Page 54 - Studio International - September 1971

Multiples own editions include recent multiples by
Spoerri and Sol LeWitt, but—although
in Holland incredibly cheap—they are already on the
expensive side for Dutch sales. At least half the
editions disappeared straight over the border.
Further multiples and prints are by Visser (a
smaller version of his project at Sonsbeek),
Henneman, Slothouber & Graatsma, Buisman,
Muller, Petersen, van de Nieuwelaar and Pieter
2
involved in the production of inexpensive For the Dutch—if they are going to buy
multiples by using advanced techniques, in multiples at all—they must be cheap. And we
particular injection-moulding, is Maximal just do not seem to be able to make them both
Ltd, who to date have only produced one good and cheap. It is not the ideas that are
multiple, Rory McEwen's Moonshine, but hope deficient—but the necessary financial backing.
eventually to produce others. Their somewhat When the multiple boom hit Holland,
slow progress points up the difficulties attached everybody thought that just about anything
to involvement with sophisticated technology made in editions would sell, damn the quality
for a non-functional end, as well as those of and damn the price, there's money to be earned.
distribution for someone producing really A miniature multiple war escalated in the
cheap articles in large quantities. Lowlands for one year, and that was it.
Some of the multiples already mentioned Generally speaking we are not really a
are stocked by a number of galleries, but there multiple-minded country. The really good
are other galleries like the Marlborough, who multiples seem to be made elsewhere, and
carry multiple work only by gallery artists. anyway are already getting inordinately
They have a number of Tilson works, including expensive : those who know a bit about what is
a series of screenprints with collage, Two going on know that they can get the real thing for
wrist-watches in vacuum-formed, chromium- the same price, and for others it is too dear.
plated polystyrene, and Pentomino, So where does that leave us ? Mainly with
cellulose on vacuum-formed acrylic; Soto's very good prints at reasonable prices, and very Brattinga.
jai alai suite, a series of acrylic and metal few multiples by Dutch artists—with even fewer Which brings us back to prints again.
constructions; Robert Owen's kinetic reliefs produced in Holland by foreign artists. But Holland's foremost printer, Piet Clement,
in acrylic and aluminium, and Peter Clapham's then there are always exceptions. started his printshop in Amsterdam some time
perspex constructions. Some of the smaller More as a gesture to get things straightened ago with beautiful single prints and editions of
galleries have particular items : the Ceramic out than anything else, Jan Juffermans, art Lucebert, Raveel and Constant. There is
snakes of Patrick Hughes at Angela Flowers, critic for several Dutch dailies, threw a bomb another printshop on the Amsterdam scene,
Tadek Beutlich's multiple tapestries at the by creating `Mucheapels' (prices around Abrams, with expensive but nonetheless
Grabowski, and Berrocal's Romeo and Juliet and f20—all signed by the artist, unlimited edition). beautiful prints of Steinberg, Frankenthaler,
Mini-David at Anneley Juda. The best works are by Van Munster, Kuik and Marisol, Wesley, Oldenburg and others.
Other publishers not working through a Maters. The whole edition can best be The Netherlands Kunststichting is
gallery who have shown an interest in multiples compared with Edition Tangente, although the organizing a touring exhibition of Dutch
include the Petersburg Press with items like latter are much more seriously active. multiples. Curiously enough I could get no
the Allen Jones's Shoe Box—a box containing a Juffermans just wanted to make a point. details as to which works would be included.
series of prints together with an aluminium This really leaves us with Seriaal in Which just about sums it up. There is really not
sculpture—and the Duchamp/Hamilton glass Amsterdam, quite honestly the only serious much of a multiple scene in Holland at the
The Oculist Witness, and Nigel Greenwood Inc. multiples dealers in the Netherlands, with a moment, apart from Amsterdam. q
who has brought out perspex Light Boxes by wide range of stock of very good quality. Their RITSAERT TEN CATE
Malcolm Carder, and multi-media works by
David Tremlett. 3
Mention should also be made of activity
outside London, where the Welsh continuously
and the Scottish Arts Council more recently
have been conspicuous in the support they
have given to multiple exhibitions. Among
galleries, the Ikon in Birmingham and the
Arnolfini in Bristol have been consistent in
their interest.
What it has not been possible to mention in
this brief survey is the large number of multiples
made by individual artists, which because of
the limitations of both the production and Lizzie Olsson-Arle
distribution system in action, and most The Swedish Gap 1970. Plastic, wood, edition 525
particularly the tie-up between the two, will Kunstfrämjandet
probably never be as widely seen as they 2 Slothouber/Graatsma
should be. q Plastic Cube. Seriaal
3 Marcel Broodthaers
ROBERT THOMAS
Modèle: La Pipe 1968.85 X 120 cm, edition 7
Photo: courtesy of the Wide White Space Gallery
96