Page 22 - Studio International - December 1972

new order of decoration, possibly, focussing at so I cannot tell how much they weighed or effectively communicate what he has discovered,
points in the environment the individual's what length they represented placed in a line then such knowledge is to no avail. Far be it
body sense and space sense in structures of high head to toe. But at least I made the right from me to pronounce on the essential, the
visual distinction and physical permanence. beginning and in this Financial Year's report on inevitable dialogue between the formulation
Remembering 'Poetry is the subject of the the Demarco Gallery, I can see that it is of 'idea' and its means of expression - but
poem,/From this the poem issues and/To this advisable that I increase the numbers of my Mr Ascott does not seem to recognize such a
returns ...' (Wallace Stevens). student body to equal that of Nova Scotia if I am notion as being either self-evident or indeed
Rather late, then, but sincerely, I would now going to make an effective balance between necessary.
endorse the objectives of the Stuyvesant scheme. income and expenditure, because the running Clearly, however, there must be many Art
However I think Studio's sensational handling costs of the Gallery (including Edinburgh Colleges where there is room for a more liberal
of the project was a disgrace. The notion of a Festival activities) are looking dangerously near attitude to Art Education, and where the
`wider audience' demands more serious to equalling those of an art school like Nova entrenched pro-Academic full-time staff might
treatment than the record of ephemeral and Scotia. actively resist the idea that there might be an
hostile reactions. What else did anyone expect ? Anyway, congratulations on publishing that alternative role for the Art College and its
(Incidentally, it is interesting how much of the advertisement or whatever it is, perhaps it is a inmates in today's Society. But is the current
aggression directed against unfamiliar objects work of art in itself. I would also like to situation so impossible, so incapable of internal
comes from 'educated' people. One can congratulate you for publishing a splendid reforms that we must look to ill-conceived,
possibly take some comfort for the continued article on the current avant-garde film situation essentially past-negating schemes that are
life and power of sculpture in the baffled fury of in the States. Regina Cornwell writes equally as didactic as those they would replace ?
these reactions, the degree of emotion aroused). beautifully, concisely and with feeling on one of I would hardly have thought so - and
But immediate public reaction is an my favourite forms of visual art. I wish she had following Mr Ascott's practical
irrelevance; historically, bad public seen the films of my favourite film-makers from demonstrations, neither, apparently, does the
sculptures have caused as much outrage as good Lodz Film Academy, Ryszard Gajewski, Ontario College of Art.
ones. The problem is to get enough work sited Antoni Mickolajczyk, Josef Robakowski and But how, then, is one to effect liberalization
long enough for repeated experience to Wojciech Bruszewski who contributed so much when New Ideas necessarily require new staff-
determine real quality. The Stuyvesant to the Edinburgh Festival official exhibition of and yet not at the expense of sacking the skill
project has started on this problem, and I hope contemporary Polish Art 'Atelier 72'. and technique teachers - and how can one
neither the sponsors nor the organizers will be RICHARD DEMARCO overcome the inertia of a full-time staff whose
discouraged from trying again. Edinburgh posts are virtual sinecures and who yet are
WILLIAM TUCKER responsible for the greater part of a student's
London NW6 [Not an advertisement, but a commissioned time in College.
article on the Nova Scotia College. ED.] Perhaps a solution might be to make all
[Mr Tucker presumably refers to the inclusion teaching jobs part-time appointments only;
in our July/August issue of local newspaper in one stroke this would make room in the
comments on various sculptures sponsored by Passwords time-table and budget for the new staff, and at
the scheme. These comments were both for and Roy Ascott's recently published views on 'Art the same time, by transferring the full-tune
against, and their inclusion was discussed with Education in Canada' - and in general - were junta to a part-time basis, limit their power of
those responsible for organizing the scheme. certainly illuminating: if only of the muddled obstruction. It might, incidentally, also go
Since to date nine of the sculptures have been thinking and pure nonsense that frequently some way to remedy the long-standing
bought by municipalities for permanent public masquerades as a 'case' for New Art Education anomaly of the full-time art-teacher, who is
display, this 'ephemeral' reaction is likely to Schemes. often, at best, only a part-time artist.
remain for a long time the only 'public' It would be easy to dismiss the whole article I would not pretend that such a limited
reaction to these particular works. As such it as being of little consequence until one solution is not without its drawbacks, and
seems worth reporting. ED.] considers that Mr Ascott is not an idle under present legislation on establishment,
theorist. He has been an Art College Principal, impossible to administer - but I put it
not only in Canada but in England too; I met forward as, at the very least, an alternative to
Not an advertisement him during his brief stay at Ipswich Art `liberating' policies such as Mr Ascott's that
I have just read in your October issue the very College - the password then being are as destructive and single-minded as those
best advertisement imaginable for an art gallery, `cybernetics'. Considering the opportunities - they would wish to replace.
or indeed any place, representing meaningful for good or ill - that the post of Principal IAN HUNTER
activity in the contemporary visual arts. Of confers, one is tempted to call into question St Ives
course I refer to that whole page advertising the the selection processes whereby the successful Cornwall
activities of the Nova Scotia College of Art and candidate can be someone to whom art history
Design. I am so impressed by the information is a 'vision clouding' encumbrance, and who
that I have incorporated it into a memo that I am would replace 'dyed-in-the-wool' teachers of Oskar Schlemmer
writing to myself on the future of the Demarco skills and techniques by an automated, The Oskar Schlemmer Archives are
Gallery. twenty-four-hour skill bank - whatever that preparing a complete catalogue raisonné of
All the vital statistics of that remarkable art may mean ... Oskar Schlemmer's works. In the interest of
school convinced me that the Demarco Gallery By now Mr Ascott has no doubt recognized scientific completeness we would request
must inevitably be judged, weighed and me as one of the reactionaries whose attitudes owners (excepting collectors and museums
measured by a similar set of statistics. consistently hinder his Vision, and I do confess already in contact with us) to forward to us the
Thankfully with the Gallery's first Summer to believing wholeheartedly in the value of titles and descriptions of the artist's works in
School, 'Edinburgh Arts 72', the Gallery moved teaching skills and techniques; for whatever their possession.
appreciably nearer the direction suggested by else an Art College may profess to foster or OSKAR SCHLEMMER ARCHIV
the activities of that school. My student body develop, be it 'awareness and development of Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
numbered 58 souls; the faculty numbered 22. the mind' or whatever - if the student is Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse 32
Obviously I failed to gather their vital statistics unable to realize, and to some degree 7 Stuttgart I, Germany
216