Page 47 - Studio International - June 1974

Register, a four-part work completed in June 1973,
and reconstituted at Kennington this year from
the artist's notes (opposite page).

combined with square-cut transparent sheets
gives the work an inevitable, almost deceptive
simplicity. The neutral focus of the cross is
perfectly matched by the equivalent neutrality
of the transparency, thus, by contrast, the wall is
seen as a definite plane independent of
architectural identity. A comparison of the wall
drawings of LeWitt with Troostwyk's work is
relevant because their use of the wall as a
functioning surface brings out in a general way
important differences between two essentially
opposite directions in recent art, both of which
investigate problems common to both painting
and sculpture. LeWitt is concerned with the
line working across the surface and using it as a
support for a unified, non-compositional
drawing where the different line groupings
have equal weight. In Troostwyk's Register, the
mark is a device articulating two previously
inert surfaces — the wall, and the material
attached to it — resulting in an alternating
composition or area both static and open ended.
In Register, the position of transparent sheet near
to the juncture of wall and floor meant a
possible extension into three dimensions
without intruding into the domain of solid
sculpture. And in a later Register work the floor
features as an equal plane and not as a right
angled continuation of the wall itself. Several
states of this later work fulfil the requirements
implied in the earlier Register and one in
particular where the axis of the cross drawn on
the floor meets the corner of a transparent sheet
attached to the wall. In a curious way this piece
bypasses yet resolves the difficulty of
demonstrating two- and three-dimensional
forms simultaneously with extreme simplicity.
Admittedly the 'three dimensions' are
delineated by the natural planes of the wall and
floor but nevertheless once the initial logic of
the route from first state to last is understood,
the floor becomes an inevitable dimension. In
one sense, by concentrating on what Troostwyk
understands to be the fundamental and right-angled forms without colour as a certain intermediary artists like David Smith
irreducible elements of a working art language, contributory factor, obviously links Troostwyk to the large-scale minimal artists. The viability
he has succeeded in an area which is more or with the constructivists (in particular of the object questioned by Conceptualism led
less misunderstood by artists working in a Moholy-Nagy) and de Stijl, if only on a to a further modification of these forms to a
similar vein. The basic criterion of painting is its superficial level, and his affinity with these position now occupied by Troostwyk, in which
achievement of three-dimensional illusion on a groups is perhaps related to the fact that an extremely spare materiality is allied to an
two-dimensional surface and any attempt to he is of Dutch extraction. The ancestry of intellectual process of great strength.
extend and realize actual space fails, because of Troostwyk's aesthetic can best be described in I have tried to show that the technical
the limitations of the technical means employed, terms of a simplified lineage interrupted by a language invented by Troostwyk, seen in a broad
and for this reason Troostwyk's earlier works number of conversions or exchanges of scale. historical context, can be clearly understood
appear, by comparison with his current work, Seen as a history of discrete parts or, better still, and that it represents a possible solution to
less serviceable. abstract iconography, Troostwyk's aesthetic is resolving the disparity between three- and two-
From this brief summary of a few recent clearly understandable. This lineage, starting dimensional form.
works a range of historical influences can be with Synthetic Cubism and greatly clarified by The combination of Mark + Transparency +
recognized and in some instances are alluded to the constructivists to a point where the Wall has been organized to connect or exchange
by actual titles, eg 15 Malevich Squares — and representational no longer functioned as a two dimensions into three without diminishing
the process itself is also more clearly implied pretext for making art, marks the genesis of a the strength of either. In a sense the wall mark
by the titles of further works, Frame and clear-cut pattern of geometrical forms which can be seen as a catalyst which brings about
Correspondence (not discussed here). The finally became dissociated from small-scale the re-cycling of forms of varied dimension. q
appearance and systematic arrangement of cabinet works (Mondrian, etc.) to emerge via ROBIN COOMBES
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