Page 25 - Studio International - June 1973

Correspondence Spectator at the games rather than clarifying 'systemic behaviour'.
It is interesting to observe how contemporary By the way, I don't recall the word
art-history is invented, not so much by a `systemic' in Games Theory literature; but, as I
deliberate conspiracy — if conspiracy there is, it write in the absence of the small collection of
is one of silence or negligence — but rather by books and papers I had then amassed, somehow
an easy and untroubling acceptance of a mislaid by the group, and in England far from
convenient shorthand notation that as time my later acquisitions which are in Italy, I might
goes by becomes taken at face value for the be wrong. Though I think Alloway's
whole truth. This is particularly true of the way appropriation of the word for a particular type
the Independent Group at the ICA has been of art perfectly justified and a useful addition to
Beware treated. Its importance has been exaggerated, the art critic's vocabulary.
Just a few lines in order to correct a letter and that, too, of Lawrence Alloway; and a As to the present chances of further
printed in your May issue, signed by Jean Clair. recent example of this is Robert Kudielka's investigating both Information Theory and the
I. I never wished to write and never wrote in catalogue essay for Robyn Denny's Tate Theory of Games in an application to aesthetics,
l'Art Vivant but, contrary to what Jean Clair exhibition. This does not detract from the there are a number of very complicated
pretends l'Art Vivant is not the only existing value of that essay in other respects, nor does problems to be sorted out. It is by no means
art review on the Continent. it imply any criticism of Robyn Denny. Still certain that art is merely communication, and
2. The content of l'Art Vivant is influenced by less is it intended to diminish Alloway's that, in so far as it is communication, it
Maeght Gallery when the editor of the undoubted gifts and achievements. Simply, he approximates to language in any technical
magazine refuses to publish the 'Agreement was not always the first to pick up an idea or a sense, with rules of structure or grammar, a
of Original Transfer of Work of Art' (see topic, though frequently he was the first to repertoire of units in any semantic or syntagmic
Studio International, April 1971), arguing launch it with a particular currency. sense. A semiology of the visual arts including
that in doing so he would act against Maeght's Even a small section of Michael Compton's film and TV has still to be created. In the
interests. However, in my article, I simply piece on Denny in the March issue of Studio Meantime the grammar of form, the language of
talked about magazines 'which are straight International seems to contribute to that same vision and the vocabulary of art, remain
publicity organs for a Gallery' : each issue of view. I feel therefore some obligation to correct colourful metaphors of extremely limited use;
Art Vivant contains an average of five pages what appears to be distortion by contraction. It and the Theory of Games is as useful as an
on the activities and/or the artists of Maeght is natural that this should concern my own role, electric drill in a power cut.
Gallery or Maeght Foundation. not that my motivation should be interpreted TONI DEL RENZIO, London
3. I publish two or three articles a year. I merely as self-justification or self-aggrandise-
never published any article in any magazine ment. It is just a case, then, of was there and Once more unto the teach ...
on any gallery. I don't know what Jean Clair I'll tell it like it was'. To judge from their opening sentences (Studio
means when he calls me a 'regular critic'. As far as I recall, I was the first to raise the International, February 1973), it would seem
4. When I wrote the article printed in question of the Theory of Games as an that Barbara Freeman and David Brett, a.
Studio International in March, the first alternative way of thinking about art as play to disapproved of the language of 'Remarks On Art
judgement had ordered the destruction of that proposed much earlier by Huizinga and to Education' and b. that their disapproval
Baratella's painting. Since then, the appeal that by Roger Caillois. I came to it by way of emanates from some position of authority, from
court has revoked the first judgement. Norbert Wiener's reference to a paper of which standpoint the Remarks were accessible.
5. I never pretended to 'play the revolutionary Bernard Mandelbrot which proposed seeing The inaccuracy of the following purported
game' because it is not a game. The Fascist game a communications process as a collaborative translation into their 'ordinary language' should
is not a game either. game between two players against a third and disprove this : axiology is absent from the
6. Ask Diane Waldman who selected the malevolent player — God, the Devil, Entropy, Remarks' prescriptions — it occupies a central
artists in Paris. Was not it Blaise Gauthier, call him what you will. I was also, I think, the position in their 'translation' ('no good art
director of the Governmental institution only one in the group sufficiently acquainted education can exist without a coherent and
called CNAC ? with the sophisticated mathematic or, rather, communicable theory; if we want good
7. The artists who refused the show 'Paris— mathematical thinking, to be able to come to education we must sort out our theory'). While
Amsterdam—Düsseldorf ' were: in Amsterdam, terms with Mandelbrot's idea, with Von it would be naive to maintain that axiology is
Jan Dibbets, Ger Van Elk; in Dusseldorf, Neuman's concept of strategy, and with, absent at every level in the decisions underlying
Ruthenbeck, Palermo, Knoebel, Richter; particularly, the non-zero sum game. logico-epistemic prescribing, an inspection of
in Paris, none. An application to art was represented by a the text will show that it was not an object of the
Any more questions, Jean Clair ? brief sketch published in Georges Mathieu's prescriptions.
MICHEL CLAURA, Paris United States Lines Paris Review in 1957, The inaccuracy of their 'translation', and
while some reference to it had appeared much what can be inferred from it — an inadequate
Fit for the brush off earlier as conclusion to my lecture at the ICA, a theoretical base from which to proceed — renders
M. Maurice Druon, Minister of Cultural couple ( ?) of years earlier, on action painting, their succeeding thesis the more easily open to
Affairs, has declared that violent convulsions a typescript of which was in circulation. In correction. If their 'translation' had been
come over him whenever he hears talk about 1957, too, I think, I lectured to the Cambridge prefaced by an understanding of the content as
anti-culture. (Le Monde, 4 May 1973.) University Arts Society on this same theme. it stood, their chicken-and-egg arguments over
When Jean Clair, Parisian art critic, hears a At that time, Alloway, Coleman and McHale, the recipients of education would never have got
reference to an unexpected artist whose work especially, were using the word 'continuum' in under way. The point is that fine-art studies are
has nothing to do with him, he is disappointed a very loose way, and it is extremely difficult to not up for clarification at the hands of another
and angry. (Studio International, May 1973.) understand the Theory of Games if one cannot, domain's practitioners. Paragraph three of our
This situation can be defined by the French among other things, distinguish between an Remarks can be transposed with Freeman and
proverb 'Tel maitre tel valet' or 'As the master ordered and and a non-ordered set. In fact, what Brett's 'The redefinition of fine-art studies is
so the servant.' I feared came to be, and Games Theory followed philosophical activity' in order to call into
CADERE Information Theory as one more metaphor at question the nature and scope of their
Paris best, and at worst a source of jargon, confusing 'understanding'. We didn't license such

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