Page 22 - Studio International - May 1971

Notions of value in the aesthetic domain can is also not irrelevant to observe that the could never be so simple) as one in which one
never entirely be divorced from those in the existence of such teaching posts has been merely solicits admission of non-solid-state
social. My own questioning of the relative claimed-even by some artists-as equivalent to a entities-trenches, essays, meteorological
priority of morphological criteria is a crude one; subsidy; a claim which appears to be made in phenomena or whatever-into the domain of art.
particularly so in relation to the complexities of complete disregard of the artist's contribution in One does not expect (or desire) that visitors to
the situation confronting the artist conscious of the context of education-i.e. his professional this or any other relevant exhibition should
his responsibility in a context where such fulfilment of a professional function quite apart respond with 'OK; art does not need to be
criteria can no longer be considered to be from his primary function as an artist. object-based. Now what ?' (Though if they did
operating as imperatives. It becomes Assertions are also made to the effect that they would be posing the most pertinent of
increasingly apparent that decisions about both teaching is a (`necessary') function of art - an questions.) Firstly our associations of value are
`context' and 'content' are `moral'/'ethical' integral aspect of art work-for many artists. far too deeply embedded in materials or qualities
decisions which need to be sorted out both in It should be understood that such assertions inferred from material things to allow us to make
terms of art itself (the internal 'logic' of the can only be justified in terms of a view of art the transition so easily. And secondly, there are
work) and in terms of the broad social framework itself which is inconsistent in so far as it is socially serious problems raised by the persistence in our
within which the work is located (the 'viewing radical-i.e. a view which implies a complete responses to art of those conventional
situation' and the degrees of control to be reversal of those 'values' by which the state has attitudes to which we have erroneously
exerted over and within that situation). so far seen fit to esteem the artist.18 I would like attributed the status of truths. But what some
I offer a crude instance of the relationship (though I cannot hope) to see a situation in recent art work by some younger artists in
between current art and the social/political/ which one could supplant a notion like 'post- England (as well as in America and to a certain
economic context, which is pertinent to many of object art' with the notion of a 'post-Marxist art'; extent in Europe) seems to me to emphasize is
the issues raised by work represented here: and that would not just mean Carl Andre. that these two problems are in essence one; or at
Where the artist has a commodity-a thing The drift of his culture is generally against least that their solutions are interdependent. It's
of limited supply-to offer, his problems are the individual artist. The implications of his art largely a question of what one pays attention to.
merely those of demand, which, if he has a often appear to him, and to a sympathetic This is not a question that can even be raised in
dealer, it becomes the dealer's duty to stimulate; minority, to contradict the assumptions or `formalist' terms. The 'survival' of formalism
but where his art by nature offers no beliefs which are formative in the social/ depends upon this issue remaining a 'non-issue'.
transferable `rare' physical' product, the political structure. (Our tendency to characterize The nature of one's response to art is a factor
artist attempting to work and earn as an artist such artists as 'avant-garde' reveals many shades of one's state of mind. To entertain a 'difficult'
within a system which-in so far as it is in any of irony.) In this situation the artist's activity idea is to open one's state of mind to change. A
way adjusted to art in the context of economics- will appear negative, extreme, obscure, even difficult (though not necessarily 'superior') idea
is geared to the sale (and thus implicitly or anarchic to the majority. Modes of behaviour might be said to be provoked by an artifact or
explicitly the 'valuing') of rare objects, must open to him might then be :1) detachment, theory or whatever in responding to which we
either starve, or fabricate (or allow his dealer to natural or self-imposed, from all broad are caught between stimulation expected and
fabricate) criteria of rarity for what is considerations of 'context', so far as possible, in stimulation offered. If there is now any fruitful
intrinsically not rare-for what may, indeed, order to protect his work from 'contamination' meaning to the concept of avant-gardism in art,
depend for its very identity as an endeavour (Long); 2) self-conscious exposure of the it lies in its fulfilment of such a function. Which
within the domain of art upon the irrelevance of discomfort inherent in the context-this might is not to say that deliberate provocativeness
such criteria. In these circumstances distinctions take the form either of ironic self-assertion with is a means to making good art; there are
between those artists who will permit their work reference to the art context (McLean), or of responsibilities within the medium which
to be 'dealt with' and those who will not become anarchic self-assertion with reference to the prevent it. But the existence of an anomaly or
distinctions with potentially critical overtones. social/political context (a means, usually, to hesitancy (in the sense that Pavlov's dogs must
Some very ingenious solutions have been much bad art); or 3) pursuit and analysis of the often have hesitated) in our means of responding
found to this problem, and many artists and implications of the art work as such (the 'theory to entities can sometimes be used to question the
promoters on both sides of the Atlantic have felt of art') in consciousness of the fact that those real relationship between our values (when they
able to claim some moral righteousness for implications may/will have relevance in the long are the product of tradition or of conditioning)
offering 'solutions' which amount to no more term in the cultural/political context (Art- and our present 'needs'. Our present 'needs' are
than a capitalization upon the very existence of Language). manifestly not as materialistic as our values. If
the problem. This is avant-garde attitudinizing Combinations of these modes are feasible this issue can be examined in terms of
in the worst sense. In fact such solutions are and frequent (Robert Morris offers an American relationships between 'needs' and 'values', so
rarely more than smart. A lot of bad art has example of an artist who seems to have much the better for us all.
recently been allowed to hide behind `progressed' from the third mode to an Art work itself now offers the potential for a
sophisticated (`avant-garde') means of exploration of both alternatives within the revaluing of art in terms which will leave us all
presentation. More so in the US than in England, second). All art is political at at least one level. less vulnerable to the confusion between
I feel; perhaps because both the rewards and the The point is that a restriction of argument to different 'valuations' (such as the 'aesthetic' and
opportunities are greater. That the rewards are simple-minded considerations - 'whether art the 'economic'). But to take full advantage of
greater is a factor of economics about which "requires" "objects" or not'-merely serves to this potential involves making a change of habit-
there will be differing opinions; that the obscure the more relevant and more sensical a difference in our means of approach etc. to all
opportunities for 'getting away with it' are issues involved in the discrepancy between the art-which will seem to many to amount to
greater implies a relative lack of real and relevant nature of the artist's activity and the nature and more than mere iconoclasm : not simply a of
asperity in American criticism. (`Criticism' is not origin of the values 'conventionally' placed upon devaluation of cherished things, but a pursuit
seen in this context as a practice from which the outcome of that activity. To condemn an issues in art which take their 'absence' for
artists are either 'disqualified' or 'exempted'.) artist as obscure, for instance, when your terms granted.
None of this is intended explicitly as a plea of reference implicitly deny the validity of his My own feeling is that the uses of
for subsidy of the artist by the state. But it is whole activity, is plainly unreasonable; how, and `romanticist' criteria in art (based upon
worth observing that the majority of the artists indeed why on earth in the circumstances, sensitivity to 'quality of life'), and/or
represented here derive the great majority of could or should he seem anything else ?19 `formalist' criteria (based upon sensitivity to
their income from teaching in Colleges of Art. It The situation is not nearly so simple (and `rightness of form'), essentially testify to a