Page 50 - Studio International - October1973

intends to paint an actual DC-8 especially by the people who control fixes the beam in place, makes a site Once he got a driver's licence in the
some time this fall. the city's few decent exhibition of the place where the beam sits or name of each nonexistent person, he
facilities. stands. had everything necessary to get a
'Akhenaten and Nefertiti : art from the passport. He went through the whole
Age of the Sun King' recently opened The exhibition situation is admittedly Superficially, Guillemin's whittle procedure, getting a complete set of
at the Brooklyn Museum. A vexed by peculiar sociological pieces are a neat solution to the credentials for each of 31 separate
comprehensive exhibition of Egyptian circumstances. For example, the problem of how to establish site identities, before, as he anticipated,
reliefs and statuary from 1378 to only important gallery of contemporary through process without doing he was caught.
1362 BC, the Amerna Period, it art here, the Parker Street 470 Gallery, something to a space or a physical
includes pieces from the museum's has been forced to relocate due to a setting itself. Each whittled beam Because he made no attempt to use
own collection as well as some rise in crime in its neighbourhood so particularizes the place where it the false documents (except to obtain
borrowed from museums in Berlin, drastic as to endanger the lives of stands or sits, but none is site- others), because there was no
Brussels, London, Oxford, Paris and gallery employees and clientele. At specific in the sense of being forgery involved (all the documents
New York. The exhibition is this writing, the gallery partners have dependent for its form on the character were government issue), and because
accompanied by a catalogue by Cyril not settled on a new space, but of its surroundings. he was not assuming the identity of
Aldred, Keeper of the Department of wherever they do relocate, they are any person who had ever existed as an
Art and Archaeology at the Royal sure to face a large rent increase and More importantly, these works reveal adult, the government must prove
Scottish Museum, in which each that is likely to mean an even less their meaning as a human intent to defraud in order to
piece in the display is illustrated. adventurous exhibition calendar than circumstance rather than a physical substantiate charges against him.
they have kept up in the past two one. The risk they present us with as Mere possession of the false
A retrospective exhibition of the work seasons. Local galleries, like local spectators is that we will mistake documents is not in itself a crime,
of Ellsworth Kelly which included artists, suffer from the fact of a small, meaning for material. To upset one of since the assumption of the law is
more than 55 paintings and sculptures rather conservative community of these whittle pieces is to turn it from that no one will possess them unless
has just opened at MOMA. Guest moneyed art 'consumers' in the city. a piece of sculpture into a couple of he intends some fraudulent purpose.
Director for the show Eugene Goosen chunks of hewn wood with no
has gathered together what he Apropos of the dependence of art on particular connection to each other. For each of the deceased persons
considers to be the key works of business in this city, a dependence Guillemin's work shows that whose identity he assumed,
Kelly's career from 1948 to 1973. He that is at least necessitated by the blindness to meaning means Jaroslav cast an astrological chart.
has also written a book to accompany generally dismal economic situation, literalizing one's experience. An analysis of the horoscope, along
the exhibition. is the news from The Boston Museum Literalness is separation, lack of with factual information about each
of Fine Arts of an exhibition called connection among the objects of individual obtained from the original
Michael Walls, formerly a California 'Classics in Modern Decorative Art experience. His work presents us with birth record, enabled him to construct
based dealer, intends to open a space 1880-1970', 'given to the Museum a compelling instance of this fact a believable biography, a legend,
in lower Manhatten this fall where he by Bloomingdale's,' the mammoth in the most resourceful terms possible. so to speak, for each of the 31
will show the work of David Deutsch, New York department store. It is no A whittle piece is, as he says, identities. Later, by means of self-
Jack Barth and Joel Bass among accident, as the Marxists say, that something on the verge of becoming hypnosis and sleep learning
others. Several European dealers are Bloomingdale's is also about to open something else. He reveals the change techniques, he attempted to
also expected to open New York a new 'home furnishings' store in a in the object's identity as dependent internalize each of the biographies
branches in Soho this season. nearby suburb. not upon the material or its location, and to identify with each of them.
