Page 48 - Studio International - December 1974

Richard Lindner, Roy Lichtenstein and the major 'statements' within this occasionally: What is specific to the
Alex Colville, a good beginning, which development have come and gone. discipline of art that is not contained
was widely remarked upon. Donndorf Furthermore, one has to realise that all elsewhere? This question is constantly
told me that the gallery had quickly that stuff was about history and thrown up by this kind of work, but
become much more popular than Modernism anyway — despite the remains inevitably tacit, as a result of
expected. It will be interesting to see various flavours it was accorded by the its non-expository and non-linguistic
how the Stuttgart branch of Fischer emergent breed of New York sculpture- nature.
Fine Art develops. shop literati, around the mid-sixties, Obviously an over-concern with
The retrospective of the work of who ingested multifarious complexities categories and their distinctions (art,
the American sculptor Duane Hanson, of manifold realms of learning, as life- science, philosophy etc.) leads to the
held in the large gallery of the support systems for what was hitherto sterility that we saw in some of the
Wurtemberg Kunstverein was also a a patently banausic enterprise. I do not later manifestations of concept-art.
great success. Almost all the work made wish, simply, to line Graham up with However, this strange no-man's land
by this Superrealist (who lives at these figures from the last decade and between art and science seems to have
present in Berlin) since 1967 was on their representative notions. But he survived. Studies by artists in
view and it poses less of an aesthetic was there, and the relevant factor is 'phenomenology', 'behaviourism', Terry Frost Blue July Black and White
than a psychological problem: the that it still shows. 'technics', etc., which aspire towards 1974 Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 in.
almost true-to-life. Hanson takes a It shows in so far as there remains a the condition of science, remain, thus
plastic mould of his models and casts pivot, an object, a centrality — both in far, neglectful of its attendant
them in polyester. The casts are then concrete and in metaphor — to the sophistication. What the common Cleverly, the white band is ground,
painted in natural colours. Thus those exhibition. Something to look at. Yet opposition to this kind of remark fails space which is energised by the seeming
female types who seem to belong to the in this set-up the spectator is the to notice is that the ontology of the intrusion of twelve half semi-circles of
lower classes have even been given involuntary centre himself, by means of creative act is not exclusive or specific bright colour. The Moonship paintings
varicose veins. Are these lifelike a cubicle, camera, and floor-to-ceiling to the art domain — an observation so restrict the division of the circles/ovals
sculptures (who stand or sit like you mirrors on three internal walls of the obvious that its significance is to a roughly vertical direction, as do
and me, like 'proper people') examples cubicle. The video has a delayed-action constantly over-looked or avoided. the Platres which are made of more
of an artistic style, or are they loop which allows the object-perceiver Peter Smith insistently circular forms. Colour is gay
completely without any style at all? to experience a view of himself 'as seen rather than useful, and follows rules
This question seems to me to be by others' but subject to a time slur of which would seem to have been made
irrelevant. More important is the six to eight seconds. This does not Terry Frost, at Waddington Galleries 11, spuriously. There is no complaint.
reaction of the public. After the shock mean the 'spectator' gets an impression London, 29 October — 23 November I suppose it is logical that if a large blue
(caused by the realisation that what of himself as he was X seconds ago, Frost's show at the Waddington looked circle encloses a yellow and a red circle,
seems to be alive is really dead) is past, for the recorded image remains like English abstract painting rather a smaller yellow circle should enclose a
the spectators march happily between congruent with reality, and in this than American abstract painting by a red and a blue, and so on. Functional
the figures and have themselves respect is subject to the temporal British painter. He's of that generation, colour isn't a prerequisite of good
photographed. Even Hanson posed dimension as well as the spatial and one of the nine Lawrence Alloway painting, or lack of functional colour an
among his figures for the photographers physical. Furthermore, there is not one Abstract Artists. His concerns have indication of decorative intent. Frost
at the opening. The more one looks at image on the screen but several. That changed little since he joined the enjoys colour and uses it to divide
the figures the more important the act is, there are repetitions of the 'image Waddington Galleries in 1958, if at all space. He puts a red, a green, a yellow
of dressing seems. Hanson is extremely on the screen' theoretically ad infinitum since 1946. The recent paintings seem and a blue together with innocent
accurate here. Dressing must be an with each repetition a few seconds to have grown progressively bigger, the confidence.
