Page 24 - Studio International - November 1972

internal reasons for this development. What `facts'. What is seen is not reacted to, but is If by contrast an intuitive mode of cognition is
now seems far more important to Modernist referred to a matrix of known abstract ideas (the now considered it will be seen to both refute
Art is the realization that by keeping object is ). Insofar as these facts are part relational experience and more properly apply
out any reference to literal reality it became of our everyday language of learnt property to Judd's art. An intuition by definition
possible to create the illusion of a psychic or descriptions (there is no question here of combines discrete elements into an integral
`subjective' space; a space that could both applying a special language), it may be argued whole, which, like a musical chord, are
present and evoke feelings in their most direct that their cognition is quite specific. In these simultaneously apprehended. What this
and heightened form. In practice this terms, then, Judd's objects become an individual implies is that the elements of an intuition
possibility only emerged once shape and colour collection of observed facts.6 (1) Understood co-exist by affinity but without being inter-
were liberated from their identity with actual a-priori by definition; (2) understood related. In a relational experience, the felt
objects and redefined as pure visual or a-posteriori by non-formal rules of use. responses evoked in a subject refer to neither one
optical phenomena. If, by contrast to the However, if the identity of Judd's objects part nor another, but are felt as a quality that
experience Modernist Art provides, it has went no further than this, they would basically exists between, it depends on parts being
explicitly defined its 'objects' or 'means,' hold little interest, apart from any other separate. The synthetic act of intuition,
through their actual properties, the main objects. It should follow then that, taken however, integrates elements; the paradox that
reason has been to give form to this felt space, within an art context, what makes these follows is that if the components of an
and to bracket as 'style' valid contexts of objects exceptional is the manner in which intuition are to be apprehended as a unit, their
feeling. Facts in this case are literally used these facts can be 'apprehended'. identity as such has to remain disjunct,
to circumscribe or define areas of consciousness, In relational modes of feeling, perception perception has to keep to the properties of
but the experience they contain remains, in moves or is held between more or less discrete things in themselves.
the strict sense, 'mindless'. elements. We accept that, in art, the qualities or A further distinction can be made between
Although influenced by the 'formal sentiments we associate with these elements can the 'instant' quality of a felt response and the
insights' the 'definition' of modernist set up between them a syntax of reciprocal felt `immediacy' of an intuition. A feeling, it might
painting has provided, Don Judd has relations. But in order to contain what amounts be accepted, refers only to a temporal state
presented 'specific objects' that clearly oppose to an irresolute interplay of felt responses, it within a subject; it belongs to a perishing series
the whole modernist conception of content. becomes essential in turn to relate all the of either this or that response. In modernist
Their unitary form (wholeness), their point painting, the drive towards 'wholeness' was not
blank use of materials, their indefinite (object) an attempt to eliminate pictorial relations, but
scale, their negation of illusion, all seem to deny rather a desire to heighten or compress
any possibility of a felt response. Whatever way instants of response. As Stella's paintings
one looks at them, attention is always driven illustrate, to get rid of pictorial relations is also
back to the brute fact of their apparent to neutralize our 'felt responses' to sense objects.
existence as actual objects. But given the fact An intuition, on the other hand, encloses a
of their existence as actual, albeit useless, complex of facts. The cognition of the facts may
objects, the experience they provide remains proceed singularly, but at the point of 'insight'
far more compelling than that provided by they amalgamate and become an 'inseparable
simple negative entities — objects stripped of whole'. At this juncture time is necessarily
meaning. As Judd has indicated, 'The whole compressed, it folds in, and our sense of
is made according to complex purposes and temporal experience transcended.
these are not scattered, but asserted by one Equally important in elucidating an intuitive
Donald Judd Untitled 1965
form.'4 The question then is how can Perforated steel, 8 x 12o x 66 in. use of 'facts' is the notion of the will. As a
these objects be experienced as art: Leo Castelli Gallery mental stance that asserts the self as the prime
as far as I know, no adequate description has mover in relation to objects, it can also imply the
yet been given. elements, as parts, to a further whole. (A more decision to adopt 'an attitude' or an 'emotional
Michael Fried, intent on framing a case for or less total impression of a whole, however, set' that reflects a desire to 're-constitute' the
modernist doctrine, has compared the should not be confused with the nature of the world. Allied to the notion of the will is the
`presence' of these objects in a gallery space to experience in itself). Similarly, in logical idea of its formation in terms of conscious
that of a theatrical experience.5 He sees the modes of cognition, attention proceeds from intentions. To form an intention is not yet to
response they arouse as being similar to that point to point, from antecedent to consequent. accomplish anything in relation to an object, but
evoked by the negative presence of a dumb or But in this case the terms are connected by is first to decide what kind of action to take
surrogate person. When confronted by them functions that define explicit operations. towards an object, or how to receive an object.
our immediate attention is apparently Attention moves from one directed relation to To ask what a person's intentions are, is to ask
commanded by the sheer aggressiveness of their the next. (Here the problem of logic, as I how an object can exist for that person; in
stance, only to find that in turn it is resisted by understand it, is how in any language the other words, what his 'conception' of that
their insistent and obdurate silence. Caught by relation between discrete terms can possibly be object is. But what warrants attention here, is
this dubious paradox one's feelings are aroused, asserted as either true or false.) The point is that that at this level of consciousness, both in its
so to speak, by default, which then redirects it is precisely this convention of perception (or horizontal relation to other faculties, ie our
attention back into an awareness of oneself as an cognition) that Judd's art decidedly rejects. emotional will, and in its vertical relation to
alienated subject. But while Fried's account may `I discarded "order" and "structure". Both external objects, our perceptions necessarily
be true for some minimal art, it has little words imply that something is formed . . . . This proceed to and from matters of fact — which
bearing on Judd's 'specific objects'. If separation of means and structure — the world brings us back to the direct perception of
anything, it wilfully displaces the formal and order — is one of the main aspects of Judd's specific objects.
quality of the experience they present. european or western art, and also of most older, Having considered the kinds of perception
To begin with, Judd's art may be considered reputedly civilized, art. It's the sense of Thomist that relate to Judd's art, if these are now
in far more conventional terms. An object that Christianity and of rationalist philosophy which summarized, it would clarify what he has done.
refers to nothing outside of itself may initially developed from it. Order underlies, overlies, is It may be properly claimed then, that Judd
be 'predicated' as a collection of observed within, above, below or beyond everything.' 7 has reconstituted the facts of experience