Page 53 - Studio International - September 1972

the one hand are the attractive and not too coloured plastic model of the Eiffel Tower ...
expensive objects by the two Dutch artists, and Of course, many galleries still continue to
on the other a sculptural object by Beuys produce multiples. The Galerie La Hune now
which although in edition, will be out of the have the Berrocal Portrait de Michele and
price range of the lower income groups. Mini-Zoraida, as well as the David and Romeo
The drive that moved many artists to take andjuliet shown at the Whitechapel. These
the production of their multiples into their own two sculptures break down into further separate
hands has nearly faded out. Nevertheless a few parts. They also have a bronze multiple by
have managed to edition their own works. Carel Alicia Penalba, the Argentinian sculptress, and
Balth is one example who makes a point of work by Hans Arp and Matta. Paul
having a new multiple for sale at each exhibition Haim is still producing small editions of work
of his work; Paul Damsté with his clothes-pegs by Man Ray, including several not seen in
reliefs is another, as are Carla Kaper — London, such as the Chess Game (1962) and the
who created two mixed media eat-art Feather-Weight (1968). Other Man Ray
multiples, and Rolet Brandt who is a versatile multiples produced by the Galerie des
virtuoso, making transparent plastic rolls with Quatre Mouvements, include the silver
sausages, sardines etc., also plates with loaves sculpture Le Fou and the collage Obstruction.
of bread on them, and real size steel-frame The same gallery stocks Marcel Duchamp's
windows, with things happening behind the La Bouche-Evier.
plate-glass. The Galerie Denise René has, if only on a
The Nederlandse Kunststichting (The quantitative basis, done more than anyone to
Netherlands Arts Foundation) has a further the cause of multiples in France.
government-owned collection of more than Although the gallery is no longer producing
fifty multiples conceived by Dutch artists, editions of multiples at quite the same rate,
available for circulation in the provinces. several new ones have appeared over the last
Finally it is important to mention a Belgian two years since the Whitechapel show.
venture, Multi-Art Press International, Perhaps the most important of these is the
specializing in multiples in paper or Series R by Julio Le Parc, a set of thirty related
cardboard. Multi-Art Press has already multiples, which are based on interference
commissioned several Dutch artists to create patterns created by curved mirrors set against
multiples, including Boezem, Ad Dekkers, silkscreened patterns. So these deal with much
Ewert Hilgemann, Slothouber and Graatsma, the same problem as the earlier Formes en
and Herman de Vries. contorsion, but in a much more economic way.
The only other foreign gallery selling work In some of them the mirrored sections can be
by a Dutch artist is X-art at Zollikon, actually moved by the spectator, in others the
Switzerland. They currently have in stock a effect depends on the spectator's movement
beautiful upholstery relief by Jos Manders. past the piece. Tomasello also has a new piece
HERMAN SWART in production, using aluminium sections on a
white ground rather than his previous white
cubes tinted with colour. The finished object
is itself not exciting, but it suggests that the
Mais . . . c'est un artist's work may be entering a new period.

Schoffer is also preparing a multiple edition of
multiple, n'est-ce Chronos Ten for publication later this year.
Significantly, though, the gallery has
pas? increased its print production, and now offers

new series by Soto, Yvaral and Claisse. It is
Consider, if you will, the Eiffel Tower. When not quite clear whether this is an adjunct to
it was first erected the Parisians loathed it—with multiples production or whether it is intended
the exception of some few who regarded it as a to replace them. The general feeling I
triumph of aesthetic engineering. It is of course encountered in Paris was that multiples were
a paradoxical building—a structure whose whole ok for prestige but not so hot commercially.
purpose is only to keep itself up. Its existence The most disappointing discovery was that
is its own justification. This may be an adequate the galleries and organizations that were
aesthetic principle today (though not by producing the most interesting multiples two
nineteenth-century standards), but it hardly years ago have now disappeared. Claude (Top)
Paul Damsté
makes sense as engineering. Much the same Givaudan has transferred his business to Clothes Peg Relief 1 97
seems to be true of the present crop of French Geneva, for example, and Editions Agentzia, Wood, wooden clothes pegs, 12 1/4 x 12 1/4 X 1 1/4 in.
multiples. 'But it's a multiple', I was earnestly who exhibited a number of low cost unlimited Edition 25. Produced by the artist.
assured when looking at a rather uninteresting multiples by Jochen Gerz and others at the (Centre)
object in one Paris gallery—as if the fact that I Whitechapel, are now nowhere to be found. The Rolet Brandt
Window with a Wiper 1971
could buy them by the dozen would alter their field is largely left open to galleries producing Chemical resin, 110 x 80 cm.
insignificance. Multiplicity has become self- works in small editions at high prices. Edition 5, Objekt Rolet
justifying: even the original limited pretensions Largely, but not quite. One interesting (Above)
Slothouber and Graatsma
of opening up a new market have been newcomer is Editions Christofle, which works Cubic Structure 1968
forgotten. It only remains to add that the only from a gallery in the Christofle jewellery shop Laminated limewood, 261 x 261 X 2 in.
multiple that sells well in Paris is a little gold- in the Rue Royale. The gallery sponsored a Edition 6o, Mickery Gallery

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