Page 38 - Studio International - July August 1974

adjustment. Like Mondrian, Noland blocks out 1 In particular, 'Shape as Form: Frank Stella's New article, 'Louis and Noland', op. cit. Again there is a
his work with strips of tape, etc., and may Paintings', Artforum, Vol. V, No. 3 (Nov. 1966) parallel with Cézanne, since in that master's
(reprinted in the Metropolitan Museum's catalogue, watercolours the 'paper itself may serve as a
allow himself substantial periods of time to
New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970) and his connecting link between disparate touches of colour'
choose a colour or whatever. Working in series text for the Noland exhibition at the Jewish Museum (Roger Fry in 'Cézanne', p. 64). Note, however, that
has allowed him further opportunities for self- in 1965 (reprinted with minor revisions in the Fogg the literal surface does not automatically provide this
Museum's Three American Painters). Note that in connection in an artistically meaningful way.
criticism, as can be seen in the evolution of the 1967 Fried replaced the term deductive structure with Cézanne's unpainted areas integrate with the rest of
frontal into the non-frontal chevrons.21 a more accurate one, `acknowledgment'; for this the picture because of his extraordinarily ambiguous
Like others in his generation — Louis, revision, see his catalogue for the Corcoran Gallery, figure-ground relations (if indeed we can speak of
Jules Olitski Paintings 1963-1967, note 13. figure-ground in Cézanne). In Noland, the unpainted
Olitski, Frakenthaler, et al. — he arrives at the 2 This tendency towards subversion (or 'cancelling' as areas can work because of the artist's concern with
literal shape as a final decision about the work,22 Noland describes it) of literal shape — a sort of anti- edge quality, rhythm, and acknowledgment.
so that the occasional large canvas has been deductive structure — has been noted by Rosalind 13 Shown in 1969 at Geldzahler's survey exhibition at
Krauss in 'Allusion and Illusion in Donald Judd', the Metropolitan, 'New York Painting and Sculpture:
cut into eight or ten of the plaid pictures. Artforum IV : 9 (May 1966), Michael Fried in 'Shape 1940-1970', and reproduced in colour in the
This practice of cropping, or 'shaping' as as Form', and Jane Harrison Cone in 'Kenneth catalogue. Note that since then Noland has changed
Noland's New Paintings', Artforum VI : 3 (Nov. one of the middle stripes, so that the picture may now
Noland prefers to think of it,23 started with his
1967). In some cases, however, this cancelling occurs be more successful than I indicate.
concentric circles. The first circles were done simply because of insufficient countervailing vertical 14 Here I refer to the distinction between aesthetic
on square canvases, usually six feet square but relations such as those I discuss in Shadow Line. In form and elements of aesthetic surface that is found
most instances, the cancelling noticed in the literature in John Hosper's book 'On Meaning and Truth in
at the suggestion of Clement Greenberg,
is not readily apparent to my eye; I would prefer the Arts' (1946), page 9.
Noland made some of them not quite square. simply to speak of a tension between the perimeter of 15 For a subtle discussion of the context of this shift in
Noland had seen Greenberg make cropping a painting and its (expansive) elements. emphasis, see John Elderfield, 'Mondrian, Newman,
suggestions to David Smith,24 and he also 3 In conversation, November 1972; unless otherwise Noland: Two Notes on Changes of Style', Artforum
noted, subsequent references to the views of the artist X: 4 (Dec. 1971).
associates cropping with Jackson Pollock;
also owe to this interview. Note that while Noland 16 Usually these assistants have been the artist's
the latter artist would paint more than one suggested his affinity with Cézanne, he does not brother, Neil Noland, or the young painter, Stuart
picture on a single piece of canvas and then himself make the analysis that follows. Waltzer. In order to achieve an uninflected surface,
Done for Documenta IV at Kassel, 1968, from a Neil Noland devised a six-foot wide squeegee-like
cut them apart. For instance, the well known
much larger painting of 1967. device that served to prevent the 'lap marks' that
Portrait and a Dream was intended originally 6 This suggestive way of putting it comes from a might be produced when different brush strokes
as two paintings, although Pollock decided public lecture by the noted pianist, Rosalyn Tureck, overlap. Noland reports that unintended incident has
at York University in Toronto, Nov. 28,1972. Note been a problem for him since most of the time he
later to leave them as one. Thus at least two
that the parallel I suggest is not exact; Tureck argues uses only one coat of paint. He has, therefore, had to
paintings by Noland of double circles were that in a good interpretation in music — one might destroy a substantial number of pictures in which
later cut in half: Half and Half became think of Gould or Tureck herself playing the the surface was not what he wanted (telephone
Goldberg Variations — the drone should be conversation with Kenneth Noland, December,
Half and And Half. Again and Again became emphasized, whereas the blue and pink pairing in 1 973)-
Again and And Again. Even more notably, the Shadow Line is relatively muted in colour. " HI. Wölfflin, 'The Principles of Art History',
diamond-shaped paintings were an outgrowth The necessity for Noland to open his horizontal- Chapter IV.
stripe paintings to vertical movement — to open them " Bannard's review appeared in Artforum X : 3 (Nov.
