Page 50 - Studio International - December 1974

shown then are here now and the inevitably view twentieth-century vaguely convex disc (30 inches in
catalogue prints a translation of the developments through a distorting diameter) of blue-painted wood, and a
curious speech which he gave at that medium when painting, on the whole, smaller black-painted oval which
time. The exhibition is doubly is interpreted in the narrowest sense of projects 9 inches from the top left of
thought-provoking in that it runs at the word and the elect company of the construction at the circumference
the same time as the mess of artists includes none but the most of the disc. There is Two Circles II,
proselytising, propaganda and mock- prestigious. Even within these similar to this except that brown takes
philosophy at the ICA: Art Into limitations internal contradictions the place of blue, and red takes the
Society. Beckmann's art was banned abound; the post Second World War place of black. By altering one's
by the politicians which is at least one European artists receive a quite position in relation to the construction
measure of its power to shock, disturb disproportionate representation vis-a-vis one is able to alter the colour tones and
and to make people think. If, Heaven their American counterparts, to whom optical effect. The same reaction is
forbid, politicians in Western Europe they are manifestly inferior; Rothko's demanded of one in relation to Sight
should start to outlaw artists once Number 118 has more to say than the Line where the gaps between the blue
again, I wonder if Beuys and Co would combined European effort and a good stripes on a 2 x 6 ft canvas can be
qualify for the chop. I doubt it. Barnett Newman would complete the made to coincide with a cord which
They're tame by comparison. annihilation. The three Mondrians as a runs between a point 4 feet above the
All the German avant-garde were group perhaps constitute the acme of left upper corner of the canvas and a
banned by the Nazis in one way or perfection, yet once again the collection point 4 feet in front of the bottom
another, and two more of the 'decadents' lacks a sense of responsibility; a couple right corner. Most of the works depend
have work on show at Achim Moeller: of Barth van der Lecks in lieu of one of on such optical conceits. In many
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich the Picassos, would at least provide a pieces colour is used incidentally, but
Heckel, from 1905 until 1913 fellow vantage point from which to understand occasionally to accentuate the recession
Georges Braque
members of Die Brücke of which they Still Life with Harp and Violin 1912 Mondrian. The erratic choice of Braque, of a surface. In Intervals of a Quadrant
were co-founders. Their best paintings Oil on canvas, 44 x 32 in. akin to that of Léger and Picasso, a long narrow concave is demonstrated
were executed during that period. By prompts a query as to whether in fact to be such by painting a pale grey strip
the end of the war they, like many of the pièce de resistance, Still Life with across its farthest curve and painting
the other Expressionists, had shot their Harp and Violin of 1912, was the result progressively darker strips until either
bolt and had begun to drift towards might well profit from a similar degree of a 'well defined and focused policy' end is black. Carter does not use
self-parody. of self-awareness, because his collection or a purely fortuitous accident. colour emotively and it is not important
But Achim Moeller specialises in is so clearly a product of the society Museum directors able to command as a medium of sensation in itself.
drawings and graphics of the highest commented upon by the other German substantial means, are faced with as Indeed the general effect is drab. This
quality and the watercolours and exhibition at the ICA. A documentation, much of a dilemma, albeit of a drabness is not counteracted by the
graphics on show here — especially the along the lines of Hans Haacke's work, different order, as their more penurious aesthetically unimpressive shapes he
woodcuts — show Kirchner and Heckel of the sources of revenue for the brethren. Dr Schmalenbach's situation uses. However, given that the man is
at their best: neurotic, Angst-ridden, Nordrhein-Westfalen government, the bears a certain affinity to that of the not out to impress one finds that there
sensual, energetic. If Beckmann was the provenance of the pictures, the director of the new National Gallery of is a deep and basic lack of other sense
most gifted German painter of the complexion of the museum's board of Australia; art collections have a similar stimulus. The whole effect shifts
inter-war years, Kirchner was the most trustees and other major desiderata, function to airlines and diplomatic unobtrusively from optical nerves to
considerable artist of the pre-war would yield the appropriate context display, insofar as they can promote brain, without even pausing at the
period. within which to assess the museum as national or civic prestige; the logical emotions before its ejection into
Frank Whitford a corporate entity, instead of a consequence of such egocentricity is obscurity. It is possible to use optical
disembodied array of paintings. cut-throat competition for accredited effects as the descriptive language of
The political resonances of the 'masterpieces' on both an international an idea, but they are pointless merely
From Picasso to Lichtenstein at the collection are most forcibly conveyed and, in the case of Germany, an intra- as descriptions of optical effects.
