Page 58 - Studio International - September 1973

GERMANY the famous Domnick Collection. largest exhibition limited to Italian
The Rome Quadriennale, the
American art from 1960 to 1970 —
Hard Edge and Pop Art— was art only, in May opened a final third
The lively current art scene in represented by works from the section dedicated to the experimental
Southern Germany, is dominated by collection of the Ulm publisher Kurt avant garde. The other two sections,
the 'Grosse Muncher Fried. No less than 15 Dieter Rot shown from December 1972 to
Kunstausstellung', held every originals came from a doctor's April 1973, were concerned with a
summer at Hitler's Haus der Kunst. private collection. There were some reassessment of the between-wars
Three exhibitions held recently particularly good examples of period and of the post-war
remain particularly notable, two of Nouveau Realisme, thanks to the movements, covering the various
them concerned with the more splendid collection of the master trends — figurative, abstract
distant past. Darer's quincentenary restorer Siegfried Cremer. English geometric and so on. The city's
was celebrated two years ago with art was represented only by Phillips, private galleries put on De Chirico
due pomp, while Cranach received Denny and Plumb, the Italians by (Ca d'Oro), R. Savinio (II Gabbiano)
rather less attention last year, and Manzoni, Fontana and Dorazio. and Fausto Melotti (Marlborough),
the city of Augsburg is giving due Since this exhibition did not by any this latter an ageing master whose
honour this year to Hans Burgmair means draw on all the known sculpture is finally enjoying a total
who was born here in 1473. At the collections, one can conclude that success after more than thirty years
municipal art gallery an excellent Württemberg is highly receptive to of waiting.
display, due to go on to Stuttgart, modern art. No wonder, therefore,
Installation shot. Work by has been mounted of the graphic that the strange show of work by In Milan it seems to be the moment
(left) Buren, (right) Tononi. masterpieces of this German artist Robin Page at Stuttgart's Galerie for graphics with works by
Photo: E. Kossakowski, Paris of the Renaissance. The names of Muller was well-frequented. The Capogrossi (Bon à Tirer), Consagra
Darer and Burgmair are inseparably State Gallery has bought an (L'Annunciata), and Bodini
variations. Ryman and Marden are linked with the development of the important work by this artist who (Rusconi) dominating, and some
obviously serious artists. They deal woodcut, Burgmair being one of the spent many years in England and now younger artists like Gentili
competently with the inherited issues, pioneers of chiaroscuro and colour lives in Düsseldorf with his Fluxus (Struktura) and Paolacci (II
but their work demonstrates only a woodcuts. Augsburg has assembled friends. Diagramma).
moderate development; it's his best work from all over Europe.
conventional and tame. The inclusion The Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden Pozzati had a deliberately
of Charlton's concentric rectangles In Stuttgart the German Gymnastics was host to eleven artists from Great controversial show at Bologna (De
and squares was inexplicable. A Festival inspired a look at the human Britain, whose exhibition is going Foscherari) with the title
cursory comparison would show his form in art. The exhibition at the on to Bremen and Brussels. The 365 'Restoration', and Battaglia
work to be far less than its sources. Württembergische Kunstverein, drawings selected by the British exhibited at Prato (Nova). Of special
He's invented nothing — the paintings entitled 'The human form in foreign Council were not, according to note is the retrospective open-air
are derivative rather than influenced. cultures', showed many hundred Timothy Hilton, meant to prove showing given to Colla at Pesaro;
Griffa nailed up three unstretched African and South Sea sculptures anything in particular. What they do he is perhaps the most significant
canvases. Ellipsoid stains in muted and masks. Research and display show is how varied the approach to contemporary Italian sculptor, in a
colours were distributed in horizontal were undertaken by the Stuttgart the medium of drawing, to the paper vein between 'bricolage' and found
or diagonal rows across an arbitrary Lindenmuseum which owns one of itself, can be. The generous selection objects, to furnish a completely
grid made by folds in the canvas. The Europe's largest collections of has its strong tensions but also different image of contemporary
paintings were unexceptional. Lohaus native art. The skilfully displayed includes some banalities, such as reality.
