Page 43 - Studio International - March 1973

sets of rules the participants, artists and public, which the picture is to be viewed and, like the
were made independent and consciously free to symmetry of a face, seems to imply the
choose, and the viewer was given something to painting's reciprocal stare at the viewer.
do in the exhibition besides looking at pictures. It celebrates, even prolongs, the moment of
In these special circumstances the content of communion between the two.
the individual pictures was comparatively Although the next group exhibition in which
underplayed. However, the pictures were by no Denny was involved, 'Situation' (1960), was
means merely parts of a scenic whole. In seen by most reviewers as a declaration of
Denny's case they developed both individually allegiance to 10th Street Americanism, it was, in
and as a set; his concern was with the space fact, intended as a demonstration of the
between the viewer and the picture, a space incapacity of the conventional gallery system to
which is articulated by the plane of the floor, the cope with certain kinds of paintings, basically
plane of the picture (or the wall on which it the large and the new. Its purpose was not only
hangs) and the junction between the two. This to give a showing to work which had not been
space is important to Denny, both in itself shown but also to create awareness of this
because it determines what perception the `situation'. The use of puns or word structures
viewer receives (consider everything that happens having more than one reference is characteristic
when he moves closer or further away) and also, both of the period (cf. the writings of Reyner
when conscious, as a symbol: the picture and the Banham and Lawrence Alloway), and
viewer exist in the same world. The picture to particularly of Denny. It is a manifestation of
one side or behind the viewer remains as real as the ideas about communication/participation
the one he is looking at. In this case the pictures described above, but also a clue to the degree to
were actually placed on the floor. Denny used in which the pictures may be worked on
his contributions a device which he had already intellectually and perceptually by the viewer.
used in Home from Home, a band across the The most important painting shown by
bottom of the picture which formed a threshold Denny at 'Situation', Baby is Three, (the title
implying a picture space inside, an equivalent reference is to an SF story by Asimov) is a
for the frame but appropriate to an abstract triptych. Its three large canvases edge to edge
image. may be seen as a way of re-adapting the 'Place'
Although Denny, simply in order to preserve formula to the flat wall, a setting which a
his paintings, quickly abandoned the tactic of painter cannot very easily escape. The layout is
putting them on the floor, the lower edge has sufficiently symmetrical to force the viewer to
remained the datum line from which they compare one wing panel with the other, to look
spring and the consciousness of the line of sight for variations and inversions, but when he does
from viewer to picture is still an essential part he finds no reciprocity but a march of colour
of the perception of his pictures. The group choices and combinations overlapping the
which was shown at the Kasmin Gallery in 1971, division between canvases and driving across the
for instance, was characterized by the whole group. This perception was felt (by me at
concentration of the active elements towards the any rate) as a 'solution' or 'answer', but one
bottom so that the viewer was constrained to which led on to new problems like those which
direct his sight obliquely downward to a degree arise from figure-ground effects, illusions of
that he could not overlook. depth or issues deriving from the traditional
Although less directly relevant, the way the obligation to integrate the image and its
pictures were disposed laterally in 'Place' also support.
provides a clue to the character of his later work. In any case the immediate supercession of this
Many of the pictures touched at the edges but extremely strong, almost brutal, move against
the viewer distinguished and chose between the viewer by a much more reticent approach
them by turning at 90° and threading his way marks a point at which Denny conceals in his
through the maze. Without being able to explain next phase what has been the most striking
exactly why, I believe this is linked to the characteristic of the previous one; this is not
symmetry or near symmetry of the great eliminated but retained, hidden to be found by
majority of his pictures. It is a characteristic the patient or instructed viewer. Of course
that seems to make the viewer conscious of the Denny is not unique in developing his work in
effect of lateral movement and turning just as this way, but perhaps unusually consistent.
the choice of scale and the marking of the As well as being a means of making
threshold made conscious the effect of to and fro `participation' available it may also be related to
movement. When one stands in front of one of his view that an artist has to assert the integrity
his paintings, for example Glass I. From Here, of his art over a long period (not of course by
the questions one asks of it may begin with words but within the terms of the paintings) so
those which seek to understand the similarity that people will trust it, and it will only then
and difference between the left and right sides. have the power to change society. It may also be
One is led therefore to think about them and related to his view that a degree of complexity,
compare them as choices or variations in a way including an implication of time, and even
that the asymmetry of a Mondrian or the difficulty, is a moral requirement corresponding
symmetry of Albers's Homage to a Square series to the obligation to treat another person as a
cannot. At the same time the symmetry or near whole being, having his own life with its own
symmetry defines precisely the position from motives, habits, etc., and not to be completely
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