Page 28 - Studio International - March 1973

Everything in order

Michel Claura

1. A State Institution, the National Centre of of decency', seized and destroyed by court order.
Contemporary Art, which in 1972 6. A Pompidou exhibition in 1972 (see Studio
ignored the refusal of an artist (Daniel Buren) to International July/August 1972, Flash Art
take part in an exhibition, and then attributed to September/October 1972, Data no. 5/6 and
him a whole lot of rubbish, in violation of his elsewhere).
own name, to the detriment of his reputation. 7. An exhibition in New York in October 1972
Even the Law had to find against the said (Guggenheim Museum,
Institution. Taris-Düsseldorf-Amsterdam') which was arranged as a reward
2. A 1971 Paris Biennale which, having sought for 'good' Paris artists who upheld the political
the advice of seven young critics with a view to administration, even its exactions over the
giving a new lease of life to that tired old horse, Pompidou exhibition. It should be observed
proceeded in a high-handed manner to show that because of recent bans operated by the
five of them the door, the ones who were Guggenheim Museum (Buren and Haacke),
jointly putting forward proposals for a new artists from Dusseldorf and Amsterdam
kind of exhibition — an outrageous sacking which refused to take part. Not a single one from
left the coast clear for the remaining critics and Paris refused.
various others guilty of underhand actions to 8. A 1972 Autumn Festival in Paris which took
organize in tranquillity the most reactionary over an exhibition (a retrospective at Yvon
Biennale of them all. Lambert) in which it had had no hand and,
3. Artists, Cane and the Supports/Surfaces because it was displeased that the organizers
(Above) group, who claimed they had been banned by a of the exhibition, at the request of some of the
Paris Biennale 1971, from left to right a critic, `concepts merchant', the Daniel Templon invited artists, had publicly declared their
his employer and the Minister for Cultural Gallery, because of their allegiance to the independence of the festival in question,
Affairs
French Communist Party, and ran round Paris succeeded in having the exhibition turned out
(Right and far right) collecting signatures to counter-attacks, then of the premises where it should have been
Grand Palais 16 May 1972 blithely reinstated the same gallery a year later, held, and boycotted.
`Douze ans d'art contemporain en France'
having become firm followers of the thoughts of 9. In 1972 a book on art in France by Jean Clair
Mao. (featuring in l'Art Vivant the 1971 Biennale and
4. Art magazines and reviews which are straight the Pompidou exhibition), the chauvinism of
publicity organs for galleries (l'Art Vivant and which was such that it became an apology for
the Maeght Gallery, Art Press and the Templon the French fine arts schools and some of the
Gallery, to name but the most recent). last Prix de Rome.
5. The painters Baratella and Favre in 1972, in to. A French exhibition currently mounted
Brive and Tours respectively, who had their by the ICA in London, the very basis of which,
canvases judged 'contrary to accepted standards the title (`The French Month'), ought to

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