Page 47 - Studio International - February 1974

represented by major works, which vague, however, and no proof of it large Frank Stella shoved-up through reasons for staying away are fairly
is unfortunately not the case.) was to be discovered in the drawings. the sprinkler/lights system as it was well known. Robert Ryman withdrew,
According to the logic of the series, In the Museum and the Kunstverein too tall for the architecture. It was lit having had intimations of comedy.
the Pre- Raphaelites would have been at Ulm works by more than seventy of on opening night by two small He doesn't own the work they wanted
succeeded at Baden-Baden by the the city's artists have recently been on spotlights. We thought they might to show, but the idea that anyone in
Nazarener, those German painters show for the first time. The frankly edit a bit out of the middle. The other this context is (standardly) alienated
who formed themselves into a quasi- cheerless result reflects a situation items weren't very visible either : a from his production is entirely
religious 'Brotherhood of St Luke' and that is internationally relevant. In the very long Dibbetts had one angle- simplistic. John Weber called Achille
in 1810 settled in a deserted 1950s an attempt was made at the lamp spotlight at the end, and every Bonito Oliva to inform him of Ryman's
monastery near Rome to try and Hochschule für Gestaltung to time the architect (N.B.) tried to wishes, and Oliva conceded his
achieve a new national art, looking to continue and transpose the increase the lighting on it, we (in the accord therewith. The former speaks
Gothic art and stressing a higher perceptions of the Bauhaus, and far vicinity) were blacked-out. This Italian, but to make sure everyone was
calling. That Ruskin and William initially Max Bill, Josef Albers and happened every ten minutes or so all in phase he got a French visitor to go
Morris took up the demands of the Vordemberge-Gildewart worked as round the show. There were some over the whole thing again :
Nazarener, that the artist must become teachers in Ulm. This had a Reinhardts, but you could only comb again, agreement was protested.
a craftsman once more if art is to widespread effect, but the closure of your hair in the glass; that corner was Ryman was officially in the show.
rediscover its high vocation, is rightly the Hochschule, long after the one of the darkest. And Louis Cane's Joseph Kosuth didn't want his blow-
pointed out in the admirable departure of the famous teachers, has, (work) was (physically) among the ups, and we didn't want any vieux
catalogue of the current exhibition. in artistic terms, put Ulm back into conventionally major paintings but travaux included, but there they were.
On the other hand, the fact that the sticks. better lit. (The concatenation was so We turned ours round — someone
William Morris had a powerful Günther Wirth bizarre that Bryce Marden's proximity turned them round again — we were
influence on the Munich variety of Translated from the German by to Reinhardt looked scholarly by forced to scrawl prohibitions all over
John Wheelwright comparison.) Still I'd rather know a the backs.
art nouveau is not stressed — it
becomes evident pictorially in the Reinhardt was there than see a Louis We did want three microfilm
exhibition itself. Cane ; in fact I'd rather not see a readers : in October an official of
The Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Contemporanea Louis Cane— but his promoter was I ncontri Internazionale called me in
Baden-Baden is both strange and working well and hard ; a dinner or Florence with the news that these
charming to the German public. If, as Compendium art shows and art two may not be that much of a social were available. On the day of the
is now clear, it is not going to attract magazines have one or two things in fulcrum. opening — no reader — or at most one
large numbers of visitors, this is to do common that seem a bit worse than The automotive ambience was reader—was available in Rome/Italy/
with the fact that it is not the major life. much enhanced olfactronically by the the world ; one reader would arrive at
works but the preparatory sketches The main thing is that non- floor cleaning material—gasoline and 3.00, 3.30, 5.00, 6.00, 6.30, 7.00,
for them that are on show. The British malevolent organizers function as sawdust. This, unabated by the 7.30... It arrived at 7.45 (the
museums have not co-operated, being second-place members in pressure inadequate ventilation and opening was at 8.00). Our contribution
weary of lending. Thus the strange chains, the markovianness of which is exacerbated as a result of the required three readers—one was
situation arises that for the virtually impenetrable. In other words, underground location, gave most useless. We did nothing. Two more
'revolutionary' early pictures, which organizers (etc.) get caught up in the people headaches. No-one was too were promised Monday (three days
could have illustrated for German viciousness and subtlety of pain-in- concerned when some of the floor later) and Nicholas Logsdail said he'd
observers the vitality and attack of the the-neck-arrivists ... and they don't cleaning material got inadvertently install the material if the machines
movement's beginnings, only an know where they are ... lose track of brushed over the lower half of what arrived on Monday (he was staying
incomplete substitute is provided by their jobs ... they become (oddly) looked in the gloom like a Kelly. till Tuesday). He came home with
Burne-Jones's Perseus cycle, which what an old aesthetician called Anyway, it was turned round the other our microfilms. We got two readers
was bought by the Stuttgart 'careless songsters'. Perhaps the way, so no-one will notice. (machines) and a technician with
Staatsgalerie from an American relation between pilatic negligence Other items got damaged : the four days notice on another occasion
collection in 1971. (As everyone in and culpability is jurisprudentially Plexiglas bubble over a Klein blue in Turin; explicit arrangements had
England probably knows, this was uncontroversial ; it's a different figure was chipped and split; four been made with Contemporanea for
only painted in 1875, more than question where such negligence is elements of a hundred element at least three months.
