Page 19 - Studio International - March 1973

From kineticism to didacticism

in contemporary French art Stephen Bann

The hardiest strain in French avant-garde art of resulted in the foundation of a museum with an
the 196os was doubtless the kinetic movement, explicitly didactic purpose — the 'Musée
which gained official recognition and arguably didactique Vasarely' at Gordes in the Vaucluse —
reached its peak in the 'Lumière et Mouvement' where the 'prototype-départs' of his large-scale
exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la works are exhibited together with significant
Ville de Paris (1967). In the few years that have paintings from his early career and effective
elapsed since that date, the situation has applications of many of his recent schemes.
perhaps changed very little from a superficial By the very foundation of his 'Musée
point of view. The mammoth '72-72' exhibition didactique', Vasarely brings into clear relief the
at the Grand Palais might indeed appear to paradox of his development as an artist. Having
have confirmed that a new, kinetic 'Ecole de initially based his work on a strenuous analysis
Paris' had supplanted the post-war school, in of the morphology of style, he would now
direct proportion to the fading away of the appear to have become incapacitated through
Galerie de France and the rising of the star of the the implications of that morphology. Reaching
Galerie Denise René. maturity as an artist several decades after
But of course, as anyone who read Julio Le Mondrian and Malevich, Vasarely performed
Parc's recent declaration in this magazine will his own reduction of post-cubist method by
instantly recognize, this is far from being the Vasarely devising the para-linguistic notion of the
whole story. Kinetic art in the last decade Le Surplus des Beautés Artificielles 1963 'plastic unit' (unite plastique). Explaining the
represented not simply a kind of morphological 'passage' from figuration to geometry in a series
offshoot from traditional forms, but — at least in perhaps done no more than to demonstrate the of diagrams reminiscent of Van Doesburg's
principle — a new artistic ideology. What has inadequacy of his original formulations. It is 'Cow' series, he arrived at the theory that all
become of this embryonic ideology can be seen surely reasonable to claim that Le Parc, and the tensions within the work of plastic art could be
in the retrospective exhibitions of the two Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel in general, enshrined in the dialectical combination of the
kinetic artists, Agam and Takis, which were held committed a grave error when they attempted to 'colour-form' and its relation to other colour-
in Paris in the course of Autumn 1972. Both define their theoretical position without forms on a uniform grid.
artists have laid particular stress upon the adequate concern for its historical basis. Vasarely thus became the European exponent
notion of the work as process rather than as a Indeed it is as a result of the assumption that of what Harold Rosenberg stigmatizes in an
fixed, autonomous entity and both (Agam as a the demystification of the work of art entails American context as the 'stylistic
pioneer and Takis in a rather more summary the annihilation of art history that Agam and programming' of the 196os. Putting aside
way) have stressed the need to transform the Takis have been left on the treadmill of Rosenberg's adverse reactions, I would restate
spectator into an active participant. But both technological advance, and Le Parc has reached the point by claiming that Vasarely (parallel, in
now appear to be caught up in a Sisyphean his practical and theoretical impasse. an American context, to an artist like Frank
situation, in which they are obliged to attempt It is therefore hardly surprising that a kinetic Stella) represents what might be termed the
ever more ambitious technical projects in order artist who may have seemed one of the most mannerist phase of a cubist Classicism. To adopt
to recover the power of affecting the public moderate in his theoretical claims should now Jakobson's classification of three different types
which was inherent in the earlier, relatively prove to be most immediately relevant in the of discourse, Vasarely is employing not the
unsophisticated works. It is fairly clear that the present situation. Although — perhaps one original 'discourse of the code' (Cubism), nor
spectator movement from side to side of the should say, because — he was hardly concerned the consequent 'discourse of the message'
relief which was necessary to reveal the triple with participation on the ludic level, Victor (Constructivism), but a 'discourse of the myth',
structure of an early Agam has become just as Vasarely understood that the implications of in which the syntax of the earlier phases
fossilized — just as much part of a pattern of kinetic art could only be fully developed from becomes itself the subject-matter of the style,
conditioned reflexes — as the reading of any the basis of a historical problematic of the without reference to its original meaning or
traditional painting. Consequently there is an artist's function. The articulation of this function.2
imperative need for the complex technology of problematic can be followed throughout the Although it is unjust in a sense to reproach
the fire and water sculpture if Agam's notions course of his many writings.' In historical Vasarely with following his ideas to their
of time and irreversibility are to be terms, he defined his position in relation to the conclusion, it is surely necessary to point out
communicated. pioneers of the Modern Movement, in how this mannerist or 'mythical' style alters the
Judged in relation to this phenomenon, particular Malevich and Mondrian. In strictly implications of his social and didactic
Le Parc at least deserves the credit for breaking ideological terms, he determined to employ a programme. It is far from unknown for a
out of a vicious circle. In contrast to Takis, number of principles which, though originating mannerist to turn architect. But one would
whose attempts to involve the spectator in in the Bauhaus, had all the force of novelty in expect that, as in the case of Giulio Romano's
participation on the level of play have descended the post-war period: principles such as the fishmarket at Mantua, the interest of the
to mere banality, he has accepted that the dissociation of the work from the artist's exercise would be chiefly one of achieving
notion of participation has ideological personal facture (established memorably by intellectually teasing articulations of surface
implications which can scarcely be repudiated Moholy-Nagy) and the striving of the plastic and space against a given structural scheme.
after May 1968. But in sliding from a arts to the architectural scale (as in Gropius's And this is, as far as one can see, the exact
theoretical commitment to participation into an founding manifesto). Vasarely's coherent and direction of Vasarely's ambitions, as is already
unequivocally political position, Le Parc has logical development of this problematic has demonstrated to some extent by his successful

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