Page 70 - Studio International - May 1974

Gilbert and George have Ad Dekkers making 'exact reproductions', he was complicated because they consisted
commissioned Duncan Grant to very much impressed when he first of several planes. In the following
paint their portrait. Duncan Grant 27 February, 1974 saw paintings by Mondrian : 'In the years, however, his reliefs became
made drawings of the artists in Today Ad Dekkers died at his home Kröller-Müller Museum I first saw more and more simple with only one
RE
London and is currently working on in Gorcum, a small provincial town works by Nicholson and Mondrian, or two different planes. In the last
the portrait at his studio in Sussex. south of Rotterdam. He was 35 years which were revelations to me. This years this process of simplification
Gerhard Richter, the German old. Within a few days, he will be purity of communication, free from led him to an intense preoccupation
realist, has also been commissioned cremated in Utrecht. In front of the any naturalistic copying, appealed to with the line, both in his reliefs and in
to paint their portrait. crematory, a congenial modern me very much ... It was Mondrian's his drawings. In the reliefs the lines—
Mike Snow's 'Wavelength' and building, stands his own sculpture theory which impressed me most. He often only one or two—were sawn or
'Back and Forth' will be showing Circle developing to square from 1970 used only horizontal and vertical (raised into the plane ; starting
at the Royal College of Art's avant- (reproduced in Studio International, elements. He built his balance as a shallow this line would become
garde film programme on 13 May. May1973, p. 218). balance of opposites : the horizontal deeper towards its end. For his
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This will be followed by 10 films by Like his best reliefs and drawings, and the vertical. But I wondered, drawings he began to use transparent
Steve Dwoskin on 20 May; films by this sculpture has an exciting whether such a balance could not be paper. He drew the lines on both
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Paul Sharits and Kenneth Frampton naturalness and simplicity; it as intrusively achieved by the use of, sides, so one could realize the
on 27 May; 3 films by Ken Jacobs reconciles, with the help of a formal for instance, circles' (Revue objectness of the paper : the paper
including Tom Tom on 3 June. The system, two different forms : circle Integration, November 1967, p. 420). is not a more or less deniable
shows are at the Royal College of and square. At the same time, it shows According to Dekkers, the colours background but just as important as
Art, Kensington Gore, London a balance between system and in a Mondrian painting give an the lines on it; and the lines on the
beginning at 7.00pm. Admission 20p. intuition, or rather, a system illusion of depth. Red seems to be one side find their counterpart in the
Project 74, a mammoth show of art mastering emotions that yet remain closer to the viewer than blue. To get lines from the other side shining
today arranged by the Wallraf- through. And —very amazingly — in his
Richartz-Museum Cologne to drawings from this last year, colour
celebrate its 150th anniversary, opens came back.
on 5 July and continues through to Dekkers died in the middle of much
mid-September. Works by 80 artists, activity and at a time when more and
30 of whom will do special projects, more people were beginning to
will be shown from three aspects : appreciate his work. In 1972 he had
'Time', 'Perception', and 'Logical a large show at the Gemeentemuseum,
Systems'. Artists invited include The Hague (which houses the famous
Acconci, Andre, Art & Language, Mondrian collection), and for this
Asher, Barry, Bell, Beuys, Boyle, spring (26 April-16 June) Jean
Broodthaers, Buren, Burgin, Dibbets, Leering is showing — as a guest
Dye, Fulton, Gilbert and George, director— a large show of Dekkers's
Haacke, Heizer, Hilliard, Huebler, work in the Van Abbemuseum in
Long, Le Va, LeWitt, de Maria, Merz, Eindhoven, of which Leering was the
Morris, Nauman, Oppenheim, Rinke, director until last December. Leering
Serra and Weiner. At the is an old friend of Ad Dekkers. Last
Kunstverein there will also be video November Dekkers had his one-man
productions and video installations. show in New York at the Rosa Esman
The Committee for Artistic Gallery. He showed a beautiful series
Freedom have sent us this note : of small reliefs and drawings. In
On 27 March artist Jean Toche was Gorcum he was preparing, together
arrested in his home by four agents of with his above mentioned friend
the FBI, acting on a complaint of Boezem, and Ewert Hilgeman, a
C. Douglas Dillon, President of the German constructivist and his brother
Metropolitan Museum of Art in in law, and Herman de Vries (once the
New York. editor of Revue Integration, and
Toche was later charged with himself a clever maker of 'random
using the US mail for a conceptual art') a new periodical 4 plus. The first
art process, which included a issue will appear soon.
