Page 65 - Studio International - May 1973

Art information

elucidatory for the thorough positing of rules Focus, Zoom. Through the technical processes work lacks the confidence to present a new
and techniques demonstrated in others. of filming, a dot on a wall is aligned with a dot in criterion. It is wrapped up in the expressions
For instance, Tom Phillips's academic expertise a mirror to produce an eclipse in the final of another generation. But these criticisms
well organized the chromatic complication of sequence. The third work, a book titled are hesitant because they negate the major
the Fabenverzeichnis series, just as Ian `Reconstructions', traces the opening of two problem. These and similar artists need to
Stephenson has formulated his ideas for hinged mirrors, in the way that the pages of the show their work frequently to establish their
paintings in Understudies. After seeing the book open. The mirrors reflect the environment own values. Without more facilities, like
chaotic collages by Ray Johnson recently in which they were photographed as well as the Gallery House, the outlook for younger artists
at Angela Flowers one feels there is much to be form of the work as a book. will remain negative. q
said for the more cautious British approach. q The visual continuity of Head's work was LYNDA MORRIS
CATHERINE LAMPERT reflected in the continuity of systems used by
Duncan Cameron. At the ICA last October he
installed a computer telephone terminal, `HELEN FRANKENTHALER: PAINTINGS' AT
`TIM HEAD, HOWARD SELINA, DUNCAN CAMERON, WADDINGTON GALLERY 2,8-31 MARCH
programmed to produce all the permutations of
COLLECTIVE PRODUCTIONS' AT GALLERY HOUSE,
o to 9. The result was a definitive statement on In her novitiate Helen Frankenthaler's
LONDON, 21 MARCH TO 8 APRIL
number patterns, which he has continued to mentors were Arshile Gorky and Jackson
One of the greatest difficulties facing younger develop. The works at Gallery House retained Pollock. The fifties figurative painting of the
artists in London are the negligible facilities systems but through the medium of language. latter helped her to space out the already open
for showing work. Over the past twelve The main piece was a tape of sounds which mode of the former. The kind of drawing she
months, Gallery House has attempted to progress from 19 seconds sound, I second cultivated at this early stage has always stayed
rectify the situation. Unfortunately it has to silence, to I second sound, 19 seconds silence. with her. At the same time, she has often
close, somewhat prematurely, this summer. During each silence a word was projected onto reflected current preoccupations. When a lot of
At the moment there is little hope that any the wall. The words related in pairs, silence- painting had a lean and scanty look, hers also
other premises will be found. sound, choice-chance, and nature-culture. The took on a spare aspect. Before that, she
The finance for the March /April exhibition three smaller works used photographic images followed Noland's targets with paintings that
was provided by the Arts Council, but only and word descriptions. In two pieces the image equally emphasized the centre of the canvas.
for the work of three of the four exhibitors. remained constant but was manipulated by Now, in the show of recent paintings at
The exception was Martin Field, part of a group word changes, in the third both the image and Waddington, one saw that she has used the
called Collective Productions, which also words changed, alternating between verbs and coloured accents that Olitski puts at or near the
includes a photographer and a musician. They nouns. edges of the main elements of his pictures, and
have developed a theory concerned with the The fourth artist, Howard Selina, proved to has brought them into the centre of the
`social and meta areas of art'. The overlap be the most complex. His explicit solipsism canvas. The lines are still tucked into the
between the areas provides the 'correlate, managed to relegate the prevailing impression perimeter of the large forms; but it is as if
which enable the artist to function as a mirror of eclecticism. Last November Selina showed Olitski had been gate-folded, thus bringing the
or medium for society'. The form of the work four large canvases at Situation Gallery which outside edges into the middle. The generating
divided into a sitting room, workshop area, functioned within a minimal framework. idea in all these new pictures seems to be a
where the artist confronted society and The titles of the canvases were ordnance horizontal or vertical medial split.
documentation, tape-recordings, transcripts, survey grid marks, which located the exact In this continuing movement, and in her
video, photographs and other documents. point where he had collected earth for the dialogue with other painting, Frankenthaler has
The idea that an exhibition should not surface brush marks. At Gallery House he always maintained her original draughtsmanlike
provide external information but a structure showed 12 related 'drawings', stencils of grid approach. Looking at this exhibition, I could
for the spectator to analyse the situation has marks using again earth from the exact still see the pedigree going back to Gorky.
become rather prosaic, especially through locations. But new things are happening. The painting
misuse in the social area. Collective His photographic pieces document holes with yellow zones at each side, leaving a rough
Productions have apparently arrived at the excavated on the Yorkshire moors. One is inverted trapezium in the centre inscribed with
idea without understanding its other exactly 2.24 cubic feet, the volume of his body, horizontal lines of colour, is a beautiful
manifestations. Their naivity was misplaced the other 0.071 cubic feet, the volume of his contrivance. She couldn't have managed it
in a gallery where the public consisted average breath. In the third set of work he without standing off from others' painting as
principally of other artists. used a single hair to lay out the plan of a cube, well as working with it. This picture is a
A more sophisticated expression of internal measuring I'40", the volume of which is function of the uninhibited carving-up of the
analysis was provided by the work of Tim 2.24 cubic feet. Again the volume of Mr Selina. picture surface. It's almost a sculptural faculty.
Head. The installation revised the work shown An area of his work which leaves his activity There are more contours to look at than in a lot
at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford last open-ended was not included in the exhibition. of painting that's going on just now.
June. In a darkened space he projected various He selects articles of clothing which he has worn John Walker also stands out in this regard.
slides of the room back onto their original for a long time and produces very beautiful, Compared with his and Frankenthaler's work, a
images. The mirrors featured in the slides were detailed, crosshatched pencil drawings of them. lot of painting looks packed, the way Stella's
subtly rearranged for the final installation, He draws no motivational distinction between striped pictures were. This is often disguised by
providing a dialectic between reality and any of these activities. (I wonder how many a painterly approach, but it's still going strong.
representation. People moving around within other 'conceptual' artists have such a 'hobby' ?) Paintings are being engendered through the
the work were reflected and disorientated The work in the exhibition deserves to be repetition of a module. I like some of this work,
whilst manipulating and obliterating the criticized. It is generally unresolved, too e.g. by the young American John Seery. But it's
illusion of space. His interests in reflection and precious and commentative rather than the opposed quality of draughtsmanlike
illusion were developed further in two other original. It is too easy, in the sense that it looks invention that I enjoy in Frankenthaler. q
works, a twelve minute film, Pan, Centring, right by contemporary standards, but the JOHN MCLEAN

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