Tate Gallery, London, 2 October — by the image it evokes of a modern national scale. The regional government Carter, himself seems unsure of the
24 November Duveen at work. This is the real 'political of Nordrhein-Westfalen might well feel point he is making, for his drawings,
that a more adventurous collection of
The exhibition of 'Masterpeices of economy of art' whose concept of a while performing the same tricks as his
twentieth-century art from the 'masterpiece' is apparently a function lesser known artists, backed by a constructions, are quite unlike them in
Nordrhein-Westfalen collection in of the relative size and expense of the skeletal contingent of the 'classic effect; for whereas the elements of the
Düsseldorf' was presented as a kind of commodity; the fallacy of this moderns', would fail to cast the same constructions are presumably made to
visual exclamation mark, punctuating assumption is eloquently demonstrated reflected glory as the existing be in themselves without personality,
the Tate's own corpus and the British by contrasting the bombastic vacuity assemblage, but the occasional element the methods employed in the drawings
public's commitment to state patronage of Leger's Adam and Eve with the of surprise would considerably enhance give the tone within the shapes its own
of the arts. Both subjects are meet for marvellously inventive, miniaturist the collection's interest. The Tate quality. It is difficult to avoid reading
constructive criticism, but this is not to Schwitters, or Macke's delicate should beware of a too consuming envy a variety of textures and movement
be effected by invoking Dr composition, Cathedral at Freiburg in of Dr Schmalenbach's profligate into the marks of wash or conté, or
Schmalenbach's achievement as an Switzerland. The significance of much expenditure on colossi with feet of clay; designating poetic metaphors to them.
exemplar or launching into a panegyric of the work on view seems entirely a gallery cannot offset a plethora of Sadly, the temptation to do this is all
indifferent works by a sprinkling of
of the munifence displayed by the adventitious, conferred by the artist's too strong, for there seems so little
regional government of Nordrhein- name rather than his, (in only three outstanding examples and the Tate reward, and that so short-lived, in what
should conclude from the Düsseldorf
Westfalen. Surely the most immediate cases would her be applicable), actual the constructions have to offer.
issue raised by this collection, which is performance. Dr Schmalenbach's exhibition, that more risks need to be Tony Stubbing is also an artist who
indebted for its very existence to a choice of Picassos is the most obvious taken in the middle and lower price is concerned with the perception of
political decree, concerns 'the political example of the pitfalls of this approach, ranges, conserving its financial energies space but his approach is less stilted
for one or two purchases on the level of
economy of art', the title of Ruskin's whose necessary corollary is to impart and altogether more humane. He does
lecture of 1857 delivered in connection a measure of vulgarity to the end result. the Picasso Still Life of 1914; caution not try to regiment our perceptive
with the exhibition of 'Art Treasures of He claims, like Aesop's hedgehog, to means that a Barnett Newman procured faculties but displays those elements
the United Kingdom' at Manchester. relate his purchases to a single vision, in 1968 or a Clyfford Still in 1971, which move us through the complex
The juxtaposition of Manchester and undeflected by peripheral factors such costs many times the amount for which sensations of our optical experience.
Düsseldorf is of more than academic as historical context; however, I can they could have been acquired ten years It is not the mechanics of this experience
interest, since the economic discern greater evidence of the fox's earlier. that interests Stubbing but the mystery
Frances Carey
circumstances of both industrial centres mentality, which dissipates its energies of the compulsion of seeing. The 'whys
at different periods in history, have over a large number of ultimately and wherefores' of our optical activity
created and conditioned their Mæcenaen trivial considerations. In view of the seem only mildly relevant to our seeing,
role towards the arts. Mid-Victorian exhibition's undoubted splendours this John Carter at the Redfern Gallery, as an explanation of the carbon cycle
prosperity was translated at one level is an astringent verdict, nevertheless it London, 29 October — 21 November; is to the understanding of life.
into grandiose municipal philanthropy, is important to stress the snare and Tony Stubbing at the Hoya Gallery, Stubbing's is an experiential approach
whose cultural disbursements were a delusion of treating 'art objects' as London, November. and he feeds back to us our knowledge
self-conscious extension of political individually insular quantities; a John Carter's work is concerned with of light by putting it in the context of
values, with the avowed purpose of collection is totally misconceived if its demonstrating the mildly interesting paint. He uses the canvas as a two
informing and elevating the public mind progenitors fail to recognize that some visual tricks that the phenomenon of dimensional module for a chosen area
according to the precepts of its rulers. form of art historical documentation is perspective can perform and the visual of light, but whereas Monet painted a
Quality was not regarded as an aesthetic bound to emerge from the most random double-take which is brought about by building or a scene as the vehicle of
ideal independent of subjective criteria, selection of material; what remains a angling an elipse to a circle or a light-play, Stubbing paints the sky.
but as a reflection of the morals of matter of choice, is the particular trapezium to a square or ... etc., etc. These days he uses thick, blunt stencil-
contemporary society. version of art history to be presented. In his latest exhibition at the Redfern type brushes but, until a suspected
Despite the alien nature of Victorian Mainline art history is clearly the Gallery, there is his painting/construction allergy intervened, used to use his
paternalism, Dr Schmalenbach's policy order of the day in Düsseldorf; we called Two circles / which consists of a fingers to lay smears of paint onto the