Untitled drawing on transparent paper
dadaist proposal reversing an In Amsterdam the recently founded
existing reality where art and artists perceptible. rid of this illusionism, he started 'Multi Art Press' has produced — as
have been 'kidnapped' by museums, Ad Dekkers has always been in making reliefs, in which one coloured the first in a series of multiples —two
and which was interpreted as a search of naturalness: 'I should like to plane really recedes behind another of Dekkers's works. From the
'threat to kidnap museum trustees, make my work as self-evident as the coloured plane. This, however, beginning he favoured the social idea
directors, administrators, curators rhythmically waving reed or the ever changed very soon. Colour of multiples, and most of his reliefs
and benefactors'. If convicted, returning, beating dash of the waves disappeared from his, now all-white, exist in a small edition. They come out
Toche could be imprisoned for five on the beach,' he writes in 1967, in reliefs. It was left to the light to define of a polyester mould and are
years in a Federal penitentiary, the Revue Integration (November the different planes and their border themselves of polyester strengthened
and later face deportation. For the 1967, p.421). Reading this sentence, lines. Ad Dekkers invented his own by glass-fibre. In Otterlo many
last decade Toche, many other my thoughts went back to the show rules to realize harmonious, non- visitors pass his 30 metres-long wall
artists and other people involved of his friend Boezem, who also lives hierarchical reliefs. He chose in the new wing of the Kröner-Muller
in the arts have 'channeled their in Gorcum, in 1967 : a room geometrical forms : circles, squares, museum, which was completed in
dissatisfaction with the art completely filled with 'rhythmically hexagons, etc., and arranged them 1972. Every 5 metres there is a vertical
establishment into open forums and waving reed'. Boezem, at that time, according to strict rules. He engraved line, starting shallow at the
demonstrations calling for sweeping with Jan Dibbets and Ger van Elk, deliberately chose rules and ceiling and ending 2 cm deep at the
change' (Newsweek, February worked in the atmosphere of arte geometrical compositions to obtain bottom or the other way round,
9,1970). povera and conceptual art. harmony in his work, because, as he alternatively. This new wing is only
Artists on Art, a series of talks, It is clear that Ad Dekkers chose a explained, he could also achieve the first part of a larger extension, and
sometimes more informal sometimes different, less literal and more harmony the other way round, also Dekkers's wall is only half of a
less, have been arranged by complicated way to achieve this without rules and without a plan. The idea was to have the next
Jasia Reichardt. The talks are at the naturalness. At the Rotterdam symmetrical composition, but in that connecting wall divided by horizontal
Architectural Association, 34-36 Academy, at the end of the fifties, he case he would have to rely on his lines. The whole division of the now
Bedford Square, London every made very precise drawings of personal intuition, which can never be existing wall is so subtle that many
Tuesday at 6pm. William Tucker — objects : a shoe, an umbrella, a verified ; he also knew that results visitors do not notice it at all.
7 May; Anthony Hill —14 May; sewing-machine. In the midst of obtained this way might have an I suppose it takes training, to see the
Bernard Cohen — 21 May; Abstract-Expressionism this was a opposite effect on the spectator. subtle results of fifteen years visual
Eduardo Paolozzi-28 May. strange case of sharp-focus realism The reliefs between about 1965 and research by Ad Dekkers.
Compiled by Paul Martin avant la date. Not content with 1967 were rather heavy and Liesbeth Brandt Corstius