Page 43 - Studio International - March 1972

interest in his work was not misplaced. It many a so-called major American painting or police records has a uniformity which would
wasn't the reaction of a spoilt child who wanted sculpture, most of the later books seemed to be suggest they all operate on one level alone.
to be admired; rather the amazement of a fatally in love with a rarefied kind of word-play. Rinke's frontal pose does not change
serious artist who realized that dealers, Theoretical historians will always cherish the throughout; his facial expression stays
museums, critics and collectors on the continent philosophical implications of his 1969 Ruptured detached and impassive; there are no tricks
were on the whole far more aware than we are piece—probably the most extreme and defiant played with lighting, surroundings or camera
of the territory he has been exploring. As of all Weiner's works to date—but it can never, angles; and no subtle thematic or structural
Weiner pointed out, the verbal medium he surely, extend beyond that narrow field of system to add an internal dimension to the
employs presents no language barriers to the interest and affect an audience capable of series. How, therefore, can it be anything more
British. The only real stumbling-block centres responding to most other contemporary work. than a display of resourcefulness or ingenuity
on the availability of his books; and once Undermining the monumental flatulence of so on Rinke's part ?
acquired, they are far more easily assimilated many artefacts is both timely and salutary; and The answer takes several forms. In one
than the work of painters or sculptors who can yet replacing this outworn rhetoric with refined sense, the prints can be read as an enquiry into
be satisfactorily appraised in sporadic exhibitions whispers comes dangerously near to curing the semantics of gesture. When a fist closes over
alone. one disease by exchanging it for another. his face it signifies martial confidence and
Was it, however, simply Weiner's impatience The minor tenor emitted by much of defiance, whereas a hand held in front of the
with his audience in London that made his Weiner's work is more acutely revealed if it is same area appears defensive, almost fearful.
first official showing here such a slight affair ? compared with Klaus Rinke's Fotoserie, shown Then there is a constant battle between the
Compared with the efforts made at the LISSON magnificently by SITUATION at 29-3o Old body as a personification of figurative elements,
GALLERY last autumn by Martin Maloney, Burlington Street later in January. Here again and as an arrangement of abstract shapes. These
whose work links up with Weiner's in so many it seemed lamentably late in the day to give two different meanings alternate with each
ways, the five numbered sentences issued by such a well-established artist his first London other as the photographs are surveyed. At one
Jack Wendler were undeniably lightweight. airing, and the piece itself was made as far back moment, Rinke approaches the dramatic
Whereas Maloney hammered away at his as 1970. So there was an undeniable feeling of intensity of a Grünewald by making his fingers
(Intercourse) idea in the Lisson warehouse week déjà vu about the occasion : lazy old England, act as eyebrows, pushing up across the forehand
after week, changing and rechanging the contents finally waking up enough to import something into lines of tension and anxiety. And then he
of the wall graffiti to accommodate the which everyone else had seen and discussed banishes human overtones altogether, exploring
permutations of his experience with each fresh long before. And if this sounds too much like various types of symmetry and asymmetry,
visitor he encountered, Weiner merely jetted the carping of a critic who is over-anxious to simplicity and complexity with a schematic
in for a few days, circulated his card and was be up to date with every new sensation, let me severity which makes you forget that limbs are
gone. Maybe he did not consider it worthwhile put it another way: we ought to be sufficiently being used at all.
exerting himself any further; but the fact involved with the art of our time to demand that But he does not stop there. Even as I was
remains that art is primarily a matter of people as good as Rinke be given an immediate beginning to decide that his fundamental
communication, and it was disappointing how showing, and that Rinke himself be anxious to
little Weiner was concerned about making his discover how we react to his work. It is
visit a memorable one. basically a question of building up a sense of
Or perhaps I am actually complaining about continuous exposure; informed judgements
something much larger : the inability displayed and distinctions cannot be made with any
by many avant-garde artists to hit on a confidence without the most thoroughgoing
satisfactory means of disseminating their kind of examination of new developments all
activities among a larger public. Just as Land the time.
Art practitioners can be faulted for failing to Under present conditions, I do not imagine
transpose their isolated experiments into that Rinke would be particularly gratified to
(a—g) Klaus Rinke
anything other than photographic shadows of hear that his group of 112 photographs 7 photographs from Fotoserie 1970
the original, so Weiner's writings inevitably constituted the most impressive exhibition to Courtesy Situation Gallery
become little more than rarefied elitist items, be seen here in the New Year season. Why 2 David Lamelas
handed round a small circle of cognoscenti and should he, when the competition remains so Stills from Filmscript 1971
never straying outside. Weiner himself would limited ? Such comprehensive demonstration Courtesy Nigel Greenwood Inc. Ltd
not be perturbed by such a situation, of course : of the body as a viable medium has never been
he is essentially a dialectician who feeds seen in London before, and Rinke handled the
subversive thoughts into his culture, and the project with total authority. Concentrating on
main aim behind his pioneering Statements an interplay between face, hands and forearms,
book was to controvert the then prevailing he was able to justify the inclusion of each
belief in the aesthetic supremacy of unique, separate variation by inventing a whole
physically realized artefacts. But while he is at repertoire of clearly defined, individual
pains to demolish what he calls the gestures. The decisive knowledge which
`expressionist' mystique of the artist bestowing enabled him to conduct earlier experiments
his sensibility upon finished objects, he is also with water, dictating its movement and shape
willy-nilly creating an alternative mystique by by projecting it from a bucket, for example, is
restricting himself to terse utterances on a small here used to articulate his own limbs instead.
printed page. Reading through Weiner's books, The water would never have become such an
one after the other, my admiration for the eloquent instrument if Rinke had not known
toughness and precision of his ideas gradually exactly how to control his physical actions : and
gave way to a feeling of impatience with the the same kind of command over the body's
preciosity of it all. Although several of the expressive potential is carried over into the
Statements, in particular, expanded far beyond Fotoserie. Viewed en masse, this range of
their format and became more powerful than images hung round the room like a row of
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