Page 56 - Studio International - June 1972

New York

commentary

Dore Ashton

The generational theory of art criticism, in
which it is assumed that artists of any given
decade move along in psychological concert,
has many adherents in the museum world. It is
certainly convenient to mark off decades as
though they were plastic boxes containing
neatly filed materials, or blocks of time that
are automatically programmed into history.
Such blocks of time have the great
advantage of being immediately assessable.
Once it is assumed that these neat divisions
of time exist, it is easy enough to follow a Out of such readymade contexts come Robert duck and size always carry. On the level of
programme in which the seconds and minutes of Ryman at the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, born in inquiry, Ryman's investigations of the nature of
the time block are recorded, or, as in some 193o, and James Rosenquist at the WHITNEY painting are convincing. He is, indeed, a
outstanding examples, pre-recorded. The MUSEUM, born in 1933. Not only do they share member of a pragmatic generation whose
careers of many artists of the 196os, for instance, a generation, but they are presented almost positive trait is the willingness to experiment
were documented blow-by-blow by critics exclusively through works of the single decade in public.
who immediately came forward not only with of the 196os, and discussed in terms of the But if his oeuvre to date is to be discussed
descriptive titles for 'movements', but `movements' their decade is said to have coherently, it must be seen in a broader context.
even anticipated developments within the produced. Although Ryman is the older of the It is not enough to remark that he uses the
immediate future. The artists burgeoning in two, he came into prominence only in the square format because it is neutral, but not
such a moment of complex liaisons within the mid-1960s when Minimalism was proclaimed neutral like Malevich's or Albers's, only neutral
art communications network entered quite (through a museum exhibition of course). like Ryman. And it doesn't help much to try to
consciously into the hermetic chamber of Rosenquist appeared somewhat earlier in the eliminate 'figure-ground' relationships when
historicism. context of Pop art. they are clearly present in his and anyone else's
What Leo Steinberg once defined as a Both artists apparently acquiesce with their painting once the slightest variation in light
problem of shrinkage was strikingly evident in critics in seeing themselves as somehow intensity is introduced. What does help is to
the 196os. Artists were bitterly aware of the outside the flow of the history of their art — start with the most recent paintings which are
limits placed on their time in the sun, and painting — and at the same time, both insist happily his best and most impressive. These
critics knew they had to get their licks in before that they are artists and painters. For Ryman, paintings are interesting enough to stand on
the decade ran out. Museums fell into step and curator Diane Waldman puts forward what are their own without art-philosophical buttressing.
modified their exhibition policies to match the intended to be new contexts : 'Because Ryman's In the large Surface Veil paintings (12 feet
new historicism. Where it had been paintings stress the physical' she says, 'they square) Ryman takes up a painting situation
customary to wait at least two decades while are not about space.' That, for instance, makes which is not confined to his decade. What to do
an artist built an oeuvre and exhibited it in any critical comparison with painting in with a perfectly square format has interested
transit, it became urgent to present the findings general out of the question. If it's not about artists always. Moreover, he uses a painting
of generational historians each decade. space, among other things, what is painting surface which is not only separated from the
It is now possible for two museums to offer about ? Ryman deals with what Waldman calls environment by means of the conventional
two retrospective exhibitions which are `the reality of painting-cum-painting' and he stretcher, but emphasized in its separation by
distinct decade affairs. In each case the curators has 'a conviction about paint.' Both means of a thin suggestion of blue border
writing catalogue commentary have recourse painting-cum-painting and conviction about definitively arresting the flow of the horizontal
regularly to the convenient framework of the paint sound as though they had been discussed members of his grid. The terms of appraisal,
decade of the 196os. As they themselves were before in the history of painting, but Waldman then, are conventional in the best sense.
partly responsible for the descriptive categories hastens to isolate her decade by pointing out What happens on these pleasantly airy
they keep invoking, it is literally an open-and- that this was all consistent with the surfaces is a flow of light skilfully guided along
shut case. Despite the increasing attention to `pragmatic' tone of the work of the 196os. the paths of the grid. These lightly inflected
scientific method on the part of both literary It is obvious looking at Ryman's course intervals are arrested about three-quarters of
and art critics, there is a noticeable lack of through the 196os that he shared certain the way up by a delicately wavering line that
objectivity in such procedures. Galileo when he premises with his fellows of the generation. reads like a fissure and is definitely intended to
ran into the stubborn preconceptions of his One was certainly that the use of repeated reveal a ground, and therefore space. The
scientific colleagues wrote to a close friend that motifs in series could de-emphasize the single horizontal sequence is stressed by means of the
`We must not ask nature to accommodate herself precious object and relate somehow to the rhythmic scrubbing strokes that Ryman had
to what we may think the best arrangement and general uprising against easel painting and earlier established when he worked with series
disposition, but must adapt our intellect to museum art. To this end, he made repeated of cardboard paintings. But in that 1969 series,
what she has produced.' In the critical investigations of modular forms and in which the scribbled and scrubbed whitened
reverse procedure, we seem to be bestowing the eventually exhibited series of works which surfaces of corrugated cardboard repeated
arrangement and disposition of works of art could be seen as environmental wholes. He also themselves around the room to create an
upon history and then adapting ourselves to experimented with materials, seeking to evade atmosphere rather than objects to be
what we have produced. the implications that the old wooden stretcher, contemplated, there was no concerted interest