Page 18 - Studio International - April 1972

external beauty, but above all objects which will Correspondence gaping mouths and mis-shapen teeth.
conform to the dialectic of a new way of life ... RONALD ALLEY
`An artist who has experience of a wide London SW15
range of diverse materials, who though not an
engineer has studied the questions which Once upon a time
interest him, automatically poses the problem Once upon a time there was a scorpion. One
of technical design by way of new correlations day it came to a river and wanted to cross. The
of materials ... Curved forms demand different water was far too deep and there was no bridge
plastic materials and constructive or ford. It was about to turn back when it saw a
interrelationships. The artist can and must frog sitting on a bullrush. Attracting the frog's
master these elements and his creative work attention it said, Will you take me across the
must have qualities which differ from that of the river on your back ?' The frog looked at him
engineer. I chose the flying apparatus as an quizzically. 'You'll sting me if I let you on my
object of art construction because it is the most back,' he said. 'If I do', said the scorpion,
complex dynamic material form ... My `we'll both drown'.
apparatus is built on the principle of using It was a convincing reply. So they both set off,
living organic forms. Observation of these forms the frog swimming, the scorpion on his back.
led me to the conclusion that the most aesthetic When they were near the middle, where the
forms are the most economic. Work on the water was deepest and the current strongest, the
design of material in this direction is also art.' frog felt the scorpion wrap its tail around him
We could have gone on to analyse the basic and sting him hard. As they both began to sink
principles of Gropius, and the internal struggle into the dark depths of the river the frog looked
between the followers of constructivist up incredulously and said, 'Why did you do
principles on the one hand, and the that, you've killed us both ?'
representatives of abstractionism in the The scorpion replied, 'I can't help it, it's my
Bauhaus on the other. The theoretical nature, you see'.
pronouncements of Corbusier and his practical GARETH JONES
work would also be of great interest, but we [In reply to Gareth Jones' article 'Vote'
must now attempt to draw some conclusions. (Studio International, January 1972), the poll
As the history of art in this century shows, Sheffield Art School—information wanted was so low that the proposal has been
two movements of art theory and practice came Having recently been appointed Curator and abandoned.]
into being and were erroneously put under the Tutor in the Visual Arts to the Sheffield
single heading of `Constructivism'. One of these Polytechnic, I should like to compile as full a Hierarchies in Fine Art Courses
movements reflected more or less correctly the list as possible, as soon as possible, of the present No matter how coherent protests might be
tendencies of a developing modern technology medium of working, address and married name about changes in the Fine Art Course at the
and scientific technical thought—sometimes of past students of the School of Art and Design. Lanchester Polytechnic no notice has been
called the technical revolution—within those The School has excellent facilities and it is our taken because of the outmoded isolable
forms of art the technical and functional basis of intention to have different exhibition authoritarianism that controls art education.
which plays a decisive role in socially-meaningful permutations of past students' work. I should This letter represents a strong consensus
constructions and works of art. This movement be grateful if information were sent to me at the throughout the department that has become
is commonly known as 'Constructivism', and address given below. increasingly aware of the dictatorial hierarchy
with it one can accept and meaningfully employ PAUL D. WALKER of decision-making to the detriment of
the concept of Constructivism. But another Curator / Tutor in the Visual Arts educational interests.
movement existed and still exists which also calls School of Art and Design Uncritical devotion to the hierarchical
itself constructionism. In the work of this Sheffield Polytechnic presentation of authority seems a priority over
movement the compositional structure of Psalter Lane and above educational efficacy in matters of
abstracted forms and geometrical formulae is Sheffield SII 8UZ staff selection. The point is that the most
depicted purely mechanically and deceptively, efficient head of department is the one who
and is rationalistically conceived. Its aim is to Bacon X-rayed upholds the impoverished status quo. Because
amuse with its unexpectedness and its absence of May I add a short postscript to Lawrence the NCDAD structure is mythical it permits
content. This cannot be called Constructivism. Gowing's article 'Positioning in Representation' bureaucratic hoodwinking at high levels which
It is pseudo-constructivism. Its isolated formal in your January issue. There seems no doubt is not obvious to the departmental administration
achievements can be used only as motifs in that Francis Bacon's interest in X-ray whose devotion is purblind.
decorative art. q photographs predated by several years the It is imperative that we reiterate what the
first publication of Kathleen Clara Clark's various attempts, by the successive Deans and
`Sobraniye Sochinenij'
V. Mayakovsky — Collected Works vol. 12, P. 49 Positioning in Radiography in 1939. Not only Heads of Departments (6 in all) at the
`Sovetskoe Iskusstvo 3a 15 let' does his Crucifixion of 1933 (now in the Lanchester Polytechnic, have been to readjust
2 'Fifteen Years of Soviet Art', Moscow 2933,
pp. 115-16,120-4 collection of Sir Colin Anderson) resemble an the 'balance' between 'theoretical' work and
`Izobrazitel'noe Izkusstvo' X-ray photograph of a rib cage, but Sir Michael `practical' work. This task has proved to be
3 'The Fine Arts' Petrograd 1919 pp. 31-5 Sadler, who bought it from him, then sent him extremely tough or nigh impossible. It has been
4 E1 Lissitzky, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1967 an X-ray photograph of his skull to paint his a tragedy in three parts. Firstly the cutting
PP. 349-354
5 Ibid p. 7o portrait. The resulting work, also known as back of teaching time caused by the staff-
6 Ibid pp. 344-5 Crucifixion 1933, depicts the X-ray skull on the student ratio alteration when the College of Art
7 Ibid p. 325.
ground beside the cross. entered the Polytechnic. Secondly the 'non-
[Translated from the Russian by
Margo Picken & Alasdair S. Beaton, In the late 193os Bacon acquired an renewal' of contracts of the part time staff
Note: Transliteration system used is that of the illustrated book on diseases of the mouth which mostly teaching Art Theory (July '71). Thirdly,
British Museum Reading Room.] partly inspired his paintings of heads with on 26 January 1972 Colin Saxton (the new Head

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