Page 33 - Studio International - October 1970

are doubled in size. His miniature environments
or situations are contained within Plexiglas
boxes, and most often entail the use of
perfectly formed female figures cast in wax.
A 'situation' of consistent size reduction and
painting-like containment is read in like-size
terms. Just as Davis's paintings read as
three-dimensional objects in reproduction,
Graham's sculpture reads as full-size rather
than miniature. Graham's tendency has been
to develop away from literary tableaux toward
more generalized physical actions, reminiscent
of Muybridge photographs; this increases
concentration of the formal aspects of the
work. The recent boxes show repeats of the
same figure each frozen in a progressive state
of the same action. The spectacular control
that Graham has over his medium and the
exactitude that is essential to his work, is an
emphasis common to many L.A. artists.
Although Graham is the only one of the
artists to work exclusively in miniature size
and with that specific intent, both Goode and
Bengston do small drawings or paintings, and
some of Bell's early boxes fall into that
category as well. Anthony Berlant's metal
constructions and Kenneth Price's ceramic
sculpture are most often of small size. Berlant,
like Graham, has maintained an involvement
with the box as container, although his boxes
make a specific reference to house-like edifices,
while Graham implies this through the scale of
the box in relation to the interior figures.
Berlant's most recent pieces also hold interior
scenes. His houses are built of shiny metal with
seams of small brads. The interior recently has
contained crowded scenes of colourless animals
internally illuminated in an unearthly manner.
He has reduced the size of his work from an
almost participatory human scale to the object
size of the recent pieces.
Price too has reduced the size of his work
over the past seven or eight years, although his
pieces were always table, or pedestal size.
Price is one of the few contemporary sculptors
to work successfully in ceramic. His highly
chromatic egg- or helmet-like sculptures of the
6os have evolved into smaller monochromed
mounds of irregular configurations. In addition
to the sculptures, Price has continued to make
coffee cups and drawings of cups of varying
form, fantasy and colour.
In addition to colour behaviour and

2 Ron Davis
Tri-turn 1971
Fibreglass, 52 x 141 in.
Courtesy of Kasmin Gallery
Photo: Cuming Wright-Watson Associates Ltd

3 Ed Moses
Untitled 197'
Canvas and polyester resin
Photo : Frank J. Thomas
4 Ed Ruscha
Untitled 1971
Gunpowder and pastel on paper, 29 in
129