Page 73 - Studio International - May 1974
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social implications of some force, conventional in their execution but the foreshortened angle with the showing at the Musée d'Art Moderne
and Duane Hanson is certainly no less fiercely intellectual in their photograph's optically obtained introduces the work of a major artist
aware of this. His Bowery Bums inspiration. Arakawa's is a case in shadings and misty infinities— which (not exhibited, I think, in Britain
(Ludwig Collection) represents a point. His Shape No.1 combines may well be mechanically contrived since Robert Fraser introduced a
group of derelict meths drinkers and the chromatic values of harmony with but no less effective for all that. rather small and now largely
it gains from exposure because the the verbal and quasi-philosophical The lens reaches into distances irrelevant selection in 1962). The
litter of its illustrative coordinates magic of a magnificent concrete beyond the focal point, and moving work is not revolutionary. No REVIEW
absorbs the contaminating poetry (Arakawa's indebtedness towards the endless it captures an innovation is to be detected in this
accretions of the environment, to logical positivism is obvious). His almost romantic glimpse of the series of canvases but the iconography
embedding cigarette ends and panel designates six 'places' after the unattainable. It is a pity that the rest and its techniques are contemporary.
garbage in a receptive field. However, cartographer's fashion, but even these of what is on view cannot measure A virtuoso's eclecticism is the
Bowery Bums is one of the prize definitions move from orthodox up to the sheer imaginative distinguishing feature of Lindner's
exhibits in the Ludwig Collection ; signallings towards indicative excellence of these objects but, art. It reconciles a great moment in
there is no room for its logic at CNAC. negation, ie towards omission ; and obviously enough, the orthodox the pictorial arts of Central Europe 7
In this counterexposure the private the legend of Arakawa's design triumph is not every artist's purpose. with the modern movement's triumphs
collector shows a far greater ('If possible, please forget about any Mike Heizer, Kosuth, Barry Le Va and in America. Lindner's capacity to
understanding of styles and aesthetic place not marked place') is meant to Richard Long ignore the demands of learn from every instance of genuine
values than the official body which open up miraculously open reaches of the directly communicative opus; advance is stunning. Only in 1950, at
has a didactic role to perform. It is in the imagination. Also, there is a note and their success, or their relative the age of forty-nine, did he decide
many ways characteristic that one of of lyricism in the sly diffidence of his failure, is, probably, commensurate to become a professional painter. His
Philip Pearlstein's magnificently dry touching 'please'. Sol LeWitt and with the appeal of the indirect heritage combined the graphic
commentaries on the nude is, in fact, Michael Snow are represented by comment which the simple record is virtues of George Grosz and the
included in the Ludwig Collection German expressionists with
and that CNAC has no room for Kandinsky's understanding of the
Pearlstein, George Segal or Jack power of sheer colours. He adapted
Beal. The Pearlstein composition and enlarged the vocabulary of
performs an admirably exegetic pictorial comment. His statements may
function. Its academic overtones are be regarded as narrative ; the
counterpointed by a visionary confrontation of the couple, which
insistence on chromatic and formal illustrates the relationship between
allegories. Its human shapes are two independent human beings, is one
related to sand and dust by the of his main themes, but his portrayal
monotonous palette and to the of the human being explores a
natural shapes of dune, rock and specially American environment and
tree through a manipulative use of its protagonists display a horror which
sophisticated graphic techniques and has not yet invaded Europe.
perspective. There is a distanced Strangely, Lindner has become the
objectivity in these echoes of the most profound interpreter of the
academic style which helps to violence which we associate with the
establish a clear declaration of intent. big cities of the United States. He has
In this sense academicism means, translated the nightmare into
quite simply, a tradition ; neither character studies. His heroes and
more nor less. heroines personify nocturnal events
It so happens that among the (his pigmentation echoes the neon
movements of the present only tube's unshaded glare.) The night's
Constructivism and Realism can look dangers and temptations define
back on unbroken traditions. The Lindner's hallucinatory volumes. His
former goes back half a century and creatures burst from a black
the latter is certainly at least two nothingness into the explosive light
thousand years old. For some reason, of the pigment's sheet-lightning.
which has no connection with art Their central volumes are contained
history, Daniel Abadie wishes us to Marc Devade Peinture 1973 (Nov 1) 200 200cm. Acrylic on canvas in the flashlike boss of an abstractive
overlook the obvious. In this field — which readjusts Stella's,
connection it is characteristic that the compositions which reconcile capable of carrying ; and, let it be Noland's and Clyfford Still's shrill
two undeniable masterpieces of his constructive ideals with more purely noted, that it is very very simple. Pure harmonies in accordance with
'hyperrealism' are in the Ludwig conceptual tenets but, within their conceptualism is the ascetic's pursuit Lindner's grand rhetoric. The shrieks
Collection — and nothing of a setting, their work strikes one as — because it denies immediacies and of the backdrop expose his cast. The
comparable standard is in the CNAC traditionalist. LeWitt's series of substitutes the comment's wonderful series of early drawings
show. The Pearlstein and the Duane drawings is especially indebted to ratiocinative values for the emotive demonstrates how far he has travelled
Hanson Bums are in the Museum of musical notions. Taking, for instance, charge of action. It replaces the in his thinking. His early compositions
Modern Art. It is also worth pointing a randomly obtained 'scale' of lines, theatric grandeur of the gesture with introduce fattened pictorial presences
out how carefully composed he builds a series of quasi-musical the subservient setting of the stage —which amuse no less than horrify.
Hanson's grouping is in the cast variations by superimposing them on and stage design. Its evocative power, They have Botero's elegance and
composition. His arrangement is a grid which follows serially conceived where it is present, comes from the spirit (and they are earlier than
truly sculptural in this instance— as it numerical combinations; nor is this accuracy of the well-made record Botero) but, in the illustrator's
is most surely not in the CNAC all, for his end result is simply (and it is very much to the point that manner, they distance primary
pieces, which play mere variations on beautiful. The same goes for his verbal records are capable of stating reactions and conceal them under
the theme of shock, exploiting the colour grids and shaded bands, fallacies and imaginative truths as obtrusively emphatic layers of the
innocent repulsiveness of growing pencilled in pastel hues—with their well). Robert Smithson and Richard draughtsman's craft. The thematic
old ungracefully. differential diagonalization of base Long do communicate the excitement content is already revealed. Terror,
So it goes. But it is equally lines. However, Michael Snow's which belongs to the account of obscenity and the predatory hunger
revealing that the Ludwig Collection Montage must be regarded as one of strange doings and deeds— but the of all flesh are already redolent in
comprises a similarly perceptive and the triumphs of pictorial weaker brethren of the brotherhood each aspect of the human body, the
wide-ranging sample of conceptual argumentation. This composition (Robert Filliou, for instance, the ever- female's especially ; but the refinement
art. In fact, this half of the show is shows photographic configurations dull Robert Morris and George of these initial designs obscures the
so carefully assembled that it may of the square's perspective-distorted Brecht) transmit the sheer boredom of horrible magnificence of the power
succeed in revising some attitudes to elements—separated by stainless plodding along tracks explored many illustrated by Lindner. The nakedness,
what we regard as conceptual ; and steel blanks which chequer the times and long ago. which is such a conspicuous feature
it may force us to redefine a style and pattern of Snow's beautifully precise Richard Lindner belongs, without of these pictures, belongs to the
its attributes. This is achieved by proposition. The statement doubt, to the small and diminishing exposed areas of skin in the
including art objects more underlines the fantastic energies of band of real masters. His retrospective beginning ; and not to the power