Page 51 - Studio International - March 1974

him. He must have come to feel that environment — if the piece, for Lynn Chadwick at Marlborough
such things, though well-intentioned, example, had been plastered or Fine Art, London, 16 January —9
were after all just reportage —they papered over in conformity with the February
had originated in specific room — its condition as sculpture Bryan Kneale at the Redfern
experiences. Time could hold only would diminish : in inverse proportion Gallery, London, 1-21 February
oblivion for them. Chapman was to its conversion into architecture. Nigel Hall at the Felicity Samuel
certainly right about Watts's Conversely, if the sculpture had been Gallery, London, 28 January-8
'ambition', if not perhaps wholly right discrete, had ended perceptibly March
about the 'betrayal'. The veil of high within the confines of the room, the Anthea Alley at Annely Juda's
art came down all right; it had always structure would have been Gallery, London, 23 January-16
been waiting, this wish to succeed cumbersome and portentously scaled February
where Haydon had failed. In the end — with an effect something like the The artists of the fifties were very
it came between him and himself, he room-sized apple in the Magritte much concerned with creating
believed that the past could sanctify painting. The force of the work, totems of anxiety and guilt, as though
the present. But he has survived, and therefore, developed in part from its driving themselves to a retrospective
not just as phenomenon. use of the room as a necessary limit purging of the fears and traumata of
Brian Petrie or boundary—as an initially the preceding decade. True of
contingent and, finally, actual edge. painting, this was even more true of
Don Judd at the Lisson Gallery, The second built-in piece sculpture, and to see again, after a
London, January exhibited minor differences in lapse of ten years, an exhibition of Bryan Kneale Barrule 1973
Iron, 9 ft 4½ in x 8 ft 8½ in.
Not much has been done in art with installation and was similar in works by Lynn Chadwick, at
public space. Flavin, who showed at structure to the first, with the addition Marlborough Fine Art, was to almost as a kind of window through
the Lisson in December, is of a front panel set parallel to the experience nostalgia rather than which the rest of the composition can
exceptional. Most of what is called recessed plane. This panel was revelation, and to admire pertinacity be seen. It is not, of course, quite as
environmental art is usually less than shorter in corresponding height and rather than to applaud invention. simple as that. There are elements of
competent. In sculpture, the was aligned with the top projecting These anthropomorphic figures— involvement in the spaces, and an
location of a piece is invariably a edge to form a long horizontal slot. neatly divided between hammer- implicit invitation to exploration and
secondary and provisional aspect. This idea was less developed. The slot headed males, and spear-headed the piece would be meaningless were
Recently, Serra and a couple of females—involved in some curiously it seen only from one viewpoint,
others have begun to consider the ponderous relationship with each indeed the eye is deliberately led
location in a primary sense, as an other, affect an air of brooding, tragic away in different directions outside
instrumental aspect of the work. Don significance, which is not fully the orbit of the circle by long strips of
Judd's sculpture has always realized within the formal confines metal. Like most of the other
indicated a particular relation to its which the artist imposes on them. sculpture in the exhibition, which was
surroundings— earlier work was There are obvious references to a on a smaller scale, Barrule is an
occasionally designed in variable whole gamut of influences, cultural absorbing exercise in the
units to fit the space of a room. In and stylistic, similar to those which manipulation of variables. It does
recent years this relation has become shaped Moore and Sutherland, however pose certain problems. What
explicit. In 1971, at the Guggenheim, Marini and Meadows, creating in is its real scale ? Within the gallery it
the artist exhibited a pair of concentric effect, not so much an academic art sat a little uncomfortably, as though
rings in sheet metal : the inner ring as an art des musées,which seeks it should have been on a different
was tilted in alliance with the approval in terms of precedents rather scale, to be seen in a larger landscape.
museum's ascending floor; the outer than of explorations. But, contextual It is hard at times to justify some of the
ring was levelled in contrast to the judgements apart, Chadwick's recent elements in relation to each other.
