Page 28 - Studio International - July August 1974

A CONVERSATION WITH
(Above) In Case I Die 1951
Oil on canvas, 71 x 36 in.
(Opposite page) Midgarth 1971
Acrylic on canvas, 92 x 68 in.
16
FRIEDEL DZUBAS
Dzubas told me that he fled Germany in August based on a dishonest premise'. Dzubas therefore
of 1939, staying at first in London for about tended to paint thin, for instance in Over the
four months, and then arriving in New York. Hill (1955). Dzubas's criticism of abstract
When I asked him if he had known Hans expressionist mannerism can be found not only
Hofmann in Germany he said no, but that in his paintings of this time, but also in his
Hofmann mistakenly thought he had. Whenever statement in Art News, September 1959, when
they met, Hofmann would inexplicably ask, his answer to the question, 'Is there a new
`And how is your father in Paris ?' academy ?', was 'on Tenth Street . . . there is an
The early works that Dzubas did in America atmosphere of complacent kaffee-klatsch, one
were influenced by Klee. One such work, can find all the tricks of the current trade, the
Enclosed Magician, a watercolour of 1947, has dragging of the brush, the minor accidents
its particular significance for Dzubas. Jackson Around 1961, Dzubas started a series of
Pollock saw it in 1947 at Leo Castelli's in East black-and-white rather painterly canvases,
Hampton, where it hung with examples of perhaps 5o; while the bulk of his pictures got
Mondrian, Léger, etc. Pollock seemed to be simpler the elements grew larger and the
impressed with the Dzubas and wanted to pictures increased in openness. One of this
know very much who had done it. When type, Diotima (1961) was shown in the
informed it was by Dzubas, he lost interest. Guggenheim Museum's exhibition of that year,
Dzubas observed, 'It's still out of Klee; I `American Abstract Expressionists and
still felt a related affinity to Klee's imagery — Imagists'. Thereafter, his new work was
just a feeling — mostly the colour, not the included by Clement Greenberg in 'Post-
drawing. I felt the danger in it too'. Part of the Painterly Abstraction' (1964).
danger was the mutual isolation of colour About three years ago, Dzubas says, his work
and drawing. 'He filled colour into changed. He stopped trying to do 'interesting'
drawing: the colour was one thing and the work, and allowed himself to do paintings that
drawing was another'. By the time of the were frankly beautiful. But he has a superb
Klee exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art understanding of the concepts he uses : the sort
in 1949, Dzubas was long free from his of beauty he aims for is not merely gratifying:
influence, but 'that sealed it; it was clear that `Beautiful has to do with accepting things as
Klee was a dead end for me.' they are'. This statement reflects an attitude
Dzubas is a stern critic of himself. There is Dzubas has, perhaps, always taken. It infuses
much more than Klee in Enclosed Magician, and his own painting, and his approach to the work
I preferred it to so many Massons in which of the old Masters : 'I point out to my students
that artist felt obliged to find some kind of where the master couldn't do something and
referential image. As Dzubas put it, 'It's much was great enough to allow himself this
straighter than Masson'. incompleteness, this generosity with himself'.
I was interested to see in his stairwell a This attitude of Dzubas's is a matter of great
superb 1951 painting in a basically abstract importance because, he observes, 'feeling and
expressionist style, In Case I Die — a most content are the same'.
important painting and unduly neglected. Dzubas finds good relations among other
Other works from the 195os were also abstract artists conducive to good work. 'There's an
expressionist. One, from 1958, had been done indirect egging going on. You're provoked by
with house paint, used — as Kline and many what's strong in the other person'.
others did — out of economic necessity and Furthermore, 'very good work also frees you. It
applied to newspaper. Dzubas would first use opens you up and (at the same time) narrows
the newspaper to blot up paint from a canvas you down'. Asked about Barnett Newman some
that had got too wet and then, in post- years ago, Dzubas said, 'I'm very glad he did
surrealist fashion, make a finished picture out of what he did, so I didn't have to do it'.
it. Such works were not, however, a major While Dzubas has a high regard for his
preoccupation with Dzubas: there have been colleagues, his critical eye keeps them in
only about ten or twelve of them in total. perspective 'Jules (Olitski) produced too much;
In any case, in the 195os, Dzubas was already so did Noland . . . Noland always felt uneasy
moving in a different direction, as were other with drawing; he doesn't know how to put
artists he knew. Morris Louis was in his studio drawing and painting together; he made a
in 1952-4, and Dzubas had come to know strength out of [his] weakness'. In the
Frankenthaler, with whom he shared studio plaids with washes moving into the central
space in 1952-3. Dzubas was particularly field 'Noland wants to deal with lyric
dissatisfied with the idea of 'action painting'. As prettiness . . . but can't — there's something
Dzubas sees it, 'The gesture could be maintained in his character that demands not too much
only if it wasn't repeated or qualified'; but of personal chaos'.
since it was qualified, ' "action painting" was KEN CARPENTER