Page 51 - Studio International - September 1972
P. 51
Charge it . . .
Recently, I received an invitation to an
`historic first'. The offering that I could charge
to my American Express, Diners Club, or
Master Charge card, was for a signed and
numbered multiple object Fallen Astronaut by
Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. It costs
$750, a price not determined because of
startling demand, production expenses or
extraordinary aesthetic merit (it looks like a
Bauhaus clothespin), but because another
Fallen Astronaut is in a small crater at the
Hadley Moon base. The 3 3/8 inch aluminium
sculpture was placed there by the Commander
of the Apollo 15 space craft on 2 August 1971.
Walter Cronkite announced what is billed in
its press kit as 'the first work of art on the
moon' during his CBS countdown coverage.
The Smithsonian Institution made a replica
for permanent display, and now Fallen Astronaut
is available in an expensive edition of 950, a
souvenir with instant history.
Reminiscent of an updated and diminutive
Falling Man by Ernest Trova, Van Hoeydonck's
Astronaut lacks aesthetic merit. It is a
marketable concept, more accurately a gimmick,
realized by an artist, and, as such, represents
why most multiples fail.
There is nothing new about commissioned
art, especially commemorating historic events.
But in the Renaissance commissions were
preceded by competitions. They got the right less works are being produced. Publishers offer
man for the job. Time was plentiful; Ghiberti similar explanations of high production costs
spent from 1403 to 1427 completing the North and an uncertain market.
Gate of the Florentine Baptistery and he had There are few exciting recent multiples. The
the help of others including Donatello. better recent publications are designed to be
Today's artist is seldom the beneficiary of read, like Lucas Samaras's book Samaras
time-to experiment or even fail in what for Album and Steve Reich's two-record album
him is often a new medium. To use and direct Drumming. A co-publication of the Whitney
the high-speed complex procedures of modern Museum of American Art and Pace Editions,
technology to aesthetic goals, even with the Samaras Album contains four-hundred and
collaboration, an artist needs time. As a result, ten auto-polaroid snapshots of the nude
average publishers, who can't afford time, issue Samaras and a text of ritualized narcissisum.
carelessly edited coffee-table merchandise, Samaras's auto-interviews relate everyday pains,
that's frequently more expensive than the table sorrows, and fears. But it is worth reading if
it eventually sits on. The production of these only to discover what our own common or garden
unimportant decorative objects has been variety fantasies look like in print. Multiples
supported by the idea there is a great American Inc's recent co-publication with John Gibson,
`multiples market', paralleling that for prints. of Steve Reich's Drumming is worth listening
Ironically, what has hindered the development to. The over-conceptualized music-variations
of this market is the paucity of quality objects not on a theme, but on one rhythmic beat-
produced. comes with a long signed and numbered score.
Another factor that's plagued the multiple's The editioned objects of most interest (Top)
development is general confusion on the part remain on the edge of conventional taste, Claes Oldenburg
Geometric Mouse Scale B (red) 1971-2
of artists, dealers, and publishers as to what a revealing a sound, a word, an image, we Painted steel, 43 in. high
multiple is or is not. All the term 'multiples' wouldn't have known without them, like the Edition 18, published by Lippincott Inc.
refers to are methods of bringing more art to pure funkiness of Edward Kienholz's recent Photo : Otto Nelson
more people. Any object, be it a large scale The Marriage Icon. (Above)
sculpture or a book, made by an artist in Published by Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, Paul Van Hoeydonck
Fallen Astronaut 1972
edition, is a multiple. The problem is one of The Marriage Icon succeeds in its campy Aluminium, 3 3/8 in. high
emphasis, which has been placed on the intentions. It is a newly manufactured object Edition 95o, Waddell Gallery
merchandizing and egalitarian aspects of embodying an out-of-date concept-courtship
multiples instead of on the art. The effect is that and marriage. Everything about it is
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