Page 52 - Studio International - July August 1973

country. 'Hell, yes, it was smuggled. I Collection : A New Perspective' at the there are drawings by twenty-two where in recent months only the
spent between $1.5 and $1.6 million Museum of Modern Art is a brilliant women. Among the most interesting Panamarenko exhibition reached
over the last two years on Asian art reinstallation of the collection. The are the delicate pencil and water- beyond the provincial level and
and most of it was smuggled' said galleries have been painted and colour squares of Melinda Butts — showed specifically art's potentialities
Mr Simon, when asked about the re-hung under the supervision of works more than faintly reminiscent for surpassing itself. If the artist's
bronze Nataraja of the diety Siva Curator William S. Rubin, who has of Agnes Martin ; and a piece by antiquated flying-machines fall into
which is part of a collection he may done a truly inspired job, especially in Rosemarie Castoro which is not a the category of absorbing and self-
loan for an exhibition at the the ground floor space which drawing in the conventional sense, indulgent hobby-constructions — any
Metropolitan. contains some of the best pieces of but a configuration in space —three talk of enlarging the consciousness
The National Gallery of Art in contemporary art in the collection. q stick-like objects hanging from the here is nonsense —there were also
Washington D.C. has recently LINDA CATHCART ceiling. some marvellous drawings on view.
'reattributed' about 40 of its major James de France recently had six Interest was reawakened by this
paintings and sculptures previously California report new paintings at the Nicholas year's 14x 14 series at the Kunsthalle
thought to be by old masters. Mr This summer in Los Angeles begins on Wilder Gallery. These works were in Baden-Baden. For five years Klaus
Parhurst, the Gallery's assistant a sad note with the closing of the unstretched and approximately ten Gallwitz has been promoting recent
director, using an interesting logic, Irving Blum Gallery and the Michael feet long and six feet high. Each work art though this sequence of shows, at
explained how this reattributing not Walls Gallery. Irving Blum and has the same format consisting of a which, each year, 14 exhibitors are
only 'downgrades' but also 'upgrades' Michael Walls are both moving to rectangle set in a 'frame', which is launched in three institutional venues.
works of art. It works as follows : an New York to continue their art dealing about six inches deep. De France This provides a splendid opportunity
artist who was previously thought to activities. The responsibility of paints on polyethylene which has for hitherto almost unknown artists to
have been minor is upgraded to the showing first rate contemporary art is been stretched onto the floor, and find a platform and to be discovered
ranks of a 'fine artist' when a work now left to Nicholas Wilder, Riko simply peels off the painting when it by critics and private galleries. I saw
which would have 'downgraded' a Mizuno, Jack Glenn, Douglas is dry. The acrylic paint is brushed on all three exhibitions, at which young
better artist is attributed to him and Christmas (Ace Gallery), and of the plastic, one layer being allowed foreign artists from France, Holland
the better artist is saved from being course the Museums and University to dry before the next is applied, and and Switzerland were also included,
'downgraded' by having this lesser Art Departments around Los Angeles. finally a piece of gauze material, and was struck by a common
work not attributed to him. Everybody La Jolla Museum of Contemporary which forms the support of the characteristic : in art, as in literature,
happy? The reattributed paintings Art showed recently work by Ron painting, is laid down and painted in the biographical seems to be playing
included Old Woman Plucking a Fowl Cooper in an exhibition installed by one solid colour, giving the pictures a an increasing role as the initial point of
from Rembrandt to 'the manner of Jay Belloli (May 12—July 1). satisfying sense of deep space. q departure. Although this binds them
Rembrandt', Portrait of a Young Man Cooper, who has had two one-man ANN THORNYCROFT to the tow-rope of their own past, the
formerly Velazquez to 'the circle of shows already this season, one in artists born after World War Two —
Velazquez', Algerian Child from New York at the Lo Giudice Gallery painters just as much as sculptors —
Delacroix to 'a follower of Delacroix', and most recently, in February, at the seek to escape conventional
The Lacemaker thought to be Skulima Gallery in Berlin, shows GERMANY situations and methods of expression.