but upon our actions and our
Everett Fahy, previously Curator in All signs indicate that the exhibition awareness of their significance. For The first purpose of Extended
Charge of the Metropolitan Museum's situation in Boston will remain its revelation of human action as the Credentials is to test the strength of
European Paintings Department, has pretty much the same in the near source of artistic meaning, Guillemin's the concept of art and the clout of the
been named Director of New York's future : a mixture of safe, canonized work ranks with the best contemporary artist's credentials as an associate of
Frick Collection. work from New York, with a art. At this writing, no one has seen the Boston Museum, an institution
Linda Cathcart sprinkling of 'professional-looking' fit to exhibit the new work. whose role, in the eyes of the
newcomers, and lowbrow local authorities, is to determine what is
output of the sort that is supposed to 'On December 21, 1972, Special and is not art. If his case comes to
BOSTON be immediately intelligible to the Agents of the Federal Bureau of trial, he can appear as his own
Investigation arrested Jay Lee
uninitiated. Historical exhibitions
expert witness to testify that his
tend to be more wide-ranging and Jaroslav, an artist and teacher at the activity constitutes a work of art and
not a crime. His indictment on
LETTER unusual, such as the Boston Museums Boston Museum of Fine Arts, on charges of attempt to defraud is still
forthcoming show of Communist
charges that he wilfully violated
Chinese archaeological discoveries, Title 18, Section 1342 of the United pending ; he is free on bail of $35,000.
During the late 60s, ambivalence States Code. It was alleged that the Meanwhile, the government has been
toward New York was a central fact of The best I can do to characterize the suspect had been involved in the hard at work trying to find other
the Boston art scene. As a local prospects for the Boston art scene is unlawful activity of using fraudulently charges on which to indict him.
artist, you were expected to choose to discuss the work of some local obtained copies of birth certificates of
between believing that success in New artists that seems to me both important deceased persons in order to Jaroslav's work can hardly be summed
York was all that really mattered, and and far from local recognition. establish false and fictitious up in the space I have available, but
believing that the real proof of success identities'. This statement formed the its political relevance will be plain.
would be to have your work call Robert Guillemin's work tends to be announcement of a very brief show of Curiously like Guillemin's work in one
attention to Boston, and away from ephemeral, spare, and eminently Jaroslav's elaborate conceptual respect, Jaroslav's work, seen as a
New York, as an art centre. There was resourceful. This year he began a piece, Extended Credentials, at the work of art, raises the question where
a lot of talk of how Boston was series of 'whittle pieces', as he calls Boston Museum School late last does meaning come from ? Jaroslav
becoming a sophisticated art them, that are some of the best art spring. has given teeth to the traditional
community on its own, as if by some I've seen made in Boston. Typically, aesthetic concern with intention by
historical inevitability, with very he starts with a rough wood beam of a Jaroslav obtained access to the local aligning it with a real legal concern
little evidence to support such claims. size he can carry by himself. Having birth and death records on the pretext with intention. He has introduced
Over the last two seasons, while the chosen a spot to work he will either of doing research on infant mortality into art portentous questions about
New York art world has cooled off place the beam on the floor or stand rates. From the birth records he the nature of authority, questions
and lost a lot of its onetime show-biz it on end and chop, whittle, and file compiled enough information to from which art is supposed to provide
appeal, the work coming out of local away at one area along its length and request by mail copies of birth us a safe respite. Jaroslav has not had
studios in Boston actually has begun girth, stopping just short of severing certificates in the names of a number any offers from people wanting to
to eclipse a lot of what has been the beam completely. The result is of individuals who had in fact died show his work. For the time being, he
brought in from outside the city for two sections of beam connected by a within a day after birth. Once in remains the only artist represented in
exhibition. This is exactly the filament of wood that remains after possession of the birth certificates, he the permanent collection of the US
situation so many people wanted to the whittling process. There is no had everything necessary to get a Department of Justice.
see existing four or five years ago, and possibility of moving the beam Social Security card. With these two
now that it's actually happening, it without breaking it once it has been documents, he had everything As Jaroslav's work deals with the
goes largely unacknowledged, worked on, the working process necessary to obtain a driver's licence. public realm, Jeffrey Hudson's deals
154