leaned five vertical 6 by 5 canvases material was tremendously the postcards by David Tremlett.
against the wall. There were two pairs. impressive, largely dominated by the Blake, Hockney, Craig-Martin, The most important shows of foreign
The fifth painting typically displayed principle of deformation which has Gilbert and George provided the artists are those of Rauschenberg
crude brushstrokes down the left- and religious and magical meanings, and highlights. I was particularly (Spazio) and Baumgarten
right-hand sides of the painting, one which has exerted a strong influence impressed with the drawings of (Sperone- Fischer) in Rome, while
white, one black, both continuing on modern art — as seen, for example, Colin Self which span the full range in Milan there can be seen works by
on to the floor and wall. Palermo, in the work of Picasso and the from the harmless and ordinary to the Polish avant-garde artist Berman
Toroni, and Buren have been doing German Expressionists. the evil of the gardens of madness. (Schwarz) with collages and
pretty much the same thing for six or One further point : these artists tend photomontages from 1930 till today,
seven years now, without much Two concurrent events in Stuttgart to be technically conservative but Alan Davie (L'Uomo e L'Arte S.p.A.)
invention. Palermo had a small, black were of particular interest to the still achieve individual expression, and Christo (Rotonda della Besana)
cube on the wall of a corridor, and a collector. The State Gallery, which both quiet and intellectual, like In Verona there is a selection of
wooden triangular plaque, painted recently acquired a painting by Wols Barker. graphic works by Robyn Denny (La
blue, over a doorway. Toroni showed for DM 330,000 exhibited privately GUNTHER WIRTH Città).
two rolls of vinyl, one draped on to a owned examples of Classical
mantelpiece, the other onto the floor, Modernism, while the Kunstverein In the field of the art of the past,
containing staggered rows of orange devoted itself to private collections Milan's Palazzo Reale is showing
squares. A similar small painting had of contemporary art. The exhibits, from June to November a definitive
four alternate rows of four and three gathered from the homes and villas ITALY collection of paintings of the
mauve squares. Buren used his of the Swabians, who have a the Lombard Seicento with
customary cotton sheeting in vertical reputation for keeping their treasures There have been a number of Caravaggio as the central figure.
blue and white stripes. The two outer hidden, were quite astonishing in exhibitions, due to the initiative of The paintings are backed up by a
white stripes were painted white on their number and quality. It was public bodies, which have been panoramic showing of drawings and
both sides. One piece, around fifteen easy to predict that the aimed at a deepening of the prints at the Ambrosiana. Rome, in
feet high and ten feet wide, was expressionists would be understanding of twentieth-century the rooms of the Palazzo Venezia, is
draped over a large academic magnificently represented at the Italian painting. They have been, in exhibiting a nearly complete
painting — evidently a permanent State Gallery, but the presence of effect, on-going studies free of all collection of the works of Cavaliere
fixture in the apartment — and nine methodically collected works bias and avoiding national d'Arpino. In Bologna the more
extended onto the floor. by Leger and eight by Max Ernst glorification and myth-making. The recent past is recalled in a show
Another piece, a narrow strip of the was hardly to be expected. Oskar great retrospective show of Sironi dedicated to the nineteenth-century
same material, extended through Schlemmer stole the show with 18 in Milan closed recently, and Rome's master, Silvestro Lega. Undoubtedly
several rooms. examples, including six masks never Gallery of Modern Art has a choice the most extraordinary exhibition,
shown before : a recital mask from selection of Morandi. Over and from every point of view, is
European artists seem to have a lot of the 'Figurale Kabinett' and others above the similar collections that Vicenza's celebration of Palladio,
problems ; their proffered solutions from the 'Triadische Ballett'. were shown in London and in Paris, with a huge collection of documents
are not encouraging. The work tends this includes two hitherto unseen and material in the famous Basilica
to be provincial, somewhat The Kunstverein favoured art after landscapes of 1911-12, both of Palladiana. The show will be open
ingratiating, and a little too obvious. 1945. 'L'art informel' was capital importance in this artist's until mid-November.
P. A. ROSENBLOOM documented with paintings from evolution. ALESSANDRO MOZZAMBANI
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