Page 38 - Studio International - April 1974

with a precisely calculated minimum of means. description of the problems in the respective are considered difficult and hermetic, asking
The work titles again speak for themselves : picture titles; Radiation of Different Zones 1949 more intellectual and emotional effort than one
or Electro-Magnetic (Atmospheric Zones) is usually inclined to invest in a work of art.
Construction s=r/3, 1933-34, or Group (y=ax2+
Phenomena 1952. But with our eyes better trained we may
bx+c), 1931. Vantongerloo did not add light and develop a better understanding of
But Vantongerloo was also a painter. He movement with the help of outside energy Vantongerloo and appreciate the high aesthetic
adopted the horizontal-vertical system of sources, as in today's kinetic experiments, but content of his work. It relates to all types of
Neoplasticism during a first period and created embodied them directly in the material structural research in art today based on a
within these limits a number of highly original organization of his creations. A title like controlled and controllable pictorial logic,
canvases of classical perfection, as perfect as Transformation of Light into Colour is especially to concrete art as defined by van
Mondrian's of that time, but quite different in significant, it belongs to a curved ribbon on Doesburg and carried on by Max Bill.8 But his
intention. His paintings are functions of ovoids whose inside additional (Plexiglas) elements experiments can also be compared with those of
and curves placed on the picture plane. The transform light into colour via reflection. It was his contemporaries, beginning with the
so-called 'Curve' paintings of the thirties and not easy to force that kind of image into the legendary controversy between him and van
forties led decidedly away from the neoplasticist inflexible and unwilling Plexiglas. What Doesburg on one side and Mondrian on the
form principles. They trace the orbit of curves Vantongerloo wanted was to show other : the use of diagonals and colours being
directly on to the white picture-ground typical simultaneously the solidity and the fluency of more diversified than primary colours. His
of Vantongerloo. Titles then were Ratio of form and their interaction (Paul Klee: 'the influence can be seen on the development of art
curves 1938; or Free composition, 'irregular', two synthesis of creation and appearance'). In in Europe and there is a relationship with
parallel lines, one green, one a closed line and a order to visualize this simultaneity of American post-war hard-edge and colour-field
spot 1945; or The angle of incidence equals the perception, Vantongerloo made do with research. Wherever we look in contemporary
angle of reflection 1941. And that formulation of transparencies and penetrations. But his vision art, we find clues that lead back to
a pictorial idea already hints at the Plexiglas was too large to be realized completely. He said Vantongerloo, even in concept art which is in
objects to come. that photography could bring out his intentions part a research into behaviour patterns between
even better than his own work, because the the artist and nature. For Vantongerloo,
human eye would not yield to the planned however, neither his ego nor the abstractness
effect. Despite certain inadequacies, like of an idea was essential, but the transformation
insufficient means and bad working conditions, of an idea into an objective, visible and tangible
he succeeded in extending the area of aesthetic object.
aesthetic experience.
Vantongerloo's work remains a paradoxical Footnotes
mixture of lucid investigation into the laws of 1 The periodical de Stijl appeared from 1917 to 1931.
visual creation after the abandonment of what Constituent members : Piet Mondrian, Vilmos
he called 'local motifs', and an alchemist's Huszar, J. H. P. Oud, A. Kok. Introduction to the
first issue 16 June, 1917 by Theo van Doesburg.
search for hidden facts beneath the appearance Collaborators during the first year: Bart van der Leck,
of things. He called it `L'incommensurable' Gino Severini, Georges Vantongerloo and others.
Last issue: January 1932 in memory of Theo van
within nature which in his opinion only art Doesburg.
could make visible, as these 'immeasurable' See: H. L. C. Jaffe: 'de Stijl 1917-1931, the Dutch
qualities are aesthetic properties reflecting contribution to modern art', Meulenhoff, Amsterdam,
'the splendour of the universe'. He maintained 1956.
"Abstraction Creation', international association of
that art can give insights into the structure of artists, founded in Paris 15.2.1931. President
the universe which cannot be communicated by Auguste Herbin, Vice-President Georges
Vantongerloo. Issued 5 yearbooks Abstraction
any other than aesthetic means, and that by Creation, Art Non-figuratif between 1932 and 1936,
doing so the artist creates a unique sensory which constitute together a compendium on the
feedback system between himself, the work he avant garde of the thirties.
3 A tea set and furniture designed by Georges
creates and the beholder of this work. Vantongerloo were shown in the exhibition 'Die
Closed circuit - undulating movement 1947 But how to grasp these 'immeasurable' zwanziger Jahre, Kontraste eines Jahrzehnts' (The
twenties, contrasts of a decade) at the
properties of matter, in a visible and tangible
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zurich, May/September
image ? Can we measure the harmonic colour 1973.
Before these, however (before 1948), climate of a rainbow, the soothing movement of 4 Quoted from the catalogue Ellsworth Kelly by E. C.
Goossen, The Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Vantongerloo made a group of strange wire waves on the sea, the vertiginous feeling of space
1973.
constructions coiled around a real or an when looking at a starry sky ? Physical and Concrete Art, Fifty Years of Development, Zurich
imaginary centre. Both concepts which mathematical calculations do not explain our 196o, concept, organization and selection by Max
Bill, catalogue comprises illustrations of all 168
determine the Plexiglas objects were already inborn feeling for a harmony reflecting the
exhibits, introduction by Max Bill, text and
apparent in these wire compositions: colour in gestalt laws of nature. Vantongerloo opened up documentation by Margit Staber.
space and relations of form in space; both aesthetic zones beyond the norm and beyond 1961: Georges Vantongerloo, Galerie Suzanne
Bollag, Zurich.
concepts blending into each other yet remaining the accepted seeing categories. Jack Burnham
1962: Georges Vantongerloo, Marlborough New
clearly perceptible. Vantongerloo pushed on sees him as one of the few modern artists who London Gallery with monographic catalogue.
his research and the material suitable to his made something out of the 'new space-time 6 `L'art et son Avenir', De Sikkel, Antwerp, 1924.
Paintings, sculptures, reflections, number 5 'Problems
experiments turned out to be Plexiglas. He sensibilities' in 'opposition to traditional ideas
of contemporary art', Wittenborn, Schultz Inc. New
began a series of puzzling self-penetrating of form'. Burnham is one of the few authors in York 1948. Quotations by Vantongerloo are taken
transparent objects whose secret was to produce whose books one can find extended passages on from both publications.
Jack Burnham: 'Beyond Modern Sculpture, the
their own colouration and to be able to change Vantongerloo.
effects of science and technology on the sculpture of
it. During the fifties they accompanied a group Vantongerloo presupposed a sensitivity in this century'. George Braziller Inc., New York, 1967.
of paintings which developed similar problems his viewer which could only be developed 8 See: Margit Staber: 'Methods, Meanings and
Reactions . . . Some Observations', Catalogue The
on the picture plane, using colour dots and lines. through his work. Today his paintings, Non-Objective World 1914-1955, Annely Juda Fine
There is a romantic element in the artist's sculptures and especially the Plexiglas objects Art, London 1973.
184