Page 17 - Studio International - December 1972

proximity to the source of their wealth; these You're the tops except Rauschenberg who bestrides the top
images range from men posing with model girls, hundred like a colossus.
to piles of live ammunition. (Such photographs How does Dr Bongard arrive at his
are a feature of the 'quality' Sunday papers, comparative table of the artists of the 6os and
where we are meant to skim through the ios ? It is not easy to make clear the fiendish
Business part along with the art and interior ingenuity of his system. He has made a
design pages.) There will be sections covering selection of important exhibitions, important
physical and psychological states : withdrawal; museums and important books, and an artist
advancing; aggression; power; sickness. The who is represented or mentioned in any of
executive as presented in advertisements will these is awarded a certain number of points.
form a section. Thus, if you have a work in the Tate or the
Guiding the choice of materials and Guggenheim you rate 100, 150 for a work in the
comments is a structure that is concerned with Museum of Modern Art, New York, and only 8o
such factors as the self-image of the executive (a if you have been unfortunate enough to sell
term given me by Jonathan Benthall); the anything to the Albright-Knox. If you have
photographer's treatment of the subject; the use shown at the Whitechapel in London you rate a
of the photograph by the editor and designer; mere 50, but 100 if you were chosen by the
the correlation of image to text; the objective of Dublin Rosc jury. Points awarded for
the newspaper in presenting the image; the In a world where less and less seems certain, the bibliographic references are slightly more
usefulness or damage to the subject of the Top Twenty remains a still point at the centre of arbitrary however, and Dr Bongard's list of key
published image and text, and a variety of other subjective chaos. This journal, too, could cash books is small and idiosyncratic. Still, you get 50
thoughts. A newspaper is a complex multi-level in on the trend by publishing the 100 best points if there's a black and white reproduction
reality, and in probing it we must respond on a contemporary artists. Unfortunately that has of your work in Read's Concise History of
variety of levels. already been done, and I am full of admiration Modern Sculpture, 100 for colour, but nothing
A certain objectivity is aimed at in presenting for the idea itself and for the manner in which it for a mention in the text. You rate 3o more if
this work: I am certainly working in conformity has been realized. you also appear in Barbara Rose's American Art
with certain principles and rules. But there is an The German business magazine Capital (a Since 190o, and a further 3o for a book called
irreconcilable clash between my views of society cross between Fortune, Businessweek and The Kunst van nu, published by the University of
and those upheld in the City pages. Economist) recently published such a list for the Utrecht. Thus, added together, we find that
A marked split exists between sections of third year running and it was prepared for Rauschenberg has an impressive 7,275 points,
some newspapers and their business pages over the third year running by that redoubtable critic miles ahead of our very own Gilbert and George
pollution and environment. The general and soothsayer Dr Willi Bongard. Those (placed overall 82nd) with 1,745. Paolozzi (15th)
editorial writing may seek to accommodate to or frustrated by the lack of any objective standards has 4,280 and Hamilton (26th) 3,505.
absorb the powerful international protest in the art game and aching for someone to tell But the quality gradings are not the real point
movements that have formed on these issues. them where the real quality is need be frustrated of this fascinating hierarchy. The magazine is
But the City section features ecology only when no longer. At last an art critic has got his Capital, so money's the thing; Dr Bongard has
a firm is cashing in on the interest, or when priorities right. Not for Dr Bongard the refined his system to indicate who is worth
some big financial power is directly threatened. tiresome and boring business of comparison, having and who is not. As he says in the
In the City pages Capitalism is laid bare. The stylistic analysis and interpretation. He knows introduction to his Top Hundred : 'There is
City Editor reigns firmly over the jungle. He will who is good, mediocre and bad and says so. He much uncertainty in judging the quality and
prod his beasts — goad them towards success, has with great ingenuity and resourcefulness value of modern art. Who are the masters
`the kill'. And those not savage enough to make developed a system which eliminates all doubt: whose works will keep their value or even
it will not escape disciplining: we see them while Segal (31st) is better than Riley (38th) increase in value ? . . . This compass, a list of the
occasionally, their heads bowed, with drawn and Rosenquist (19th) is better than Louis 100 best-known contemporary artists, provides
faces, set up as a warning to the pack. But the (21st), Oldenburg (2nd) is better than anyone important criteria for the estimation of the future
standard City face stares with confidence
straight at the camera, or faces us in an
advantageous three-quarter profile. The face
may smile, or it rests stern and authoritative.
The face whose company launched a thousand
ships is conscious of its role in projecting
confidence in its company and its 100,000
employees.
It is not true to say that we are living under
Fascism. We are living in a state that is a
hundred times worse than Fascism. They were
prepared to wage all-out war, and kill millions of
Jews. We are actively preparing to kill all life on
earth. Newspapers are aligned with this society:
they help to maintain it and must share the
blame for the increasing ugliness of people and
cities. The advertisements of the polluters and
destroyers keep the presses rolling. Picasso said
that art is a weapon to fight the enemy. I have
something to say; and I am saying it — and that
is politics.
GUSTAV METZGER
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