rumania and as a determining element in the
completely, with your ten fingers, pores and attained by repetition and not only by marble'. formation of Rumanian culture—the mioritic
mucous membranes than with only two eyes ! Rumania is in fact in a privileged position space or the horizon of the undulating infinite,
6. These ideas are linked inseparably with the for wood sculpture, thanks to its large forests a space with rhythmic alternations of hill and
concept that art must function socially, yet and its ancient tradition of using wood for valley.
never in a vulgarly naturalistic way. architectural and artistic work. The A feeling for nature also animates the work
7. Palpable art is a new joy for the 'blind', revitalization of this sculpture we owe to of Pavel Ilie (b. I927), an artist whose aesthetic
while for the 'clear-sighted' it is the most George Apostu (b. I934). In an epoch of is connected with Constructivism, but who lives
thoroughly three-dimensional study. synthetic materials he has rediscovered wood spiritually in the ancestral world of the
However paradoxical it may seem—though —and with it has created original forms, free Danubian villages. Instead of making use of the
it may even be a reaction—in a largely visual from imitation, but having a realism of resources of modern technology he employs
civilization, Paul Neagu contests the legitimacy substance as well as another quality : presence. natural materials; ropes, sticks, sackcloth,
of the primacy of sight. Since the beginnings Herbert Read mentions somewhere man's wood, etc. It is not a simple choice between two
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