Page 56 - Studio International - July August 1974

Boston letter revealed that the grey wall-to-wall that we probably have in common Raymond's carvings may be seen
gallery carpet is anything but neutral ; with a great many other people. And as an attack on abstraction in painting.
Last fall, as Boston's Institute of the carpet, she showed is not neutral, the point of her work at the ICA seems The consistent use of verticals in
Contemporary Art prepared to open but declares itself neutral and so tells to be to find sculptural terms in which them naturally and relevantly recalls
its new space, a wave of optimism us to look at the walls where the art is to acknowledge imagination as a Barnett Newman's work. Newman
washed over the art scene. Despite its or, by implication, should be. In order component in the spectator's did not hesitate to suggest heroic and
history of transience and financial to make her work read clearly, she had makeup. She succeeded at this by even mystical readings of his work.
troubles, the ICA has always first to dust the carpet evenly with making us see the floor under two He seems to have maintained the
demonstrated an intention to serve baking soda. Since all the work in the aspects instead of one. It is the belief that abstract paintings can
the interest of local artists. When the show followed a similar procedure, movement of attention between one testify to the occurrence of certain
Institute acquired a police station for a I will describe only the largest piece aspect and another, the energy spiritual states or conditions without
permanent home, it aroused hopes Face Lift. Here the artist whitened the required to see things under a new thereby being representational in any
that at last there would be a large carpet along one wall for a length of aspect that describes the power of sense. Newman's notions are one
flexible exhibition space where local about 50 feet. She set down in this imagination, much more than the version of the concept that the
people could show experimental work area, at even intervals, a row of four- intimations of literal escape given pictorial structure of a painting
without having to demonstrate its foot-square panels of particle board. by the open 'trap-doors'. attains to or corresponds to something
potential saleability first. The former Next she spread ordinary coloured The second important show this transcendent of its material structure —
Parker Street 470 Gallery occupied glass marbles thinly but evenly over spring received little publicity. David a concept that Raymond's work
warehouse space until the summer of the floor, and between the panels. Raymond, a local artist who has seems to be combating. He chose a
1973, but having a show there meant Finally she lifted each panel out of its moved from painting into sculpture single pictorial element, a line, to
getting a commitment from the gallery. spot and placed it on top of the during the past few years, showed a define in sculptural terms, and the
That gallery, now called Harcus marbles to the left of its original series of particle board carvings at the force of this process of definition is to
Krakow Rosen Sonnabend, had to position. This meant that one panel Addison Gallery of Phillips Academy refute the idea, or the hope, that
move to a classier neighbourhood fell outside the work completely and in Andover, not far from Boston. pictorial entities can be more real to
because of the crime rate, although
the move also suited the kind of art
and clientele it handles.
When the ICA opened its first
finished gallery (the whole building
is undergoing renovation), the
reaction among artists was one of
anger and disappointment.
Everything indicated the worst kind
of institutional attitude toward art,
and even though the exhibition season
started with a series of shows by
local artists, it drew much criticism.
During the season, though, the ICA
began to win back the sympathy of
the art community. Whether it was
responding to criticism is not clear,
but in April, Cecile Abish was invited
to show there, knowing that her work David Raymond Untitled 1974
Particle board, 60 x 48 in.
is deliberately critical of institutional
behaviour and bureaucratic attitudes. Cecile Abish Up Lift 1974 us than physical ones. The pictorial
Homosote panels, marbles
The show attracted attention and elements in Raymond's carvings, the
raised hopes that the ICA might be was removed, leaving a row of Raymond begins a carving by lines, are defined, it seems, by an
willing, occasionally, to sacrifice the 'floating' panels alternating with open drawing one or more lines, usually entire field of matter, and they are
appearance of a well-kept business rectangles of exposed floor in which verticals, on a panel of particle board. defined by a series of approximations
office. no panel corresponded definitely to a The working process consists of — the chisel strokes — not by an
Cecile Abish is a sculptor who has single open space The marbles chiselling material away from the illusion of ideal precision. Raymond's
been Artist-in-Residence at the defined a new surface, loosely drawn lines over the entire surface, criticism of abstraction goes against
University of Massachusetts for the composed and frictionless, suggesting allowing them to emerge as slight the pretence of certain art and artists
past year. She has shown widely in giddiness and danger (of falling). The ridges crossing a field of shallow to manifest or bring to our notice an
group shows, but is just beginning to new surface was not really distinct gouges. A single operation, repeated ideal or transcendent or private
get the recognition she deserves. Her from the floor, it seemed to take over many times, results in an evenly reality to which we have no other
latest work contradicts the the floor's function of being the worked surface that inevitably refers access, or to which there is no access
imperatives of late 60s 'anti - bottom of its space. The marbles did to the surfaces of paintings, but with in terms of what we all can see in the
illusionist' sculpture without not really suggest a sense of place no suggestion of fictive space. One of world. He describes the aesthetic
reintroducing illusionism. For artists different from that given by the floor the most prominent aspects of these notion that a picture can be more
like Andre, Serra, Morris and Judd, itself. Rather, they loosened our carvings is their stony opaqueness ; at real to us than an object as a version
illusionism was an extreme perceptual grasp of the floor, and so a glance they might be mistaken for of the belief that metaphysical
manifestation of mystery that did not loosened (and brought to our stone tablets. But the hewn surface in somethings are more real than the
belong in sculpture. Illusionism always attention) the grip of the floor on us, no way suggests an inscribed particular things we readily see.
suggests another space and another so to speak. The floor came to signify message; it is a surface from which Perhaps anxious that his new work
time to which a work of art refers; in the 'given', the literal background the possibility of inscription seems to would be seen as too preoccupied
sculpture it means an element of against which our ordinary have been deliberately effaced. The with painting, Raymond included an
theatricality, an element of remoteness judgements and discriminations are isolation of the vertical ridges within emphatically sculptural piece in his
from the real circumstances in which made. Abish's ambition here was to a system of excisions is important ; show that translates the look and
the work is seen. Abish's work insists make us experience that kind of fact these pieces seem to succeed procedure of the carvings into three-
on its own legibility as much as as penetrable, less than final. The by avoiding a pictorial kind of dimensional terms. (I may have
Andre's or Serra's does, but she does vacancies left by the particle board structure. One exception is a small overstressed the reference of the
not suppress in her work the panels inevitably suggest trap-door early piece, not in this show, called carvings to painting ; their impact is
suggestion of alienation from its given openings, especially in the smaller This is not a pipe. Here the original highly physical and sculptural.) He
circumstances. In the ICA show, she piece Up Lift where the panels were drawn lines formed an inner frame, a got a rectangular slab of foam rubber
set out to use this aspect in a critical tipped up against the wall. The rectangle concentric with the at least a foot thick and perhaps four
way. She is sensitive to information scattered marbles further suggested a external shape of the panel, so that by six feet in size and simply sliced
conveyed even by empty spaces and representation of the floor as a the finished piece refers to itself as a it in half with a bread knife, trying to
interested in making that information constellation of particles, or simply a picture in order to make our follow a diagonal plane so as to
available to us because it usually reminder that this is an imaginative expectations of pictures conspicuous expose a maximum of inside surface
pertains to us. Her work at the ICA image of its microscopic structure to us. area. Here the procedure aimed at