Page 62 - Studio International - March 1974

fairly concise and well-organized selection of
Announcing the world's most extensive
bibliography of modern art, graphic art
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Books from publishers all over the world
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Art Design Photo documents late
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artists, photography and graphic design,
and includes the decorative arts, ceramics,
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Major styles and movements such as
Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism,
Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism and
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Contemporary artists and movements
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Conceptual Art, Earth Art, Video, Body
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216 pages Illustrated 5345 entries
Laminated cloth cover A4 size
ISBN 0903904 004 £8.00
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148
stance vis-à-vis European art. In this I find an
Smith's formal and informal writing, lectures, appealing honesty, but he is certainly
statements, unpublished notes (many good vulnerable. Moreover, though this may be just
things here, and the better for the assignation a personal reaction, his words do not open up
in time and context : the stimulus of the his art, much less art in general, like those of
particular task or request sharpened Smith's Matisse; which might seem to be asking a good
thinking, as the hours of lonely and obsessive deal were it not that Smith is aiming that high.
rumination diffused it); the interviews with Was it that - except in sculpture, where it
David Sylvester and T. B. Hess; various letters mattered most - Smith had no conception of
from Smith (of no compelling interest); and his own limitations ? None the less there is a
reviews by Elizabeth McCausland (194o), directness of feeling, a practicality of approach, a
W. R. Valentiner (1946), and Clement challenging ambition about almost everything
Greenberg (1964). (An arbitrary selection - for a he wrote that should be a present and necessary
real insight into Smith's oeuvre, why not all voice in the ear of every (especially British)
Greenberg's writing touching on Smith, and artist working today.
Hilton Kramer's essay from the Arts special Smith's genius, and I would not put it lower,
issue ?). The monograph format demands a lay in transformation of the most unpromising
specious stamp of historical authenticity - the and banal conceptions into steel sculpture of
balanced and judicious view, variety of evidence extraordinary force, invention and sensitivity.
and sources - that Smith himself would surely In face of the material, and I don't think one
have abhorred. Nor do I think this kind of book can over-emphasize Smith's lifelong immersion
is going to do much to advance a wider in its forms, handling and techniques - others
appreciation of Smith's achievement, which I had come to steel late or early, but Smith grew
take to be remarkable - unique in a generation with it, stayed with it, knew it as well as the
of amazing work in painting, unique in the Renaissance masters knew their anatomy and
wider span of modern sculpture. perspective, and with the same sense of
The problem is this : on the one hand, in the extravagant delight; in face of the material, the
attempt to compress Smith into the neat provincial grotesqueness of the imagery, the
historical pocket, consideration of the work gets slick and mannered drawing, the defensive
enmeshed in considerations of style (Edward stance of national, even local, identity are
Fry) or symbolism (Krauss), or national transmuted into art of the highest order, of
identity; on the other, though encouragement complete originality. Smith drew and planned
for these kinds of treatment exists in Smith's his sculpture, even the most spontaneous
vast verbal output, the material defies seeming sculpture, with consideration and
conclusive interpretation, rather affirms the rigour. The nature and depth of the
image of the artist as a 'character'. Thus the transmutation can be seen in comparison of the
temptation to take Smith at face value, and drawings for Star Cage and Tank Totem III with
simply'quote him - in spite of his own photographs of the finished sculpture (both
continued warnings against 'the word' - illustrated m this book): but the end term of this
without attempting an account of the work that process - the sculpture itself - is of course not
would project beyond the conditions of time, available in this country, and increasingly less
place, and personality, and open up the
likely to be - so the myth and misunderstanding
influence of the sculpture into the now, where it of Smith are going to be perpetuated by this
is much needed but largely absent. The best book.
sculpture of the present time, here and in What is needed, more than anything else for
America, is in steel; the sculptors admire Smith, sculpture in this country at the present time, for
but do not put him to use. Yet this man those young sculptors getting to grips with
virtually reinvented the language of sculpture steel again, and for elders encrusted with
for steel (I have heard of Picasso, Gonzalez, European conceptions of how sculpture should
Gargallo, Rodchenko, etc., but from the time of `work' in volume and space, and against gravity,
Smith's discovery of arc welding, it was a new is another, better Smith exhibition: only the
language, and he was on his own).
work itself can show how the man enlarged
I would argue that the publication of books and revived sculpture. q
of this kind can only provide ammunition for WILLIAM TUCKER
Smith's enemies, who are the enemies of
sculpture, concealing their timid souls behind
the threadbare robes of European high culture.
Spinofferie
In his writing, as in his drawing and in much Idea Art: a critical anthology, edited by
of the sculpture up to 195o, Smith's naivety, Gregory Battcock, 217 pp, illustrated.
his rawness, the aggressive posture registered New York, Dutton, 1973. £1.50.
with derivative ideas, are only too apparent.
Smith was never an original thinker outside his Another day another anthology - and this one
own metier; he did not have access to a would be disgusting if it were not so
convincing rhetoric, a control of words and marvellously bizarre. Gregory Battcock has done
ideas that reveals the high cultural pretensions it again, skirting 'the issue' with a collection of
of some of his contemporaries - eg Still, essays from writers who - with a few notable
Rothko, Newman - even where they share his exceptions - have been either notable for their