Page 47 - Studio International - November 1973

ochre, and some random garish hues. primary examples of the work are
It's an inane pastiche of Abstract- virtually unobtainable. The Tate's
Expressionism, and is pointless. understanding of the present is
Break-off is equally dishevelled with provincial ; and too often money is
a procession of irregular ovals and squandered on trivia. Obviously,
assorted areolate forms; the paint there are some exemplary paintings
handling is desultory and ignorant. and sculptures in the museum — but
Derek Southall's 2 H.W.P. 2A it's always surprising how these works
l'entrada del temps clar 1762 is a got in there. It's a very scroungy
loose sheet of stained canvas pinned institution.
to the wall : the canvas is discoloured R. J. Rees
in parts, possibly through damage.
There are four Alan Davie paintings :
each work exemplifying the artist's Germany
over-used archetypal imagery. Fairy
Tree No. 5, from 1971, is a reddish The new season, which started here
siena field enclosing a collection of at the end of September, has not
brightly coloured mythical symbols, begun on the optimistic note of
described mainly in caricatura) outline. earlier years ; the tempo has rather
The laboured action painting of the been subdued. This is despite the fact
previous work has now given way to a that the number of private galleries
strained whimsicality which is no less has increased in many towns— even
stultifying. a town like Stuttgart, whose citizens
cannot be called precisely art-minded,
This show represents only a small now has over fifty galleries— and
proportion of the Tate's current there are museums and several public
acquisitions: the installation will institutions into the bargain.
change frequently. A partial list
provided by the Gallery outlines other The reason the beginning of the
purchases, some of them promising : season has aroused only lukewarm
a Richard Serra Prop-Piece, an Andre interest stems from the fact that
floor-sculpture, some Gabos, and a spectacular exhibitions cannot be
Gonzalez; there is also a minor mounted just now, because there is
Brancusi. Much of the list, however, not a great deal of artistic material
makes for dreary reading : there is a around. As a result, directors and
considerable amount of recent gallery owners readily direct their
British art, with examples from gaze backwards to the past. They are
Flanagan, Troostwyk, Tremlett, trying to provide a new platform for
Burgin, Arnatt, etc. But then the the Informal, which was at its peak
Gallery's acquisition policy is in Germany around 1960, and, in the
notoriously dumb. (This was process, to drive up the prices of works
confirmed in an interview with the dating from that time — with which
trustees, published in the April the galleries inventories abound. At
Studio International.) The Tate's the same time an attempt is being
account of twentieth-century art is made to detach the work of well-
exceedingly meagre, there are gaps known realistic artists from a purely
everywhere, and their sense of art aesthetic context and to interpret
Stella Six Mile Bottom 1960 muted variants of blue and red. The history is, at times, perverse. The them politically— which in this
design is apportioned into sharply modern section is loaded with junk; context means in a Marxist fashion.
acquisition — one from the Aluminum defined regions, between which the and, invariably, even good artists are This is happening at the moment with
series ; but it's not a great Stella. The pressure is several times larger than represented with inferior or, at least, Käthe Kollwitz (1887-1945), an
painting is a tall vertical with its sides the depicted lateral spread. This minor work. Money is supposed to be outstanding selection of whose
symmetrically indented ; there is a isolates the parts and results in a loss a problem : yet the Tate officials engraving and drawing is on show at
rectangular hole in the centre. The of momentum, thus undermining the consistently ignore serious art when it the Württembergische Kunstverein in
aluminium stripes parallel this design. force. is comparatively new (and Stuttgart. The show, which extends
The flat vertical thrust of the panel is inexpensive) until they are persuaded to two hundred catalogue numbers,
somewhat vitiated by the central Richard Smith, in the British of its worth — years after the fact — by was assembled by the director of the
horizontal notch which exhibits a acquisitions, has an early painting magazines and entrepreneurs. By Frankfurter Kunstverein, Georg
distracting physical space. This from 1959 with a yellow cadmium, then prices have escalated and Bussmann, and sets out to present
distraction is reminiscent of those tentatively set out in loose strokes, Kollwitz's works in the light of the
wooden compartments occasionally occupying much of the canvas. This categorical-theoretical context in
surmounting Johns' targets. surface intermittently reveals other which the artist consciously set
Kenneth Noland's Another Line, from primary colours, and is hedged in on herself, and of the direct and indirect
1970, is disappointing — it's less than the left with patches of white. Aspects interrelationship of the works and of
middling. (And this is irritating : a of the painting obviously presage the contexts at the time.
museum's permanent collection later developments — but it is an Through the example of Käthe
should strive for first-rate examples of amateur work and it's difficult to Kollwitz's realistic art, the observer is
artist's work, if possible, and the Tate figure why the artist permitted its thus supposed to reflect upon the
could have purchased a terrific inclusion. There are two Gillian relationship of art and society which
Noland from this period if it had Ayres paintings, one from 1959, the arises out of the present-day
shown correct judgement and other from 1961. Distillation, the environment. I fear, however, that the
negotiated right.) The painting is earlier, has a two-pronged form, visitors have no great taste for this, and
65X 114 inches, and has some densely cluttered, emerging from an see the purpose and effect of art
fourteen horizontal bands set across a amorphous clump at the base. The quite differently.
field of soft brown : the bands or lines surface is household paint on
are distributed singly or in groups, hardboard — splashed, thrown around, Another feature of the beginning of
and vary in width from quarter of an and overpainted in parts; the panel the season is the preference for
inch to an inch. There are seven light exhibits a gratuitous patina ; a retrospectives—conscientiously
olive lines in the middle; above and backdrop of dull blue penetrates the Richard Smith thought-out surveys of the work of
below the bands are almost entirely dominant form to mingle with black, Painting 1957 artists of the middle generation. Thus
195