Page 55 - Studio International - June 1974

world is worried because the CNAA, Artists are encouraged to contact has received a lot of attention. This is Museum, New York, and will go on to
like the universities, normally them if interested in showing. not unconnected with the fact that the Kunsthalle in Tubingen and,
expects entrants for degree courses to nearly all the famous architects of finally, to the Nationalgalerie in
have at least two GCE 'A' levels, but The Phillip King Show goes to the present-day Germany live and work in Berlin. The show is the largest yet
the CNAA has said that 'until further Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, 13 August- Stuttgart. Even the audacious roof devoted to Hamilton in Germany,
notice' the entry qualification will 15 September ; Kunsthalle Berne. that spans the Olympic Stadium in where his work and his cool mastery
remain the same as before — five GCE 19 October-24 November. Munich is the product of a Stuttgart is highly valued (he has, in
'0' levels. architects' office, and there is no consequence, influenced many young
Signatures is a new art-dealing architectural competition in the artists here). The exhibition includes
The Royal College of Art's concern run by a young couple, Saul Federal Republic in which Stuttgart works dating from 1949 to 1973
avant-garde film programme Martin and Janine Szynkman, who architects do not take part. which, apart from the figure of
concludes with three films by are promoting young British artists. A good venue, therefore, for Insley's Leopold Bloom are very much a
Malcolm Le Grice and a film by They operate from home where vision of the future, for his images of a product of their time, as is shown by
William Raban (10 June), Stan the works are displayed and also by 'Onecity' and his mysterious buildings the permanent reflection in them of
Brakhage 2 (17 June), 3 films by taking their portfolio, as a kind of with 'Ceremonial Rooms' which the mass media. This almost
David Crosswaite and Peter Gidal's portable gallery, to people's homes. apparently lie far outside the Onecity. documentary aspect also makes
Upside Down Feature (24 June) and The work includes paintings on wood Insley himself, striving to record his bearable the numerous variations of a
visions with poetic humour, says of single theme, if one views them as
them : 'Hidden in a surrounding examples of great technical
wilderness are buildings of perfection, of even greater bravura.
ceremonial space devoted to religious The beautiful catalogue has a
myth. To seek these uncharted foreword by John Russell, going into
structures citizens leave the city by the links between Marcel Duchamp
underground "jetubes" to be and Richard Hamilton, which is most
deposited at distant local stations. absorbing reading.
Long journeys are then necessary to In Germany we are still worrying
find by chance the buildings.' Well, around the problem of how, in terms
Insley has nosed them out and shows of exhibition technique, to give art a
models of them in the exhibition, as new 'place in the scale of values'.
well as 'wall-fragments' of the This 'place' has become a fashionable
buildings' interiors. For him these are word, at a premium amongst the
'finds' from a structure now again directors of German Kunstvereine.
destroyed ; on a black ground they Some institutions have of late arrived
show a white dot pattern which at the 'shop window' exhibition
symbolizes the entry of beams of light. concept, the premise of which is that
One thinks of the early Stella. The shop-windows and art both form part
models, which one must visualize as in of the fi eldof visual communication.
the middle of nowhere, are But what sort of discovery is that ?
Michael Snow's classic Central Rib Field Treeform with soft clouds 1973 reminiscent of a continuation of Was that not known long since ?
Acrylic on canvas, 33 x 48 in.
