Page 56 - Studio International - June 1973

Review
catalogue Braque: The Great Years which was Finally, Sam Francis, Paintings 1947-1972, the Vision
published in 1972 in conjunction with the catalogue of the exhibition which began its
exhibition held at The Art Institute of Chicago tour at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
(c. £3.50). The 'Great Years' are purported to in late 1972, is a large format paperback, 152
be from 1918 onwards, the date of the earliest pages long with nearly 150 illustrations including
exhibit. The paintings are described at length some splendid large colour plates and fold-outs
and discussed in groups, for example, ($13.95). The catalogue is well designed, The Dutch Film Co-op resumes
Guéridons, Mantelpieces, Studios. The text is includes a selected bibliography, a list of screenings following Barbara's baby
mainly dry description, over-insistent about exhibitions, and a chronology expanded most As from January 1973, Barbara Meter is back in
Braque's 'greatness', but enlivened by the usefully with quotations pertinent to the period. business arranging screenings at the Shaffy-
artist's writing and statements. There are There are three texts, one by Franz Meyer, Theater, Keisersgracht 343, Amsterdam. For
seventeen good colour plates and 89 other another by Wieland Schmied reprinted from information contact Barbara Meter direct at
illustrations which include a few preparatory the 1968 Basle catalogue, and the longest by Goudsbloemstraat 3911 1, Amsterdam C,
sketches for the paintings from Braque's Robert T. Buck Jr. Histological parallels are tel 229733.
unpublished albums; there is also a biographical made several times in the texts, certainly the For much of 1970-71, the Electric Cinema
chronology, and the catalogue is concluded with paintings of 1951-55 fall readily into this (Dutch Film Co-op) ran a weekly screening of
a useful bibliography. category, but those of 1961-65 are also highly international experimental films, during which
reminiscent of animalcules. most of the major works from America and
The aptly titled Joan Miró: Magnetic Fields, CLIVE PHILLPOT Europe were shown, and in the case of the
published in 1972 by the Solomon R. European films, these were often shown with
Guggenheim Foundation at $7.50, contains fine the film-maker present. When film-makers
examples of scholarly but fresh and lucid texts visited, Barbara Meter arranged a series of shows
for an exhibition catalogue which will rank with throughout Holland, which she is resuming.
the most important sources of information Interest in experimental/underground film in
about the artist's work. The catalogue is well Holland began around 1968. Simultaneously
designed, has nearly 100 plates of which there appeared the Dutch Film Co-op (largely
fifteen are in colour, and the text is split into Books held together by a young man with the unlikely
three sections. The first section, 'Magnetic name of Willum Fillum, and containing nothing
Fields : The Structure', was written by Picasso: in the Collection of the Museum of memorable other than the early films of Frans
Rosalind E. Krauss, the second, 'Magnetic Modern Art by William Rubin. MOMA, New Zwartjes), and also the first Electric Cinema in
Fields : The Poetics', by Margit Rowell, and York; Idea Books, London, Paris, Milan. a large public cinema, run by American Lynn
the third section, the catalogue, in which every $15.00/£7.50. Tillman, and Dutchman Jos Schoffelen. Their
work exhibited is discussed, sometimes at Spanish Painting by John F. Moffitt. Studio attempt to re-open in the large cinema in 1971,
length, is the work of both writers. The theme Vista/Dutton Pictureback. $2.75/9op. as Fat City, flopped. Since then Jos Schoffelen
of the exhibition was the comparison between A doctor's death, save that of Dr Goebbels, has mostly been working with Jack (John Henry)
two phases of Miró's work in which colour is not often funny. Still, I found it highly Moore, the longest standing video freak in
fields predominate : the first occurred in the suggestive to read some time ago in one of the Europe - expatriate American, deeply involved
years 1925-1927, the second commenced in local papers that Picasso's physician had gone with the Drury Lane Arts Lab until it closed,
196o. The importance of Miró's interest in belly-up, just a fortnight after the Master's last then moving with his video gear to Holland,
poetry is emphasized, as well as his exposure to act. Many, maybe most, of the master's best where he has stayed. Their most recent work
American painting after the war. efforts have been collected in New York's together included a film and video presentation
Museum of Modern Art; and this book shows at the Munich Olympics.
That John Elderfield should refer both to them to those of us too poor to travel. On the Early in 1970 there was a fusion between the
Mir() and 'abstract Surrealism' in Geometric whole this book is a serious performance, remnants of the Film Co-op and STOFF, an
Abstraction: 1926-1942, the catalogue of the including good notes throughout and a organization begun by disaffected film students,
exhibition held at Dallas Museum of Fine Arts catalogue. Its elaborate illustration may help to Mattijn Seip and Nico Paape, dedicated to the
in 1972 ($10.35), is another indication ofthe account for its frightful price. re-building of Dutch film culture. Somewhat
rediscovery of the importance of Miró between The Dutton Pictureback, a well-illustrated following the pattern of the London Co-op, it
the wars, but this is to suggest a bias to the history of Spanish painting, contains a brief set out to build up an organization for screening,
essay 'The Paris-New York Axis, Geometric bibliography. distribution and the establishment of a workshop
Abstract Painting in the Thirties' which it does for film-making. Unlike the London Co-op,
not possess. It is a thorough survey of this Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: which seems doomed to work forever unaided,
somewhat neglected but important phase The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of the and in spite of the shortness of its history, it
in the history of modern painting; there is also Museum of Modern Art, foreword by Alfred H. was able to raise considerable public financial
a new attempt to place the works in the general Barr, Jr., introduction by William Rubin. support, and has established a printing
historical context of the time. After reading the MOMA New York; Idea Books, London, Paris, workshop, as in London, which is largely
first paragraph some parallels with the present Milan. $22.50/£11.25. organized by Nico Paape, Schoffelen, Seip
situation also suggest themselves. Preceding Really, this is just too much. The only copies and Meter. They have been the mainstays of the
this essay is a piece by Michel Seuphor of this book are to be had at Cartier's, and the organization, and together with American
entitled 'To Set the Compass', which amounts book does not really include anything new at Tom Chomont, have between them produced
to a series of footnotes to the history of the all. 'Outstanding among them is Morris the most interesting film work to come out of
period; there are also 51 large black and Hirshfield, whose paintings won praise from no that situation.
white plates, biographical notes on the 3o less an authority than Mondrian; six of his Willum Fillum left the Co-operative a couple
artists represented, and a bibliography. The pictures are included here.' The other sections of years ago and now works with 'Fugitive
catalogue is well laid out, is attractively embrace the Second World War, this side and Cinema' a more commercial organization there,
designed, and uses a typeface which looks good, the former, the fainter. q distributing short films. q
but is not always as legible as it might be. TIMOTHY CRAIG MALCOLM LE GRICE
286