ramp. A similar principle was work is a good deal more flaccid than The large, dramatic, shield-like shapes
employed in a couple of outdoor it used to be, lacking the emotional are admirable, but the welter of forms
pieces of the same year, installed in astringency which made pieces such on the floor, which support the whole
separate locations. In one site, a Don Judd Untitled 1974. as the Winged Figures of 1955 so piece, seem the consequence of
steel box with a tilted inner box was 3/4in. Douglas Fir plywood, 5 , 5 3 ft. strangely arresting. To compare his mechanical accident rather than of
set on a sloping lawn ; in the second heavily recumbent couples with a creative intent. The whole is in
suggested a container within the
location a low concrete ring with a work such as David Smith's The Rape, untreated iron, and like other works
sculpture— its interior partly
sloping exterior was situated on a produced some thirty years ago, is to by Kneale of recent date it displays —
mild gradient. concealed. Historically, this form is note not only a less active theme, but perhaps a little shyly — the scars of its
related to Surrealism —a precedent
Two of the pieces at the Lisson a more indolent imaginative construction. Surface accident, with
certainly antithetical to the artist's
were specifically built into the apprehension. They lack any sense all its expressionistic undertones, has
gallery space. The three exhibits in the intention. The front panel was of compulsion. come to play quite an important part
show were constructed from also something of a fence, a Bryan Kneale's work has been in his work, and the same tendency is
conspicuous addition. The flat top apparent in the prints and drawings
standard sheets of 1-inch plywood. getting progressively more romantic
The built-in exhibits were large surface, oddly scaled, was remote and over the past year or so, and though which accompanied the sculpture.
rectangular structures contained less immediate than the front : it his last exhibition at the Redfern in Here the scumbling effect produces
within separate rooms — each piece resembled a platform or stage. The February combined what might be richly textured, amorphous images
fitted length-wise along the extent of sculpture appeared to be a collection described as the smooth and the which possess all that emotional
a wall, meeting the room on three of parts, was less cogent and single rough, the highly intentional and the intensity after which so many
sides, and constructed around and than previous work. purposefully accidental, it is the latter sculptors yearn, once they have
within the room's permanent The third exhibit was a large box, category of qualities which escaped from their own medium.
features. The structure in one room three feet high and five feet square, predominated. This is especially true Where Kneale's works make a
resembled a long box with a recessed with its interior divided and partly of Barrule, the largest piece in the statement, Nigel Hall's (who has been
wall. The box projected nearly six feet closed by an inclined plane. The exhibition, which took up one whole showing at Felicity Samuel's)
into the room, was 49 inches in diagonal panel, mitred at both ends, room. The title does not refer to some propound a question ; they are
height, and around 20 feet in length ; reached from the top of one wall to heraldic device or to a regulation concerned not so much with matter
the front panel was recessed nine touch the base at the opposite wall. imposed on, or by, publicans, but to as with states, with tensions rather
inches. Flanges and recessed planes The structure was broad, plain, and a mountain in the Isle of Man. This than quiescent relationships.
are conspicuous forms in Judd's art ; casually apparent — aspects which is significant, for it adds meaning to Minimally linear, they make
their primary use is to stress the occur in Judd's art with ease and the whole piece which might extraordinarily skilful use of their
surface of a structure. This emphasis regularity. Obviously, these aspects otherwise have eluded the spectator. spatial situations, invoking the floor
also cancels adverse implications of imply an explicit power and There is an implicit dialogue between and wall to suggest stresses and
weight. The sculpture was clearly complexity beyond the sum of their the organic and the mechanical, the visual paradoxes. Their painted
congruent with the architecture of the means. This show exemplified the one represented by the almost aluminium surfaces have an
room but was obviously separate. It artist's familiar virtues —these virtues haphazard-seeming conglomeration impeccable elegance which suits
seemed probable that if the structure are evolving. of forms which stand apart from, but their structure, and they eschew any
had been assimilated into the R. J. Rees linked to, the simple circle, which acts kind of allusion. Although it is