Page 58 - Studio International - December 1974

Correspondence cognitive and physical activity enter I am not sure whether my three Brancusi, Matisse and Picabia were
into the production of both. models are 'electrical'. If they are, shown at the Stieglitz Gallery between
Benthall has overlooked the fact that perhaps they will spark off something 1909 and 1914, American painters
in discussing industrial production, I more illuminating than Mr. Benthall's remained, on the whole, isolated from
proposed not one but two types of caveats. They were certainly not European influences and went their
sequence: 'machine' sequences, which intended to have the function of own way on a parallel course to the
are those within which the creation of eliminating problems of social and events in Paris before 1914.
working prototypes of new machines cultural conflict, but of finding inter When I lived in California, 1928-29,
occur, and 'industrial product' alia a better way of approach to such I taught at Cal Arts with the Mexican
sequences, which utilise the capacity problems. The way, for example, the painter Xavier Martinez. His friends
of machines for the replication of professional supportive systems of art, Orozco and Siqueiros used to visit him
objects. But in these cases also I am craft and industry help to buffer and in San Francisco so that their work
not suggesting, as Benthall implies, protect their own special forms of was well-known to the young artists
that 'invention' can be reduced to a production from social and cultural working in the West Coast such as
purely conceptual process, or even to a conflict. Tobey (who taught at Dartington Hall,
set of specifications. Bernard Smith 1931-38), Kenneth Callaghan, and
The special cases of technological The Power Institute of Fine Arts later, Jackson Pollock. Interest in the
invention which Benthall cites do not Sydney art of the School of Paris was, of course,
really affect the validity of my Australia kindled by Gertrude Stein and her
contention that new technological brother (their family lived in San
inventions drive out old ones in the Francisco) and other visitors to Paris.
From Heron in
same line of business. I would contend My wife and I, of course, talked about
that the flying boat did not peter out In 1953 Mr Patrick Heron came to the our studies with André Lhote and
but was displaced by more efficient and Central School of Art as a part time Boudelle while I gave painting lessons
economical land planes. Where it teacher where I enjoyed his delightful in Carmel. (Many years later, about
remains the most efficient invention and intelligent company. I remember 1957, I met Kenneth Callaghan again
available (as between some Pacific very well how excited he was when at an exhibition of American artists
Islands) it remains in use. Of course, news of avant-garde American painters shown at the ICA, London, when he
an empirical account of invention will reached these shores; he hastened to greeted me as a founder member of the
reveal many examples of delay and tell me all about them. I was therefore West Coast School!) But many artists in
revival of a notion, total impractibility, interested to read his three articles in America were working in the twenties
and so forth. But these cases do not The Guardian recently on the and thirties in modern idioms,
destroy the general validity of the relationship which has developed in influenced in varying degrees by French
contention that it is the business of recent years between American and ideas seeping in through both the East
new technology to displace old British avant-garde art. Much of what and West Coasts, but retaining their
technology. Mr Heron says deals only with the own autonomy. In contrast, the only
'Prime' inventions might have been fashionable triviata of picture making. major artist who attempted to work in
cited as an exception. What, one might (Where should the main area of interest a genuinely contemporary idiom in this
ask, did the invention of the wheel be placed? Should edges be straight or country during these years was Percy
displace? The answer, surely, in this wobbly? Should paint be flat or Wyndham Lewis, who was half American
case is dragging and walking. In such scumbled or applied with an airbrush?) in any case. Although Lewis's Vorticism
cases technology tends to displace not These should surely be matters either stemmed from the excitement of
older technology, but human activity. for the art students' common-room or Marinetti's Futurism it was at least of
Not always, and on this I agree, with for the studios of .t coteries interested its time; but through the twenties and
Benthall, for the better. solely in 'novelties'. Whether the thirties, modern art in this country was
Which brings me to my last point. composition or format of a painting be moribund with no root from which
Jonathan Benthall has completely symmetrical or asymmetrical (c.p. young artists could develop. They were
misunderstood my approach to the Baroque and Rococo) does not matter wide open to stray French influences
whole question of human values and a damn; what does matter is the power from across the Channel which were
the inventive process. Because I cite a of the artist concerned. Mr Heron at never fully assimilated or understood.
