Page 62 - Studio International - July August 1971

discover the restrictive patterning inherent in wisdom and oracular powers would one day be acceptance in this country. The great
the nature of art. All his analytical case-studies — appreciated far beyond what was possible in controversial issue that troubled Studio in 1937
ranging from Turner and Manet, through his lifetime.' (p. 169) was Is Modern Art a Sham ?—and I am afraid
Moore and Lichtenstein, to Kosuth and Burnham has expanded his theories on the that the magazine then concluded that it
Buren—depend on the nature/culture occult symbolism of Duchamp in recent essays probably was.
distinction, which in turn depends on a set of in Artforum. The March instalment reads like a I was searching these pages of Studio,
contrasts tabulated on p. 49. Art, Burnham fantasy by Borges.1 But he is one of the most looking without success, for a contemporary
argues, partakes of the qualities both of adventurous writers on art and a continual review of Circle. One realized what a fantastic
religion, in that it culturalizes the natural, and stimulus which is much needed. q event the original publication in 1937 must have
of magic, in that it naturalizes the cultural. JONATHAN BENTHALL been. Not that it can have made much public
When he quotes Lévi-Strauss on totemism 1This is not meant to be an insult. The point of stir at the time, because the audience for
(p. 13): Studio International's mysterious correspondent on modern art was pitifully small. But what
`What is significant is not so much the Duchamp (June and October 197o), L. J. Grobes of excitement for the few Circle's appearance must
presence—or absence—of this or that level of Edinburgh, has only recently been explained to me. have caused! Now, looking back, we can
classification as the existence of a classification recognize the supreme importance of this
with, as it were, an adjustable thread which Expressionism in the round volume. It marks the introduction of
gives the group adopting it the means of international standards into the hitherto
"focussing" on all planes, from the most Expressionism by John Willett. 256 pp with 22 narrow and parochial world of British art and
abstract to the most concrete, the most colour and 93 monochrome illustrations. World architecture; and it does this with such a
cultural to the most natural, without changing University Library, Weidenfeld and Nicolson. flourish that the result is one of the greatest
its intellectual instrument' £ .75. publications in the literature of modern art.
he convinces me that he is onto something; but Mr Willett's book, surprisingly, is the first Circle wasn't exactly a manifesto, but, in the
the detailed analyses are too pat to convince. study of Expressionism in any language to deal words of its subtitle, an 'international survey
Burnham's use of Barthes seems to me with all aspects of the movement: with theatre, of constructive art'. Its three editors were a
unexceptionable, but of uncertain real value. literature, music, film and architecture as well as painter, Ben Nicholson, a sculptor, Naum
Barthes belongs to the cerebral French with the painting which began it all. The book's Gabo, and an architect, Leslie Martin. They
tradition, and I doubt if the semiological range is at once its strength and its weakness, collected together short essays by artists and
alanalysis of art, however intellectually for, written to the brief of a series, its space is architects whose work they particularly
exhilarating to initiates, can yield any insight too limited and has prevented the author from admired—Mondrian, Hepworth and Moore,
into the experience of art, or make more dealing adequately with everything he has Le Corbusier, Gropius, Breuer and others;
available the appreciation of art. chosen to touch upon. Mr Willett deals, in fact, added to their own considerable contribution
Chomsky—who has a very minor role in not only with Expressionism proper, with articles by sympathetic critics, Herbert Read,
Burnham's book—proposed in 1957 that the developments in Germany from 1910 to, about, Giedion and Mumford, and by the scientist
criterion for the value of a linguistic theory—for 1925, but also with Neue Sachlichkeit, with the J. D. Bernal; and very intelligently used the
instance, about the grammar of a language—was Nazi reaction, and even with post-war illustration section to amplify this choice so
`explanatory power', a criterion which was not developments which are related to that the whole production (and its design)
satisfied by a structural linguistics preoccupied Expressionism. The breadth of the book's could be seen to be a very definite prise de
with classification and segmentation. The goal of horizons, therefore, although permitting a look position towards the whole confused state of
his own linguistics is thus to attain a deeper at Expressionism's devious and often surprising modern art.
understanding of language, and this he has done influence, prevents the kind of close attention It was an extraordinary achievement, and
by proposing hypotheses which challenge to the book's central theme which Mr Willett the validity of this position is emphasized by
refutation. If it is proposed that art obeys some could have given. For his amazingly detailed the still startlingly modern appearance of
kind of language-like grammar, any theory of knowledge of the period and, above all, his Circle today. At first glance, it passes for a new
what this grammar might be like must stand or insight into Expressionist poetry would have book, not a facsimile reproduction of something
fall by its 'explanatory power'. Chomsky qualified him to write something much more that appeared thirty-four years ago. And of
appeals in his linguistics to the intuitions or substantial than this. This is not to say that the course, as one reads the essays, one is aware of
judgments of the 'native speaker' of a language book in its present form is not invaluable. It is. an optimism, a conviction about the
as part of the data to be accounted for by a But it is nevertheless frustrating to know that, independence of art and architecture, a view of
grammar; this amounts to an appeal for given another format, Mr Willett would certainly man and nature, a sense of purpose indeed,
corroboration. A theory of art, similarly, should have produced the definitive and urgently that is unfortunately not so easy to share today.
appeal continually—as far as the medium of needed study of Expressionism which he is And this optimism now seems paradoxical
print allows—for the corroboration of the almost uniquely qualified to write. q enough, given the historical moment of Circle's
practitioner or participant in the processes of FRANK WHITFORD appearance, when the Spanish War and the rise
art. 'This is so, isn't it ?' was the model of Hitler had already made catastrophe
proposed by Leavis for the critical procedure. inevitable. As it was, the distinguished refugees
Burnham seldom appeals for corroboration, and A classic reprinted who came to this country and whose work fills
reading him is like not being allowed to breathe. Circle edited by J. L. Martin, Ben Nicholson, the pages of Circle— Gropius, Mondrian, Gabo
But I must leave the reader of The Structure himself—were never able to make the
of Art some air to breathe. I should add that N. Gabo. 292 pp, illustrated throughout in contribution one might have expected of them;
anyone who accepts Burnham's evaluation of monochrome. Faber. £1.50 (paper) £6 London was not to become the artistic centre of
(hardback).
Duchamp will find my comments on the book the world; and it was Picasso's Guernica that
irrelevant. He considers Duchamp a profoundly When one considers the movements and provided the indelible artistic image of 1937.
clairvoyant artist who arrived at a semiological manifestoes of modern art, the British And yet Circle survives : a restatement of the
theory of modern art as early as 1912. contribution is a thin one. This reflects our classical position in terms of modern art,
`It seems likely that what made it possible for isolated situation at the beginning of the century, imbued with a sort of permanence that makes it
Duchamp to live with this secret for over fifty and the slowness with which the modern a constant point of reference. q
years was the sublime assurance that his movement in art and architecture gained ALAN BOWNESS
50