Region (1 July). The shows are at the American Country Land art. They are The painter Karl Georg Pfahler, who
Royal College of Art, Kensington complicated and have dangerous achieved international standing
Gore, London beginning at 7.00 pm. and canvas, drawings, objects, prints, alleys. Inside, we are informed, are through the well-remembered
Admission 20p. ceramics and sculpture. Whilst there Walls of Information and Walls of exhibition 'Signals' at the Basle
is no uniformity of style, a number of Death, which men must pass by if Kunsthalle, has for some years been
The Arts Council's grant from the the artists work in the new realist they want to penetrate into the devoting himself principally to
government for 1974/5 is vein. A number of exhibitions are interior of the building. In short, it is a architectural projects. This is an
£18,835,000, a rise of 8.3% over last planned for the future both for the strange Utopia of human existence attractive field, for everywhere
year, but the Arts Council has sent a group and for individuals. The most which fades away into myth. The schools are being built and
warning to organizations and imminent is a one-man exhibition at myth itself remains obscure; it is universities enlarged, and artists are
individuals it supports that there will the ICA for the painter Rib Field. The something like the opposite of the attracted to the process. The State
be little or no extra cash available if artists include Carol McNicol, Robin myth of the American department even requires, by a clause in law, that a
they get into difficulties, because the Levien, Robert Kesseler, Trish Stenton, store. The outstanding drawings, certain sum must be devoted to
grant has not kept pace with the rise Barry Thorpe and Paul Guidici. For plans and elevations of the buildings, artistic work on the buildings. A
in the cost of living. The council has further information write to 80, York particularly appealed to me. Looking Pfahler retrospective at the
made a detailed case to the Minister Road, Teddington, Middx, or at the sketch of the Onecity, one is Kunsthalle in Mannheim contains
asking for exemption from VAT, and telephone 01-943 0143. aware of Le Corbusier's 'City for drawings, collages and prints from
sent a plea to regional bodies for Compiled by Paul Martin Three Million People' of 1923 or of the years 1959 (when he made his
more help. Ten years ago the Constant's 'New Babylon', but the debut with Group 11 in London) to
government grant was £2,700,000. Stolen: A complete set (6 prints) of New Yorker's ideas are interesting all 1974. One can clearly follow the way
Hockney's Weather Series numbered the same, even if a little terrifying. the artist, with a 'formative' concept,
The Henry Moore Sculpture 49/98, by a sweet smelling youth In Munich the great retrospective of departed from the informal early on
Centre, Toronto, Canada will be with dyed blonde hair, from the the work of the French painter and has turned increasingly towards
inaugurated by the artist in Pigeonhole, 1313 Langton St, SW10. Georges Rouault is drawing good Hard Edge. Pfahler, who belongs in
September. The centre will house Tel. 01-352 2677. attendances. The show in the Haus the orbit of the Galerie Muller in
works given by the artist to the der Kunst traces the artist's progress Stuttgart and Cologne, where Denny,
people of Ontario, 18 bronzes and 41 to his religious painting, a thorny path Plumb and Turnbull were to be seen
original works in plaster estimated to Germany but one in which the individual stages more than a decade ago, impresses
be worth £6,000,000. are very persuasive, even if one for the consistency of his
For the American artist-architect disregards the content and looks only development, which seems self-
Attendances rose by 250% at Will Insley the future is already over, at painterly quality (admittedly a hard contained where problems of spatial
Kenwood House, London, after and he is digging out its architectonic thing to do). The large retrospective of colour are concerned. One naturally
Vermeer's 20 by 18 in. painting The remains. A paradoxical situation Richard Hamilton, whose complete asks, where now ? But this is a
Guitar Player was stolen last February. results, but one which, with its graphic work was shown five years question that can be asked of many
overtones of romantic irony, strikes ago in Stuttgart, takes us into the streamlined hard-edge artists, painters
The Sonnabend Gallery opened a many a chord in Germany. We have a thick of the artistic problems of the and sculptors of today's middle
new branch at Geneva in April (14, lot of time here for the sort of 60s and 70s. Hamilton has repeatedly generation, and it is simultaneously a
Rue Etienne Dumont) with a show by speculative approach that tends in the worked at the renowned Stuttgart commentary on the German art
Robert Rauschenberg. direction of the realm of myth. Hence screen-printing workshop. The situation.
an exhibition of works by Will Insley, Munich show, put together and Gunther Wirth
Seen, a new gallery has just opened which has reached the Kunstverein in brilliantly annotated by Hamilton (Translated from the German
at 39 Paddington Street, London W1. Stuttgart from the Krefeld Museum, himself, comes from the Guggenheim by John Wheelright.)