Page 33 - Studio International - March 1972

precisely because the structure of a Jackson to my aid the 'one or two ideas of Aristotle' relation to another is allowed to take its place.
Pollock is totally in contrast with any sort of that I invoked in the reference to Stephen It is metaphoric to call a ship a bird, metonym
linguistic structure. The jigsawed units are so Dedalus, and secondly by at least touching upon to refer to it as a sail.
far from exemplifying the properties of the vast problem of the work of art within a Now I imagine it is quite clear that, in terms
disjunction and connection that belong to the system of communication. of my two initial examples, Alloway is using
basic units of language as to be entirely You will appreciate that in my earlier criticism to open up a metaphorical field, a
undifferentiated, indeed virtually identical. argument I have been proceeding by the system beyond what is actually there, whereas
So we have reached a position where we method of antithesis, taking van Doesburg and van Doesburg is asking for an avoidance of all
might give a new twist to the dictum of Harold Alloway as two contrasted extremes in their terms which involve connotation rather than
Rosenberg on the Minimal artists. Instead of attitudes to the problem of language and the denotation. I imagine it is also fairly clear that
`The less there is to see, the more there is to work of art. I even suggested a kind of inverse van Doesburg's attitude is a somewhat
say,'6 we could claim 'The less there is to read, symmetry in their relationship, following from depressing one for the critic, since the range of
the more there is to write.' But I want to go on the idea of a language vacuum and a language ideas upon which he can draw is apparently
a little further along this particular track, and plenum. But of course in methodological curtailed quite radically. And yet at the same
ask whether the distinction is not simply one of terms, such notions as antithesis and symmetry time, I think it would be true to say that there
there being more or less to say about the work are more seductive than they are illuminating. are enormous possibilities in a metonymically
of art, but of the quality of what is said in the What is required is a formal pattern or analogue oriented criticism, and that it is certainly no
two conflicting cases. I recall mentioning to a which will bring the two supposedly antithetical longer true to say, as Roman Jakobson did in a
former member of the English Surrealist group positions into a structural relationship: and famous essay, that there is next to no critical
in the 193os that I was playing with the idea of this, I think, can be done through the use of work on metonymy. What I would now like
works of art that could be spoken about and some of the most radically simple concepts of to propose will be in a sense a demonstration
works of art that could not be spoken about. He structural linguistics. of some of the approaches to which such a
immediately replied that even if one could not I have already observed about Alloway's critical commitment may lead. And I should
speak about a work of art one might write a Magda Cordell word list that it contains a set point out that any shift of attitudes in the study
poem about it. Now I would not accept this of related metaphors, all of which contribute of the visual arts is convincingly supported in
point to the extent of conceding that one could to Alloway's dominant image of the painting the field of literary criticism.8
write a poem about a work by van Doesburg: exemplifying the world of science fiction. It is Before I go on to consider the detailed
the prospect seems to me frankly intimidating. surely equally clear that van Doesburg's implications of metonymic criticism of the
But I would agree that if one takes as one exclusive word list is at least in part an attempt work of art, I should like to tackle with the aid
extreme the van Doesburg case, where the to exclude metaphor, even when it creeps in by of this new distinction the point about language
only viable reaction is a description of the way of apparently innocent concepts such as within the work of art which I first touched
linguistic system, then the other extreme is a `adventure', 'freshness' and 'obscurity'. What I upon in relation to van Doesburg. What we
case where a poem may be the only appropriate would like to propose is that the relation between have in the case of an elementarist picture by
reaction. After all, what is Lawrence Alloway the two critical stances can be interpreted as a van Doesburg is, you might say, a syntax or
doing in relation to the paintings of Magda relation between metaphor and metonym, collection of signs in space, deriving from a
Cordell if not writing a poem, or at least between dominance of the system and rudimentary code. It seems to me that, when
providing the word list from which a poem dominance of the syntagm, between criticism viewed as a system of communication through a
might be drawn ? He is, quite openly and of the code, to use Levi-Strauss's distinction, particular code or language, van Doesburg's
explicitly, choosing a list of words which all and criticism of the message. model is pretty inadequate. Levi-Strauss has
apply to science fiction, and so establishing an In very simple terms, the distinction between condemned geometrically based art on the
over-all field of metaphor which we can relate syntagm and system, both of which are principle that it succumbs to the 'Utopia of our
to our experience of the paintings. There is no necessarily present in any use of language, is age', the desire to establish a system of signs
necessary suggestion that the paintings are, that the syntagm consists of a combination of upon a single level of articulation.9 He is, in
in any genuine sense, about science fiction. And signs which has space for its support, while the other words, pointing out the necessity for a
indeed, since it would be quite impossible to system exists outside spatial and visible balance of syntax and system, denotation and
establish from inspection of the paintings connections, being the region of connotation. connotation, which he would see as essential to
whether they were about science fiction or not, To use a well-tried analogy, the syntagm of a any properly linguistic communication. And
we can safely leave that question on one side. Greek temple is the combination of its columns, van Doesburg perhaps falls into a trap (as does
Lawrence Alloway is therefore in this case a pediments and so forth as they appear to the a contemporary artist like Vasarely) when he
poet, or someone who hovers on the edge of observer: the system is composed of the stylistic assumes that the presence of disjunctive signs
poetic creation. And just as linguistic criticism paradigms according to which we judge deriving from an elementary code affords a
in the image of van Doesburg runs the risk of whether it is Ionic, Doric or Corinthian. direct analogy with linguistics.
being simply tautological, so poetic criticism Insistence on metaphor is, one can loosely say, But this is an extremely vexed issue. What I
runs the risk of being simply idiosyncratic or a reading of a particular syntagm in terms of a really want to do at this point is not to fault van
personal. It is extremely significant that when particular system. There is no particular reason Doesburg and Vasarely but to show how the
Alloway quotes the Magda Cordell catalogue why a metaphor should 'work', except in so far notion of the work of art exemplifying its own
notes in his essay on British Pop Art, it is not to as it has been imaginatively chosen. Science code has developed in a rather curious and
illuminate the career of Magda Cordell as a fiction may or may not be an appropriate image interesting way in the contemporary artistic
painter but to illustrate the development of his with which to connote Magda Cordell's scene. And to prepare the ground for this, I'd
own relationship to popular culture. Vasarely paintings. On the other hand, metonym, a like to to remind you of the reference to Michel
talks in his Notebooks of the traditional artist linguistic device with which we are perhaps less Foucault which I made at the outset. Rhetoric,
`flanked by his poet'.? Yet the military metaphor familiar, depends on clear and direct suggests Foucault, was a kind of additional
must be extended to allow the possibility of connections being made within the syntagm. dimension in which literature could see itself
desertion in the face of the enemy. Where metaphor proceeds by substitution reflected. Exactly the same could be said, surely,
It is at this point, I think, that it becomes and identification— one thing becomes another— for the system of genres and aesthetic doctrines
necessary to extend the range of my metonym proceeds by contiguity and such as the theory of imitation which formed
investigation in two ways : first by summoning assimilation— one thing already standing in the centre of Classicist dogma in the eighteenth