twenty-five years after the evidence of corruption, or is prima Andre were lost (Andre doesn't Forty-odd American artists
Brotherhood's founding in London facie misprision of corruption. re-order the bits, so presumably it's appeared in the show — no more than
and long after Ruskin's theory about Rumour in Rome had it that the all over now) ; some information fifteen Europeans were included as
'artless things' had been overtaken.) architect who designed the Watergate attached to a Sol LeWitt drawing was far as I am aware ... can anyone get to
There remain the marvellous also designed the site of so wrinkled as to be illegible ... and this sort of overweight selection
drawings by the other artists. Among Contemporanea —the car-park of the many things got frayed in one way or without extreme official cultural
those by Fort Madox Brown is Villa Borghese. An important another. sycophancy?
The Last of England, proclaimed as a difference between the two buildings, Damage can occur in various ways : The opening was a mess ; many
'complete draft sketch'. This gripping however, is that the latter would have the Italian-made Morris sculptures visitors looked in vain for what they
image of emigration is well required no acoustical plumbing as looked very Italian, as did the Judds — thought they'd be able to see. There
understood in Germany. Finally, the roof module domes transform the prizes in consumer games. were important looking road signs
Dante Gabriel Rossetti outshines all sneakiest whisper into a stentorian Meanwhile, people were still all over the city pointing the way.
the others with his portrait drawings row. There was also a lot of hanging around in the (unheated) Hordes turned up to the car-park
of Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris. exhibition architecture— which didn't office trying to get someone to get —a Buren was protected by the
Some of these are really fascinating. do much except make the road signs the telephone to work, and a well- locking of an emergency exit. The
A very remarkable juxtaposition of look artistic or incongruous— dressed man was arranging a bookstore was heavily stocked with
two artists was on view at the end of depending on whether you're a pre- hundred or so sub-tropical plants in expensive art books. I don't know
last year at the new Kunsthalle in dip teacher or not. There were a lot the foyer. The lights went in the what sort of trade they did in //
Tubingen, which has hitherto gone in of Weldmesh screen walls and lavatories; one could see what he was Territorio Magico.
for conceptual art. Drawings dating tunnels (presumably designed to doing by striking matches. What worried us most about the
from 1794 to 1836 by the German make everyone circulate the right One exhibitor's contribution whole thing was the feeling that it was
Romantic artist Caspar David way). The lights made them hard to consisted of an old Cadillac so much a function of the operations
Friedrich were set against sheets from see, so people kept getting lost or surrounded by loaves and food and and expedients of a coterie thrown
the years 1947-64 by Joseph Beuys, impaled ... 'the space, you see' ... covered in pins (get it ?). Someone open—just like that.
who recently (in connection with a And there were slight 'designed' gaps ordered 3,000 too many loaves —the Only snobs wouldn't balk at the
large exhibition) crossed the Rhine at that weren't really for people — thin symbolism (which is suffering idea of being cooked or suffocated in
Düsseldorf in a dugout canoe hand- ones could get through with a anyway) perhaps suffers from the fit. a disingenuous art maze.
carved by his pupil Anatol. Two very struggle, fat ones left Desperate Dan The Fluxus/symbolical, cut-price- There was sleet on the day of our
different sensibilities met here, each silhouettes. angst (daft) section seemed to be departure. On the plane, I sat next to a
artist a great draughtsman in his Real plumbers, real electricians and better worked-out than the rest lady who'd gone to Rome to pull
own right. The link that was supposed real firemen would perhaps have however. herself together; she'd felt worse, and
to connect them, according to the worried about the extra (art) lights Some of us got fed-up had stayed in bed for two of her five
exhibition programme, was 'the being clamped to the sprinkler synchronically, and others got fed-up days.
Romantic'; this remained extremely system with Terry clips. There was a beforehand : Gian Enzo Sperone's Michael Baldwin