Vermeer now 'a follower of Vermeer' pieces ostensibly dealing with In the process — particularly if they
and Allegory by Titian to 'a follower of colour/light phenomena. Although Since the beginning of this year become 'symbolic' as is suddenly the
Titian'. the structural characteristics of the exhibition circles in South Germany fashion —they risk becoming 'curious'
The National Endowment for the pieces are sometimes reminiscent of have lost a certain hectic quality : a and questionable. One must note
Arts has, so far this year, given out the work of other artists who use quality which did not in fact reflect names like Anselm Kiefer, with his
grants totalling $1,972,625. Almost light as their medium, Cooper's the attitude of the public — which, in heroic engravings, Hans Peter
half of these funds are for museum recent work investigates the area of the Rhine, Neckar and Danube Reuter, with his cool interiors, Jürgen
exhibitions which focus on this spectral phenomena in a very regions, only took rather a cautious Waller with his politically powerful
nation's cultural heritage. Through interesting and competent way. interest. Whereas the end of last year pictures, and Hermann Albert with his
the funding, the Museum of Modern Allan McCollum's recent paintings saw large retrospective shows of buxom, all-German blondes. The
Art will present a Duchamp exhibition, (Nicholas Wilder Gallery in May) American art — above all in the great surprise of the show was that, for the
The Studio Museum in Harlem 'Shago reveal a new departure for this artist halls of the Württembergische first time, the public came along and
in Art and Ritual : A Worldwide View', in the use of bright colours, glitter, Kunstverein — interspersed with a bought; nearly DM 40.000 changed
Asia House 'The Arts of Isfahan — string and beach sand. The works are strangely-handled view of the Berlin hands.
1587-1629' and the Whitney about 3½ feet high and 7½ feet long, art scene, individual artists are now In Munich the Feininger
Museum of American Art will have made up of 6-inch squares of canvas being recalled and given showings in retrospective provided a relaxation
'Pop Art' with Lawrence Alloway as joined together with a silicone depth. One reason for this may be that from avant-gardism, while the
guest curator. adhesive applied with a gun which stylistic groupings have suddenly lost Karlsruhe Kunstverein showed two
Some noteworthy appointments ejects the glue in an even stream. their appeal — a development that outstanding exhibitions of Jan J.
include : Walter Hopps, former The rewarding result of a full year's seems to be linked with the Schoonhoven and Alan Davie. In
director of Washington D.C.'s work were Vija Celmins's Ocean unsuccessful exhibition of American Mannheim, where private galleries
Corcoran Gallery, to be visiting drawings (Riko Mizuno Gallery, May). photo-realism at the Württembergische are only just springing up, there were
Curator of Contemporary Art at the This exhibition, running concurrently Kunstverein in Stuttgart. This kind of the gaily coloured constructive
National Collection of Fine Arts. with the stunning Agnes Martin show artistic vision of reality aroused sculptures of 0. H. Hajek at the
William Miller, formerly director of the (Pasadena Museum of Modern Art) extremely little interest, even its Kunstverein, and the ornamental and
Bronx Museum, has been named gave Los Angeles a high point in positive elements being taken amiss, structural painting of Rolf Gunter
Director of Public Programmes at the contemplative, poetic vision and and, in addition, it was recalled that Dienst at the Kunsthalle. A moving
Philadelphia Museum of Art. Art beauty. The Martin show, both in the the German painter Gerhard Richter exhibition, for me, was the first great
historian and critic Meyer Schapiro exquisite work and fine installation, had already shown his intensively memorial show for Adolf R.
was given the Art Dealers Association was an inspiration. expounded photo-realism some Fleischmann, a forerunner of Op Art,
of America Award. Mr Schapiro is Also of special interest at the years ago. at the Kunstmuseum in Ulm.
known for his writings on 19th- and Pasadena Museum was Yvonne There was another reason, too, for The Galerie Müller in Stuttgart
20th-century painting and sculpture. Rainer's dance performance on this slowing down. Both Dr Uwe M. concentrated on a retrospective of the
In California, Womanspace has May 20 (previously performed at the Schneede, Director of the Viennese action-painter Arnulf
opened in Los Angeles. It will be a Theatre fora New City, New York). Württembergische Kunstverein, and Rainer. Painted wounds, knowledge
place devoted to the art and activities This is a story of a woman who . . Dr Klaus Gallwitz, Director of the about drugs, narcissism, projecting
of women in the southern California was performed by Yvonne Rainer, Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden, had for himself to his contemporaries as an
area. The Pasadena Art Museum has Shirley Soffer and John Erdman, and some time been thinking of moving eccentric — all this is part of the
changed its name to the Pasadena took the form of a dance-narrative- to new jobs; in Schneede's case this programme of Rainer's sensitive over-
Museum of Modern Art. William C. psychodrama whose theme was the has come to fruition, and he is shortly painting. It has both impressive and
Agee, Director, says 'the name change breakdown of the relationship going to the Hamburg Kunstverein, laughable aspects, as do all private
will clarify the museum's position as between a man and a woman. while Gallwitz is still negotiating mythologies. q
an institution dedicated to modern art At Womanspace, the gallery for with another institute. Such GUNTHER WIRTH
for which it has gained general women artists which has been in preoccupations dictate a gentler
distinction.' operation for about six months under tempo at the home base, and this was Translated from the German
'The Painting and Sculpture the direction of Gretchen Glicksman, particularly noticeable at Stuttgart, by John Wheelwright

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