Page 57 - Studio International - May 1972

sharp hue differences instead, taking care not From a statement by Suzi Gablik, in answer to a
to use hues that will push each other apart too request for guidelines to her new series of
perceptibly. This kind of procedure is most I I pictures*:
explicit in a picture called Hellespont, which is 'Title: Tropisms (i, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.)
consequently one of the weaker in the show; 'The series is constructed as an open-ended
here there are parallel vertical stripes, one set unit. They are related by format, scale,
leaning in from the left, the other tipping iconography, and most especially, by internal
toward the right edge. The stripes at the left structure.
differ primarily in value from the turquoise 'There is a "deep structure", independent of
ground, and they appear to be tipping into a meaning or content, in Chomsky's sense.
shallow space. The stripes at the right are He speaks of a generative grammar, which I
defined by a high-keyed orange on the same would use in the sense of generating images :
turquoise ground, and they read as lines on a like the structuring of language, an infinite set
7 of images (sentences) can be generated from a
6 Stephen Greene finite structure of rules. That is, all the paintings
Confrontation 1971 are generated by the rules of the same grammar.
68 x 88 in.
Oil on canvas The final configuration cannot be
7 Blythe Bohnen accounted for in terms of properties and
attributes of its individual elements ... The
Forty-eight Brush-strokes 1971
72 x 96 in. elements do not preserve their original identity
e Acrylic on canvas once they are grouped... When enough parts
are given so as to form a system in need of
completion, its general shape, trend and
structure are already determined. Certain
definite conditions are imposed on parts still to
be integrated. Whatever the specific conditions
and demands in different concrete cases, they are
all specifications of the general, formal
condition of conformity with, or fittingness into,
that which is already actualized.'

without actually opening up such a space. continuous surface overpainted here and there Suzi Gablik applies her principles with
Because of the way the canvas is painted, with with blotches of lighter turquoise. unusual rigour, yet some principles of the sort
yellow encroaching from the upper left corner, The other pictures in the show are much have been working guides, consciously or
the sensation of light as a token of illusionistic subtler, and as if to signal that, the painting unconsciously, for the best creative intelligence
volume is felt as something made possible rather numbered 'I' contains an important rectangular of the past. What thoughtful artist has not
than limited by the edges of the picture. The shape which doesn't even become visible until mastered or wearied his materials into a
lower right corner of the painting contains a one has studied the canvas for a moment. In 'grammar', perhaps never completely
series of vertical rectangles (a couple amount to each work Bannard carefully balances the understood by him except in the fact that it
stripes) in yellow-green, tan, medium blue and a respective claims of colour and value on surface yields fine results, that infinite and cohering set
mild orange; these act both to cool off the area. He is not interested in literal of images ? So her principles are not new to
picture somewhat and to affirm its flatness. They affirmations of surface, he wants to affirm the artists; rather, it is tonic having them so
read almost like collage elements and are also surface as that of a painting. This ethically re-affirmed at this time—and,
subject to the inner illumination of the necessitates constantly keeping open the surprisingly, they can create work which gives
painting. This picture is loaded with reminders conditions which permit illusionism, because the problems to the contemporary viewer.
of its occurrence on and as a surface, but it surface of a painting is constantly susceptible to The pictures are modest in scale, each
seems to be lit from behind, like a back- to being expanded, shrunk, pushed forward or 24" x 24". They are done in her familiar
projected slide. I think it's the only work of real back, or made to seem transparent. The combination of photograph-collage and oil
grandeur in the show. strongest pictures here are the ones in which a paint on canvas. Though there are human figures
Darby Bannard's show at the Rubin Gallery painted shape actually connects with the edge, to be found in 5 of them, the overwhelming
was concurrent with the Whitney Annual, and forming a seam between the literal and virtual effect is of the animal and vegetable worlds in
should have been truly refreshing to anyone dimensions of the painting. This occurs most their wildest profusion. Individually they are
who visited the Annual first. Bannard's new successfully in Tuscan Air, where it is most dense pictures, closed within their own internal
paintings are more adventurous compositionally understated. The most beautiful work on hand, references, yet there does appear to be a
and in the use of colour than the series he Spring and Increase, has a long horizontal progression to them and indeed they are
showed last year. He continues here to try to rectangle pulled just inside the edge, connected specifically numbered for viewing. Patterns,
make colour solve certain problems inherited to it by a small channel of the dark blue with many sorts of patterns (Patterns,' she writes :
from Cubism, not so much solve them perhaps which the shape is underpainted. The placement 'a way of viewing the organization of systems'),
as defeat them. Barnard generally composes of this shape almost works, but not quite, of texture, colour, incident and anatomy—of
a painting these days out of a few recurrent because the shape itself seems to pull back more pattern itself—provide the connective link,
elements, one or two rectangles, a few partly than its colour can compensate for. Even when leading into each other and dissolving in new
obliterated stripes and large uncontained areas a Bannard doesn't succeed, it usually clarifies orders of relationship but always maintaining
of colour that often look sponged on in some something, and one comes away from his work that flow of pattern-ness.
manner. When he uses a stripe, it is naturally feeling somehow newly attuned. I'm becoming Nos z and 2 are comparatively sombre,
felt as a kind of internal edge, a cubist element convinced that Bannard is one of the very best yellows and greys, desert colours, with a linear
ultimately. But he avoids putting value American painters working today. grass and feather texturing. No. x is built on
gradations near these stripes and sets up fairly KEN BAKER the simple curves of bird backs, which is
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