technological sequence from bullock times seems somewhat unsure of his During the 1939-45 War, several
dray to automobile, he assumes that I facts; for instance, when he tells us European artists made their way to
possess a mind 'seeking to prove its that 'colour striped painting was New York among them, Max Ernst,
Art and industry racial superiority' by means of a linear initiated, not by Morris Louis, but by Masson and Tanguy, these surrealist
Jonathan Benthall takes me to task model of human progress. What myself, in March 1957'; what about artists certainly set a match to the
(May 1974) for speaking (Art and nonsense! There is nothing in my Barnett Newman's stripes of 1947? bonfire which was already laid for an
Industry, April 1974) of 'units' in account to suggest this; and my Mr Heron showed us reproductions of explosive conflagration. In 1942
craft, art and industrial 'sequences' that comment that I began the enquiry with two paintings, one by himself (painted Peggy Guggenheim opened her gallery,
are not consistently comparable. 'We the conviction 'that the critique of in 1962) and one by Adolph Gottlieb Art of This Century, which acted as a
cannot', he writes, 'shift abruptly from industrial society developed by John painted in 1963 which he wishes to focal point for avant-garde artists as
material 'units' such as teapots or oil Ruskin and his followers had never infer is a plagiarism of his own the Photo-Secession Gallery of Stieglitz
paintings to technological inventions been answered convincingly by even painting; but it is quite possible to had done in 1909. Schools of art can
without putting the notion of a unit in the most thoughtful champions of reproduce another painting by Gottlieb, only develop slowly on fertile soil;
a sequence under severe strain.' industrial art' should have been Burst 1957 (shown in the 'New they are not hothouse growths which
But where really is the strain? All sufficient to indicate to him my American Painting' exhibition at the sprout overnight. Modern American
forms of production — and inventing a personal suspicion of unlinear theories Tate Gallery 1959), where it could be art has grown out of a very rich soil
successful machine is one such — may of progress. shown that Mr Heron merely transposed while our younger artists have had to
be envisaged as units in sequences of Indeed, rather than insinuate Gottlieb's motif to the right side of his work on stoney ground.
like kinds involving both cognitive and implicit values into my brief description canvas instead of leaving it in the centre Since the War many art critics have,
physical activity. For the visual arts — of three models of production (it was (Mr Heron could just as well have to my mind, been as damaging to an
in the broadest sense — this process certainly not intended to be even the transposed the same motif to the left- artist's real work (as opposed to his
culminates in a material object. Or as briefest 'summary of the history of hand side with equal effect). financial success) as many art dealers;
Marx put it: 'A spider conducts Western technology'), I did propose an On a more serious level one should art merchandising has superceded
operations that resemble those of a explicit approach to the whole question remember that modern (post 1939- painting or sculpture as a fine art, and
weaver, and a bee puts to shame many of values and production, in the 1945 War) American art did not, as is I must agree wholeheartedly with
an architect in the construction of her description of an art system as a sometimes loosely assumed, suddenly Mr Heron when he deplores jingoism in
cells. But what distinguishes the worst professional, social organisation which erupt in New York out of a vacuum. the art market, whether it be French or
of architects from the best of bees is maintains its historical continuity by The 'abstract' or 'abstract American chauvinism. However I am
this, that the architect raises his means of 'a more or less coherent set of expressionist' form of painting (I use left with a query; why is Mr Heron
structure in imagination before he beliefs, values, dispositions and these journalistic tags for want of better apparently so keen to emulate his
erects it in reality. At the end of every expectations'. If this is so, one might labels) seems to have been inherent in confreres in America? Could it possibly
labour-process we get a result that expect to find, for example a higher American painting since the nineteenth be that he (or his agents) have cast
already existed in the imagination of agreement with determinist theories of century. Albert Pynkham Ryder hopeful eyes on the sales index
the labourer at its commencement'. unlinear progress in an industrial painted strangely evocative abstract published by Sotheby's Parke Bernet
True, normally invention enters more system, than say in a craft system landscapes, to be followed by Georgia for the works of modern American
fully into the production of a (which are more given to organic, O'Keeffe, Max Weber, Joseph Stella, artists?
craftsman's prototype than it does into cyclic theories) or an art system (more Arthur Dove, and other young artists William Johnstone
the imitation of the prototype in the given to spontaneous and élitist searching for simplification through Crailing
production of a unit of a series. Both theories of creation). abstraction. While artists such as Scotland