Page 22 - Studio International - September 1973

Footnotes Correspondence pictures and drawings, the Kröller-Müller
1 The title is intended as an allusion to two books by
Sir Karl Popper: 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery' collection 273, and the artist made about 1750
(1959), published in London by Hutchinson, revised works altogether.
(second) edition, 1968, and 'Conjectures and I agree a new museum has to make a good
Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge'
(1963), published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, start on the publicity market, but an
revised (fourth) edition, 1972. exaggeration like this is rather ridiculous in my
2 Gombrich, E. H. 'Visual Discovery through Art'. opinion.
In Psychology and the Visual Arts, edited by James
Hogg (Penguin Books, 1969), p. 227. Reprinted from Please excuse my sourish remark.
Arts magazine, November 1965. E. JOOSTEN
3 Gombrich, E. H. Interview on Sir Karl Popper. Assistant-Director
In The Listener (Vol. 88, No. 2265) August 24, 1972.
4 Popper, Karl. 'Evolution and the Tree of Kröller-Müller Museum
Knowledge'. In 'Objective Knowledge' (Oxford: Otterloo
Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 258.
5 Gombrich, E. H. (1956). 'Art and Illusion' Undisguised resin
(London: Phaidon, 1962), pp. 55-64.
6 Popper, Karl. 'Epistemology without a Knowing I would like to correct a misunderstanding of
Subject'. In 'Objective Knowledge', p. 120. Tony Rothon's in his otherwise comprehending
7 Gombrich, E. H. 'The Vogue of Abstract Art'. In
`Meditations on a Hobby Horse' (London: Phaidon, review of my show at the Mercury Gallery in
1963), p. 149. Herbert Read has pointed out that your July/August issue. The material of Large
Gombrich fails to account for the profound Cube/Sphere is simply resin—no disguise
sigificance of man's invented forms, as distinct from
representational ones. See 'The Cloud and the intended! I have a photograph of the modelled
Crystal: The Origins of Form in Art' (London: and carved plaster original which shows
Thames and Hudson, 1965), p. 89. its genesis as a casting. Half a hundredweight
8 Vasari, Giorgio. 'Lives of the Artists.' A Selection
translated by George Bull (Penguin Books, 1971), of silver sand in the resin shell, steadying but
p. 85. allowing it to be easily laid down or set on end,
9 Ibid., p. 9o. is intended to challenge the common
10 The historian Arnold Hauser has pointed out
quite rightly that if there are problems in art, they assumption that monumental forms are
don't exist in some teleological, preordained manner unmanoeuvrable by virtue of their weight.
as a precondition of progress; problems come into SHELLEY FAUSSET
being along with their solution. Strictly speaking,
Hauser argues, there are no unsolved problems: Central School of Art and Design
before Monet, there was no problem of light in the
same sense as there was after the Gare Saint-Lazare. Environmental art
The appropriateness of treating a work of art as
just a 'solution of a problem' may be doubted, if only I am at present completing a study on
because the supposed problem as a rule gets its `environmental art'. The central idea of this
meaning from the works it is intended to explain. book is that artists have enlarged their works
See 'The Philosophy of Art History' (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959), p. 163. or statements to such an extent that they are
11 In 'Norm and Form' (Phaidon, 1966, p. 92), acting on an existing environment or creating
Gombrich relates how he abandoned Wolfflin's token 'environments' themselves. In most of
lectures in Berlin in 1930 to hear Wolfgang Kohler
lecture on Gestalt psychology. Kohler has written: these attempts the spectator seems to play an
`When physical systems or human perceptions are important part: by his participation,
given time and other opportunities to do so, they autonomous behaviour of his 'creativity'.
change in the direction of greater simplicity or
regularity'. See 'The Task of Gestalt Psychology' In this study I am of course partly following
(Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 98. up my line of thought exposed in different ways
12 Loewy, Emanuel. 'The Rendering of Nature in with regard to kinetic art. However, many other
Early Greek Art' (London: Duckworth and Co.,
Aesthetic valuation art expressions will find a place directly or
1907), P. 33.
13 Hauser, Arnold. 'The Philosophy of Art History' I am sorry that Maurice Yaffe (Studio indirectly in this book. In fact not only visual
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959), p. 223. International, June) has not grasped the point art, but also music, poetry, dramatic
14 Wollheim, Richard. 'Minimal Art'. In 'Minimal
Art: A Critical Anthology' (New York, E. P. Dutton of my letter in the April issue. He complains expressions, etc 7 7 . will enter into it to a
& Co., 1968), p. 395. Reprinted from Arts magazine, that I subscribe to a very narrow definition of certain extent.
January 1965. aesthetics, whereas in fact I relied on his own I should be extremely grateful if anyone
15 Morris, Robert. Statement in Exhibition
Catalogue, Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects. definition which I quoted with approval. My interested would send me written
The New York Cultural Center, 1970. own argument, however, does not draw its documentation, photos and/or other material
16 Peckham, Morse. `Man's Rage for Chaos' (New strength from definitions : I am claiming that that will enable me to mention (and analyse)
York: Schocken Books, 1967), p. 123.
17 Gombrich, 'Art and Illusion', p. 13. experimental psychology logically cannot all significant artistic statements on the
18 Lakatos, I. and A. Musgrave. 'Criticism and the provide a yardstick of aesthetic valuation, any environmental scale with or without spectator
Growth of Knowledge' (Cambridge University more than it can supply a yardstick of moral participation.
Press, 1970), p. 57.
19 Popper, Karl. 'Normal Science and its Dangers'. valuation. The minimum information would be a list
In Lakatos and Musgrave, op. cit., p. 57. ADAM CZERNIAWSKI of works, projects or statements on this scale
28 Kuhn, Thomas S. 'The Structure of Scientific Rochester and an opinion on the question of 'art and
Revolutions'. Second Edition, enlarged (University
of Chicago Press, International Encyclopedia of environment' and of that of the new role
Unified Science, Vol. II, No. 2, 197o), p. 205. Van Gogh Museum played or to be played by the spectator or the
Similarly, according to Paul Feyerabend, the defence Reading the July/August issue of your public in general in this context.
of 'objective standards' which are supposed to
guarantee the rationality of science may be no more magazine (page 41) I must say the note on the The most urgent would be the photographic
than 'verbal ornament'. See Lakatos and Musgrave, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is rather material (black and white and colour) for
op. cit., p. 218. absurd. (I guess it was information given by the possible publication in my book which ought
21 Lakatos and Musgrave, op. cit.
museum itself.)
22 Peckham, op. cit., pp. 124 and 298. to be in my hands before 30 September 1973.
The Amsterdam collection (not donated but FRANK POPPER
sold for aprix d'ami) contains about 500 Paris 6e

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