Page 47 - Studio International - October1973

Symmetry as a compositional device
is disregarded where it would HARRY
endanger the flow of the work;
thus in Porte III a short diagonal piece
of round tube is inserted at the bottom FISCHER
and in Porte IV a similar tube is hung
under the overhead bar. Both take the Harry Fischer, co-founder of
emphasis away from the monolith Marlborough Fine Art and now, with
and act as counterweights, tiny as his son Wolfgang, co-owner of
they are, by balancing the whole. Fischer Fine Art, celebrated his 70th
Asymmetry and contrast is birthday at the end of August this year.
cultivated. The top horizontal is He was born in Vienna, and if Paris
continuous and compares with the was the capital of the nineteenth
fractured bottom line at ground level. century, in 1903 it must have looked
The cylinders lead the eye around as though Vienna had every chance
their form and suggest a winding into of becoming capital of the twentieth
and out of the sculptured space; they —so many of the scientific discoveries
appear to rotate in the opposite and intellectual attitudes which
direction to that of the viewer's eye. shaped our view of the world were
The squarer tube is harsher and made and formed there.
directs eye movement along its
length. Both sculptures use simple
lines and planes in the face of these
complex spatial inter-relationships,
allowing the work to be read clearly.
Porte II/for example is essentially
Porte IV 1973 but also cuts into space sideways as planar. Having been defined in space
8ft 6in x 18ft, steel in / and IL It acts as a containing and the frame has been forced apart in the
coordinating link. middle, creating two similar
and rectangular sectioned tubes now rectangles. A triangular space is
being used. Both the later Portes are large, eight created with one connecting bolt,
feet high and eighteen or so long. acting as a focal point, placed at its
Sculptures since Shutter have been They are quieter and less apex. The bolt joins the two side
enriched by the more open, less demonstrative than the earlier Portes planes, each of which, depending on
diagramatic approach. Forcing the and have a subtle arrangement of the viewer's position, can look like a
square and circle into separate bodies units. Optically the units change parallelogram, a trapezoid or an
has allowed form contrasts to shape, as does the overhead irregularly-shaped four-sided figure.
become independent of shape. rectangular section in Porte I V Porte IV, dramatically enough, has
Material as material is important in which appears to bow along its the form of the classical pillar and Harry Fischer (left) with
deciding how units are to be placed in length, and there is a foreshortening beam, but the flexibility of its parts Henry Moore
relationship to one another. effect both above and below the eye creates movement. It loosens the
(Material has emerged from beneath line as well as parallel to it. The units solid characteristics of its model, with His special interest was literature,
the implacable coats of paint, with a become multi-complex and assault details that open up the work. The and he had a passion for rare books
kind of scruffed, patchy, dark grey the spectator's bodily and spatial sculpture extends its invisible lines of and manuscripts, so it was natural
surface that corresponds in a primary perceptions. force to points in space where that he should have been drawn
way to the colour of the material.) previous viewers stood. Swivelling towards the book trade.
In Portes I and II each unit is locked The openness of the structure does and oscillating actions are suggested
in an aggressive act with its not stop its parts being visually by the overhead bar; one end In Germany, where he went to
neighbour, exemplified by the acute co-ordinated. Verticals and diagonals attempts to rotate using the further his knowledge of the book
angles with the ground. Tensions are can be paired, as in Porte IV where uprising cylinder as axis and fulcrum, trade, his interest in the visual arts
increased or reduced as the viewer the apparently parallel floor units whilst the other cylinder holds, increased. He went to monthly
circles the sculpture and cylindrical prod the space on either side. The steadfast, preventing movement. concerts at the Weimar Bauhaus
matter is thrust upwards and out into symmetrical and asymmetrical where he often saw Paul Klee and to
space, its levers and fulcrums structuring is forceful and, especially Character created through the several large Bauhaus parties, the
exerting great pressure. In all the in Porte III, 'reflective' and 'mirror' relationship of parts is thus examined famous Karnevale. He also
Portes the cylinders interconnect images are created between the both within and without the sculpture remembers attending poetry readings
with the ground and the rectangular front and back of the sculpture. and including the viewer. The works in Schwitters's house in Hanover.
tube. The latter is either held aloft challenge us to question the nature
or acts as the 'root' from which the of our realization of existence. Having returned to Vienna, Fischer
cylinders spring. The suspended tube Porte III 1973 secured a share in a book publishing
is overhead in Portes II/and /V, 8ft 9in x 21ft, steel William Tucker's sculpture has and dealing company. Walter
perhaps already been defined for us Neurath was a partner for a time.
by Schopenhauer in 'The World as Will Fischer, still primarily interested in
Et Idea' (1818), in his description of literature, was now in a position
the single thought : '... however actively to help and encourage some
comprehensive it may be, it must of the greatest Viennese writers of the
preserve the most perfect unity. If it time : Robert Musil, for example, and
admits of being broken up into parts Hermann Broch.
to facilitate its communication, the
connection of these parts must yet be After the Anschluss, Fischer escaped
organic, that is it must be a connection to England via Yugoslavia. There was
in which every part supports the never any doubt that it would be
whole just as much as it is supported England for he had been an
by it, a connection in which there is Anglophile all his life. He volunteered
no first, and no last, in which the and joined the army, and then, in
whole thought gains distinctness 1948, together with Frank Lloyd,
through every part and even the he founded Marlborough Rare Books
smallest part cannot be completely and Fine Art.
understood, unless the whole has
already been grasped ... Although the book side of the
Barry Martin business was a great success,
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