of cropping since they were first made by up at the top and bottom as it were — was pointed out 1971). For a statement of the more general view that
cutting diagonally across horizontal-stripe to me by the young Toronto painter, Ben Woolfitt. I the plaids do not usually represent Noland at his best,
paintings. While Noland is emphatic that would also like to thank Alex Cameron, Edward Fry, see Kenworth Moffett's thorough and excellent study
and Judy Singer for valuable observations of Noland in Art International XVII : 6 (Summer,
Clement Greenberg should receive credit for incorporated at several points in my article. 1973).
stimulating this method of working,25 it Perhaps the most important critical work on 19 Darby Bannard has pointed out that under-and-
nonetheless serves as an indication of just how Cézanne is Roger Fry's Cézanne: A Study of His over connection creates illusion most readily when the
Development (1927). See page 69 for his discussion of connecting elements are not too far apart. See
thorough Noland's working processes are. 'Equilibrium ... (that) results from the counterpoise 'Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, David Smith',
It is not surprising, then, that Noland's art of a great number of directions' and page 72 of his Artforum VI : 8 (April 1968), page 27. However, the
seems to be in yet another stage of renewal. discussion of how in the Cardplayers (and other cubists could take advantage of this fact only because
pictures) Cezanne displaced the central axis and then they stayed away from the literal edge.
The paintings of the last year or two are compensated for this displacement in a variety of 20 I think it is rather indicative that such a term as
sometimes tondos or more often square ways, removing and restoring centrality with its liaison, often used by Delacroix, is seldom seen in
diamonds, both formats used by him in the past. resultant stability just as he so consistently 'lost and current critical writing. When the history of taste in
found' the contour in his drawing. the mid-twentieth century has been written, one of
Now painterly incident has migrated to
Leo Steinberg has been strangely unable to the eccentricities of our time not yet apparent may
within the stripes, where it does not play a understand that Greenberg's optical or modernist well be a predilection for disjointed works of art. Such
spatial role so much as it sets off the space is indeterminate space. (Inconsistency can be works are often justified by a supposed attempt at
taken as a special case of indeterminacy.) Steinberg's correspondence to some modern conflicted sensibility
regularity of the clean-edged stripes and
consideration of the speed with which various means and to disrupted times. The error in this justification
reinforces their broken rhythms. And whereas of transportation move through space simply clouds is, of course, called the intentionalist fallacy, and its
the rectangular format of the plaid the issue. Compare Greenberg's 'Modernist Painting' implicit theory of expression is also fallacious. (For a
(Arts Yearbook, 1961) where the question is one of the discussion of the error in that theory of expression,
predecessors of these pictures allowed for
degree of definition of spatial volume as it could be see R. G. Collingwood, 'The Principles of Art',
relatively little tension between the elements occupied, or rather perceived as occupied, with pp. 121-124.) Accordingly, I would expect a future
and the perimeter, the new paintings have that Steinberg's muddled but occasionally insightful downgrading in the reputation of late Picasso,
'Reflections on the State of Criticism', Artforum, X:7 Jasper Johns, pop artists such as Rosenquist and
quality of appearing both extensible and
(March, 1972), pages 4off. Modernism is, of course, Lichtenstein, and numerous others.
contained, just as so much of Noland's best an abstraction, and abstractions inevitably sharpen 21 These pictures have been well discussed by
work has done in the past. distinctions; Steinberg rightly draws attention to this, Rosalind Krauss in 'On Frontality', Artforum VI :9
but with inappropriate surprise and distaste. (May 1968).
In short, it should be clear that Kenneth
° With his usual perspicacity, Clement Greenberg 22 Clement Greenberg finds this more active attitude
Noland is a remarkably intelligent and self- noted this aspect of Noland in 196o : 'the denial of the towards the literal shape at least as far back as the
critical painter. As I see it, he is one of those picture's . .. weight as well as of its palpability, 'first generation'. See 'Art and Culture', page 22o,
amounts to an obsession ...' — 'Louis and Noland', where he says of Gorky that in his largest pictures he
very few artists of our time whose work is rich
Art International, IV :5 (May 25, 196o). would 'arrive at the frame as a result, instead of
enough to withstand continued re-examination. 10 Telephone conversation with the artist, December, subjecting himself to it as something given in advance.'
As with all great artists, such re-examination 1973. 23 Telephone conversation wi th the artist, December,
" That Day is an excellent painting has long since 1973.
reveals more and more.in the work. And that
been noted by Jane Harrison Cone. See 'On Colour 24 These suggestions were 'almost always . . . to tell
that is the case does as much as anything else in Kenneth Noland's Painting', Art International him not to add anything more rather than to subtract
to establish the stature of Noland as one of the IX:5 (June, 1965). Day is on loan to the Albright- something already there. So it wasn't cropping [so
Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. much as] it was stopping.' (Letter from Clement
finest artists working today. q
12 The unifying function of the canvas weave was first Greenberg, Jan. 29,1974.)
KEN CARPENTER noted by Clement Greenberg. See his widely quoted 25 See footnote 23.
26