Page 27 - Studio International - June 1974

PHILLIP KING

(The Phillip King exhibition is at the
Kröller-Müller Museum, Ott erlo, Netherlands
from 7 April to 26 July, 1974.)
`There were woods and forests all around.
Putting the sculpture there made the forest
closer. Pathways and buildings helped to bring
the forest in . . . Driving through the forest took
a long time. It was a long way to reach the
centre. Isolated, one was embedded in it.
Centres are places to go to or to skirt round.'
(From a conversation with Phillip King.)

The open-plan Rietveld pavilion nestles
unobtrusively in a grove of trees. The Dutch
have quietly created an excellent atmosphere
at the Kröller-Müller National Museum under
the direction of Rudi Oxenaar. It seems a
national pastime to place good quality surprises
around corners. The pavilion is very close to the
museum proper and a narrow footpath lined
with shrubs leads to it.
In 1949 the Park Sonsbeek held its first
international sculpture show, the second was in
1953. The pavilion designed by Rietveld in 1953
was commissioned as a temporary structure for
the 1954 exhibition. A committee composed of
elder Dutch architects examined his design,
which I'm told consisted of two matchboxes.
These he had 'arranged' whilst journeying on
the train to meet them. The proportions for the
pavilions were taken from the said matchboxes,
no original plans ever having been needed.
Hanmacker, the former director, originally
suggested that the museum should be the site
for re-housing the structure after its
dismantlement from the Sonsbeek, but this
wasn't realized until 1965, shortly after
Rietveld's death. Meanwhile the pavilion had
been taken down and various workmen endowed
with free building materials; these were in to get away from'. ( Studio International, June (Above) Installation view of Phillip King exhibition
common usage during the fifties and 1968.) The pavilion is similarly designed. It in the Rietveld Pavilion
consequently cheap. The reconstruction wasn't, would be interesting to know Rietveld's (Below) Sky 1969
as the materials had to be specially made. The comments about this relationship since his Steel, 13 x 37 x 37 ft.
sixties had replaced these with its own crop of structure demonstrates the half-way point
common building items and nobody knew between contemporary sculptural ideas of is perhaps the least developed or realized
which colours had been used in the original articulating free space and those of functional in King's work, and in many ways the Open
pavilion. This wasn't solved until a garage was architectural design. Bounds are admissions or signs of a search
found built from the first bricks in the pavilion's In the show there are the greatest number of by the artist for a holy space — something that
original colouring. works ever shown together by King in the open, would signify a place where the human body can
The sculpture shows of the fifties were and it is the most demanding creative situation enter and rest, away from the external world.
primarily of the bronze and totemic type, a few he has been in, in terms of spatial proportions, In 1969 King spent some time in Japan and was
of the works being shown in the gardens and the relationship between light, form and moved by the sanctuary that Zen gardens and
surrounding the museum. The pavilion with its colour. Great importance has been given in the Buddhist temples gave. His sensation of peace
open-plan system would have contrasted West to awareness of a movement originating in was heightened by the great contrast between
strongly with these solid and closed pieces. the pit of the stomach and terminating in the the outside sounds of bustle and the inner
Barbara Hepworth's exhibition in 1965 was the eyes. Philosophical interpretation has given quietness reflecting calm and contemplation.
first one-man show to be held in the pavilion, meaning to this journey pinpointing certain There is infinite care taken in arranging these
and commemorated its reopening. King's events by celebrating each with a new theory. gardens so that they mirror the world of nature
current show (closing on 26 July) was the second. King's sculpture disorientates our in miniature and meditation leads the soul to
His show offers different propositions, the understanding of this linear progression by join with this universal order.
open-structuring of his later sculptures relating compressing a universal image and its form It is the recognition of the frustrations arising
to that of the pavilion itself. 'The concept of into one instant. Older systems made with out of the incompatibility of the needs of the
parts flowing, space held and pushing out, is normal associations are jeopardized body and those of the spirit that I believe has led
something I can't get away from and don't want in this rearrangement. The spiritual aspect the artist to produce the Open Bounds, which
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