extremely important act for him. after its previous one, though the colour has become brighter, but the A feature common to the Moonships
The Wurtemberg Kunstverein had number is limited by the capacity of subject remains the same: the all- and Platres is that they are painted on
also staged an exhibition of the work of our perception. These phenomena enclosing freely-drawn circle and its three separate canvases, tall, slim strips
Moholy-Nagy which consisted of more result from the strategic placement of buoyancy within a colour field; the almost invisibly joined to either side of
than 200 items. Especially successful the camera and the arrangement of rivalry of the straight and curved line; the large area which bears the central
was the presentation of his relationship mirrors. the simple fact that the rounded form configuration. Hardly discernible at
to the mass media. A new replica of Now I do not intend to deny this is readily transposable into terms of the first glance except in one work where
the light modulator was on view — the preoccupation any intrinsic 'interest'. human body while the harsh rectangle the side-pieces have been lifted onto
original is, of course, in Cambridge, Indeed the heuristic allusions suggested isn't. The six main works, all of the main canvas and stand proud of its
Mass. For the very first time the late by the 'work' are, in terms of psychology, 1973-1974, play with this antagonism surface the depth of a stretcher-bar,
works were on public view, most of philosophy, and all categories of human between the cruel regime of the this device is used with reserve. Eight
them coloured crayon drawings from endeavour hingeing on the concept of rectangular canvas and the freedom of split ovals flank four split ovals in
the Moholy estate in Zurich. Moholy perception, enormous, and one could the painter to hand-draw circles and Orange (Moonship). Six split circles
executed them knowing that the be led into thinking that there is a more circles. Frost's painting has often flank three circles in Nov—Dec 1973
disease from which he suffered during noble and lofty enterprise on hand. looked playful, but for the first time (Platres). Frost isn't creating more
1945 and 46 was terminal and they Indeed there may be. But this is not in he looks truly happy with his game. 'edge' for himself to play with. He is
reflect the fight against death. The any way suggested by the hardware The colour is startling. The natural firmly stating that the vertical which
famous telephone pictures came from itself, ingeniously set up though it British aversion to anything plastic, divides his surface cannot be allowed
New York and the marvellous paintings may be. synthetic or new hasn't rubbed-off on to be a painted mark: the human hand
from 1920-28 are represented by What we have in fact is an approach Frost who revels in the vibrancy of the doesn't move naturally in straight lines.
beautiful examples so that the to 'sculptural' problems presented in almost fluorescent acrylic used. It's interesting to look at this
exhibition — the first of its kind in terms of the kinaesthetics and motilistics Dithering over colour decisions would painting in the light of Herbert Read's
Germany — can truly be called formulated in 'minimalist' syntax. seem to be a thing of the past though not too ancient description of it. Well
representative. Assuming that the problem is not one of surprisingly the paint which looks as into the era of mid-Atlantic
aesthetics — everything appears to be though it was applied to the canvas just quintessentialism we might look at
Günther Wirth
utilitarian in the piece — then once, sits upon layers of former colour Frost in the wrong way. His values are
presumably we are to speculate on the choice. One of the four small paintings 'the self-contained values of concrete
UK reviews 'oddness' of the situation. On this at the Waddington, Blue July, Black harmony, of balance, rhythm and inner
Dan Graham, at the Lisson Gallery, level it works. One is made to feel a & White is tense and very simple: the coherence. Such art can be appreciated
little strange, especially at first, and canvas is divided into four squarish only by some faculty analogous to that
London, October
there is a great temptation to indulge areas, two black, two white. Shapes, with which we appreciate the music of
Dan Graham's installation at the Lisson
narcissistic proclivities. We certainly which are perhaps better described as Bach: it requires us to develop, on the
can be considered in terms of national
do in this context. zoom in on the self, outsize thumbmarks rather than as visual side, what we have without
traits — straightforwardness, pragmatism
so to speak, and it does provoke truncated freely-drawn ovals, obtrude protest developed on the aural side.'
etc. These qualities inhere throughout
questions. But all these questions are from the vertical edges of the canvas, Tony Rothon
his work and provide a basis for our
left begging in an aura of mystique one into each square: white into black,
scrutiny. There is, however, another
which in the end leaves the exhibition black into white. Ultramarine takes the
quality, simplicity, which balances
looking like some sort of fair-ground place of one of the blacks, the top left.
nervously between the poles of success
sideshow. No doubt I'm being grossly A minimal idea structure brings about Jim Dine at the Institute of
and failure as it is variously interpreted.
unfair to Dan Graham. The enterprise a startling sensation, the sensation Contemporary Art, London,
In many cases, and especially with
is obviously not wrong in any strict which the six large paintings colourfully 8-24 October, and on tour
regard to the American tradition, it is
a concept of merit — a sine qua non of sense of the word, yet the terms in echoed. Like all good puritans — and there are
work 2nd ideas in general. But of which it is presented remain Tall Collage (Pisa) contains (just) plenty of us in England — I was once
course 'simplicity' may also be unsatisfactory. It suggests problems of within its 94 x 68 inch dimensions six again shocked by Jim Dine's paintings
interpreted as 'simplistic', and much an identifiable kind specific to a circular/oval forms in columns of three and graphics when I saw them at the
work cast in the mould of 'Minimal' number of disciplines. I have no desire which have been split into quarter ICA. It is not the hairy sexuality of
art especially in its post-sixties guise to entrench divisions of labour between segments as colour was dispensed and his 'tools' that upsets me, but rather
can be so called. This is entailed since disciplines, but I do ask the question, the central leaning white band installed. the obvious relish with which he