Page 22 - Studio International - November 1971

opportunity to defend, while the reputations Report from São Paulo (selected after numerous highly
of various part-time lecturers have become infelicitous nominations) gives two interesting
jeopardized, within a high administrative Vienna artists their first chance to prove their
circle, as the 'consequence' of conduct for originality before an international public. They
which they have never, apparently, been Kristian Sotriffer are the thirty-five year old Bruno Gironcoli,
openly criticized. Anyone who has ever had to one of Austria's most remarkable and most
depend in whole or in part on the income from enigmatic artists, and Arnulf Rainer, already
part-time teaching will understand only too well known, fortyish, and an artistic extremist.
well the possible implications of this. The Forks intended for São Paulo were briefly
One of the lecturers in question, whose on show in Vienna before being shipped off:
appointment at Lanchester was not renewed Mentally, Vienna is a divided city. This is Gironcoli's alien, disturbing objects and
for the session 1971/2, had been invited to teach evident in art as in other fields. The important Rainer's `physiognomical morphologies', which
at Trent during this present term. things are noticed only by a few, and what are drawings and photographs of grimaces.
The possibility of legal action in respect of response they do get usually comes from Gironcoli neutralizes his object constructions,
material published in the October issue of elsewhere. Mediocre work, on the other hand, with all their elements of terror and horror, by
Studio International has been raised by Sir Alan is shown by galleries and artistic societies in the way in which—often with a touch of irony—he
Richmond and Mr Plummer. One is given cause ever increasing quantity, and can count on `aestheticizes' them. Rainer achieves this kind of
to speculate upon the question of whose arousing a very much livelier interest. Of course double effect as well, but by carrying ugliness to
interests, in these circumstances, due judicial the situation is similar in other places, but in the point where it crosses over into a new
processes should be used to serve. q Vienna, where the visual arts receive little aesthetic understanding.
CHARLES HARRISON enough attention anyway, this makes life a lot A certain kinship with Gironcoli is evident
harder for the people who could give new in the work of his contemporary Walter Pichler,
impulses to the cultural life of the city. who has been given a show in the main hall of
The survey given in this article shows what the Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts. Pichler has
the past season has revealed most clearly. In transformed it with white cotton sheets into a
the early summer the Galerie nächst St Stephan sort of cubical temple with side-chapels
succeeded in reviving, after fifty years, the arranged on a strict axial plan. Within this
reputation of the Hungarian Constructivist architectural framework the artist, who has been
Lajos Kassa. He left Hungary after the first strongly influenced by trends in industrial'
Hungarian revolution in 1919 and came to design, has arranged other structures : an altar
Vienna, where he lived until 1926. It was here construction, a 'reliquary', beds and other
that he edited one of the most important objects. What they illustrate is the difficulty of
cultural and political magazines of the period, total commitment to a cause. Pichler's recurrent
Ma (`Today'). stereotypes reveal the bonds which link them
Kass& had close links with the Russian to sacred buildings, subterranean cities and
Constructivists, the Dadaists and the De Stijl passages, and to the human powers of generation
group, as well as with the Bauhaus. His and destruction. What he shows is a reliquary
aspirations were the same as those of El of his own life, transfigured by limpid, filtered
Lissitzky or his own countryman Laszlo white light. Dissolution and fragmentation are
1'If it is clear that colleges are showing more marked Moholy-Nagy. But the true significance of the halted; the creative act of intervention is held
differences in character, then the student's choice of a Eastern European contribution to modern art up as a defence against an impending menace.
particular college will become more and more
important. Something might be done to provide better is only now beginning to emerge. When The Wiener Secession, in an exhibition
information to applicants. However, departments may Kass& was living in Vienna, no one bothered entitled `Zeichnen heute' (`Drawing Today'),
well change too rapidly to make such communications about him. The same fate befell him in his own which has since been put on by the Frankfurter
fully effective, and it will be increasingly important
that a student should be able to change colleges for country; it was not until 1969 that a researcher Kunstverein as well, set out to break down—or,
valid academic reasons. There was evidence that it at the University of Debrecen, Geza Perneczky, if you look at it that way, to emphasize—the
was not always easy for a student to transfer, often put him back on the map as far as Hungary was border between art and non-art. The exhibition
because of administrative difficulties, although the concerned. Perneczky has now himself left pointed to connections, overlaps and antitheses
Council makes full provision for it. This should be
improved.' (From the Second Report of the NCDAD, Hungary, where his ideas on art have got him that were interesting mainly in the context of
December 1970.) into trouble. He writes in the exhibition conceptual art; it embraced everything that
2 'We are confident [ !] that in devising subject can possibly come into the category of drawing,
combinations colleges will be sensitive to the needs catalogue that Kassák's first works of any
and inclinations of students as these emerge in the general importance were done in Vienna from children's drawings to computer graphics,
light of tutorial advice. We are anxious to see the between 1920 and 1922. and including a number of everyday articles. It
students as individuals given all reasonable scope for Six young Hungarian artists, Bak, Fajó, was programmed by the draughtsman and
the development of their varying talents and interests
within the framework of a course structure which has Hencze, Nadler, Pauer and Tot, followed with sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka, and was intended as
added flexibility resulting from these [i.e. the an exhibition in the Galerie im Griechenbeisl. an educational experiment. The dialectic which
Report's] recommendations. This should constitute a They consciously associate themselves (as emerged strongly from this exhibition
serious and purposeful programme of advanced study
in a defined range of work.' (From 'The Structure of indeed does Vasarely) with the traditions of highlighted a number of the problems which
Art and Design Education in the further education Eastern European art, and emphasize their face artists seeking a viable position within a
sector'—the 'Second Coldstream Report' —HMSO, origins in the geometry which is present in folk society which treats all artistic concepts as
197o.) One point to be made is that the defining is to
be seen, in the terms of this report, as being done art. Their works had to be smuggled over the relative. The exhibition leaves one with the
within the framework of the course itself. border, because Hungarian officialdom would desire to see it repeated, with better preparation,
3 'The Council wishes to emphasize that it has never rather suppress than promote the export of organization and distribution of emphasis, as
assumed a rigid or doctrinaire attitude as regards
course development. On the contrary it would expect their kind of art. In their own country these an attempt to clarify the tasks which still
to find all course programmes flexible and capable of artists continue to work under the most trying remain for the artist to perform. q
progressive modification within whatever terms of conditions.
reference are established from time to time.' (Second
Report of the NCDAD.) The Austrian contribution to the Biennale in Translated from the German by DAVID BRITT
170