Page 18 - Studio International - April 1974

no section of the picture surface should be less serious questions that should be answered by of artists. The tape and score of music by
of a shape than any other.' Finally, describing any competent person are 'turned' by one Steve Reich and the poem object by
his recent work, he discusses the 'wobbly hard- device or another by every discipline across the Robert Lax and Emil Antonucci were included
edge' and feels that 'an absolutely straight line academic spectrum. What is increasingly in the 'didactic' section of the exhibition and,
or colour edge, or pure arc or circle, both seem obvious is that the basic conceptual equipment true, were not named in the catalogue. Neither
destructive of the flatness of the picture surface'. is as yet inadequate to support the pretensions to was credit given in the catalogue to the PT
Presumably every painting has at least four knowledge exhibited by these departments of Orchestra which provided live music at the
positive shapes, with at least one absolutely the human race. As a question recently put opening nor to the many individuals who
straight line or colour edge for each. I find his forward in your Imperial College of Science and contributed to lectures and discussions
`wobbly hard edges' convincing, but he is surely Technology would show, the organism man can associated with the Systems exhibition. This
inconsistent in his justification for their be seen as either (a) a freak of chance — giving may be regretted in retrospect but cannot now
existence. thereby no ultimate reason for denying the be rectified. The Systems group is now in the
STEPHEN FOSTER self-indulgent and rapacious element in live fifth year of its existence and a comprehensive
West Bridgford, Nottingham beings — or (b) organic intention — on a stellar list of its activities, including the names of all the
scale. The case for pretending to be eagles artists, writers, musicians, theoreticians,
War of the sexes among a population of flies is not made. designers and organizers who have taken part in
The article 'Six' concerning art by women is JOHAN STEIVENSOON them, would occupy a great deal of space.
very interesting but it makes me want to protest London WI However the following sources and facts might
at its limitations. help ARS to bring their research up to date.
Perhaps it is true that, as Virginia Woolf said, 'Systems' Catalogues : Systeemi —System, an exhibition
`Different food feeds the nerves which keep It has come to our notice that in 1969 the of syntactic art from Britain, Amos Andersonin
women's brains functioning, from that which `System' group of artists came into existence, a Taidemuseo, Helsinki, 1969; Systems, Arts
men use.' co-founder of which was Jeffrey Steele. This Council 1972-3, Arts Council of Great Britain;
But I believe that the brain is, if properly information can be found in the catalogue to Systems II, Polytechnic of Central London
used, used impersonally and that real art by Mr Steele's exhibition of current work at 1973. Broadsheet: Matrix, Arnolfini Gallery
either sex is part of a general flow. the Lucy Milton Gallery. Bristol, Welsh Arts Council Gallery Cardiff,
That women resent being sex objects is Perhaps Mr Steele and his co-founders Gulbenkian Theatre University of Kent,
forgotten when they really set to work in an art would explain when this group first exhibited Canterbury, 1971. Article: 'Notes on the
form. What on earth does Bridget Riley brood and who are the other artists involved. context of "Systems" ' by Malcolm Hughes,
about in her work ? Or Elizabeth Frink ? Or In 1972 the Arts Council financed an p. 200, Studio International, May 1972, VOL 183,
Barbara Hepworth ? exhibition entitled 'Systems' and it was not no. 944.
It seems high time that the 'war of the sexes' clear then, i.e. from the catalogue, whether that The Systems group came into being as a
was made a distinct issue and not a confused exhibition purported to be the work of a 'group'. result of an invitation from the Amos Anderson
blurb in articles about painting. Visitors to that exhibition may have also Art Museum in Helsinki to form an exhibition
True, I belong to the Women's wondered about the presence of music by which would unite the syntactic/systematic
International Art Club' and am proud so to do. Steve Reich and a poem object by Robert Lax aspects of two tendencies among British artists
What I have seen there are people getting on and Emil Antonucci which were not recorded in who had exhibited previously under the loose
with the effort of art, and what is produced does the catalogue. rubrics of 'optical art' and 'constructivism'
not hint at babyish self-deprecation. Groups are on the rare side these days and respectively. Its aim could be said to be the
All this shouting about men is enough to while ARS does not claim to monitor all such furtherance of the production and presentation
make them band together and keep women out. phenomena it would be glad to record the facts. of art in which a rationally determined system is
This is 1974, after all. Re 'groups' we take the view that loose of central importance. At an early meeting the
EDITH HAMEY affiliations do not come under the billing of artists concerned with the organization agreed
Goostrey, Cheshire groups in the sense say of GRAV or Group on the notion of 'recoverability' of the system as
Anonyma. Incidentally Cyril Barret's remark to a means of establishing the criterion of the
Eagles or flies? the effect that the latter is probably the last conceptual, formal and material unity of any
It becomes more evident daily how dependent group of its kind in existence today can now be given work. The work of any living artist may of
art activity is on the verbal chains that are used amended since, like GRAV, it too has been course approach and recede from this criterion
to ensure a practical degree of similarity disbanded. and this fact affects the fluctuating membership
between sources and recipients. Readers of Studio International — a journal of the group. Other factors would be an artist's
I have a comparison to draw between quick to lend its columns to recent arrivals such own wishes and such things as geographic
exponents of this movement and the surrealist as Art-Language et al — would be pleased to accessibility. Apart from the 'didactic' section of
episode. Neither of these movements has its learn of new groupings, their aims and the 'Systems' exhibition mentioned above;
centre of gravitas necessarily embodied in the personnel ? whose aim was to indicate the art historical and
ostensible virtuoso. The manic and incessant ARTS RESEARCH SYNDICATE cross-discipline relations of systematic art,
claims to a form of paragenius are however a London WC1 exhibitions have so far been confined to the work
feature of both, together with the tactical device of artists living in England. There are, however,
used to dispose of awkward questions. Dali gave I am not sure how best to reply to a request for strong affinities with certain artists working
a specific instance of this some years ago when information from an organization which abroad, notably in Holland and Switzerland,
holding a public meeting at the Planetarium and provides such scanty information about itself and an international exhibition of systematic art
I notice your Art-Language exponents and one which, while incorporating the word is at an early stage of preparation.
frequently going into Latin like victorian military `research' in its title, registers inaccurately the The following artists have taken part in all the
statuary to proclaim their contempt for anyone facts it already possesses. Most of the required exhibitions of the group: Malcolm Hughes,
else. information does in fact appear on the first three Michael Kidner, Peter Lowe, David Saunders,
This is a symptom of a greater mania pages of the catalogue Systems. The foreword by Jean Spencer, Jeffrey Steele.
unfortunately in the other establishments where Norbert Lynton gives a clear, brief account of JEFFREY STEELE
temporal powers are lodged. The straight and the origin and early history of the Systems group Portsmouth
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