Page 29 - Studio International - October 1970

The inflation Not everyone would permit this. Bryan knowledge of those further hall-marks which
Robertson, in his recent catalogue introduction authenticate the piece's date and the identity of
of art media for the retrospective of a major British painter,2 its maker. Few artists are willing to give up
writes : stamping their work, as it were, with the 'maker's
`Art is many things but it is not primarily a mark'. Apart from its psychological attractions,
Technology and art 29
means of communication as we normally it is their sole protection against every kind of
understand that utility... Visual art is essentially exploitation. But since Duchamp there has been
an act of revelation, almost in the sense of a a growing refusal to confine the concept of art to
biblical or legendary miracle. Water gushes a few accredited stuffs and processes. It is like a
forth from a barren rock : it is fundamentally kind of monetary inflation, or like the undignified
inexplicable but the eye is its first witness.' proliferation of the diplomatic corps into an
In the cadences of 192os Bloomsbury, Robertson infinity of tin-pot embassies.
is trying to protect the privileged position of This inflationary trend affects our attitude to
painting and sculpture, as if this were a the past as well as the present. (It must be
necessary consequence of our appreciating distinguished from the cult of 'anonymous art',
Bridget Riley's achievement as a painter. `architecture without architects' and the like,
Most art uses technology of a kind. Certain which is associated with the rejection of an
techniques or 'media' have become what artist's signature or 'maker's mark' as a
Richard Wollheim has called the 'accredited prerequisite for the recognition of art.)
processes of art' or what I shall call here Examples are the rediscovery of early
`academic media', as opposed to 'utilitarian photography and cinema, the comic-strip,
media'. It is not that painting, sculpture and ancient automata, the machines of the
music are exempt from analysis in terms of industrial revolution, lapidary inscriptions,
technical resources, nor that they always result heraldry. Such a tendency expresses not an urge
in what is pejoratively called 'academicism'. But to belittle the achievements of the great masters
each of these 'arts' has developed with its self- of the fine arts, but an urge to redefine the scope
conscious rituals, genres and conventions over a of art and creativity.
long period, and has severed itself from (though Some regard the runaway inflation of
it may often return to) the mundane, everyday accredited media as a disaster for art. Naturally
functions of visual and aural patterns. Media in it causes distress and perplexity, like that
the wider sense, which we may call 'utilitarian' experienced by educated parents whose children
media, are often adopted by artists, but nearly seem able to communicate only in grunts, slang
always betray their vulgar functional origins. or four-letter words. Wollheim has himself
They are often welcomed by artists who wish to described the history of art as a 'vast oedipal
avoid practising academic art in any of its conflict'.3 He is surely right about the importance
current embodiments. For other artists, of to art of socially familiar stringencies and
course, the academic media remain attractive, constraints. But the collapse of the hierarchy of
largely because of their continuity with the past. the fine arts does not necessarily result in a
`Media' according to my definition extend situation of complete anarchy. If there are
over a wide range: from the most primitive properties specific to each medium, can these
techniques of drawing, carving, moulding, not serve as stringencies necessary for creative
Is it not strange that sheepes' guts should hale inscribing, signalling and encoding, through articulation ?
soules out of mens bodies ? techniques such as printing, photography, film, I have argued in these pages that there are
Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, 2.3 radio and TV which have developed into social technical properties specific to photography, the
institutions and are familiar parts of the modern computer, laser holography. Film and TV have
The term 'medium' is used today with many environment, up to the newest information been copiously discussed by others. The most
different nuances. I shall try here to clarify the technologies of today. It is of great historical illuminating criticism of painting and sculpture
core of meaning which makes it for me an interest how certain media became accredited as today is probably that which asserts the resources
indispensable concept. the vehicles of art. Wollheim calls this the and constraints of each medium: both the
`Medium' can mean anything that intervenes. `bricoleur problem', from the 'striking basic facts of working in two or three dimensions,
Thus air, or the sound and light that pass comparison made by Lévi-Strauss of human and the specific properties of different kinds of
through air, can be described as 'media'. In art, culture to a bricoleur or handiman, who surface, paint, modelling and carving
`medium' is sometimes used as a synonym for improvises only partly useful objects out of old techniques. That there has also been a great deal
`materials' (e.g. marble). Michael Fried has junk'. Wollheim makes an analogy between the of shameless mystification—to do with concepts
described 'shape' as a medium of painting.1 way we accept these accreditations as familiar like 'objecthood' and 'integrity of the picture
In a more technical sense 'medium' means for and natural, and the way we accept the plane' —does not detract from this point. The
painters the liquid vehicle for pigments (such as phonemes of our native language as familiar and best critique of Warhol I have read is Richard
oil and water). This last sense is closest to the natural. He regards these accreditations and the Morphet's perversely painterly essay; and
usage I am interested in here, where the word `stringencies' proper to them as necessary for Barbara Reise was surely right to discuss Sol
`medium' is used to mean a form of technique. artistic expression. LeWitt's art as essentially related to drawing.4
Not just any technique, but a technique for the Wollheim's concept of accreditation is like By contrast, a critic like Michael Fried is too
transmission of information from person to the 'lion passant' stamped on a piece of sterling concerned with rounding up support for his own
person, for communication. The term silver. In circles where art is joined most closely notion of the 'essences' of painting and
`information' is itself an equivocal one (with to connoisseurship, trade and investment, sculpture, essences which have more to do with
some technical usages), but it will serve the accreditation of every kind is of the highest stylistic preferences than with technical
present purpose if I may be allowed to use it in importance. In such circles it is as if the stringencies.5
a loose and non-restrictive sense. appreciation of art has become degraded to a There is no need for any artist to feel
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