Page 49 - Studio International - November 1974

21 December. Art in recession The experience of the War, followed austere in its approach to design,
Haus der Kunst Prinzregentenstrasse 1 by the chaotic and, for the vast architecture and decoration.
(089-22 26 51). Art of the naives: majority, unbearable economic This 'crisis' mentality led to an
themes & affinities. 1 November — President Ford was the first of the conditions of Weimar, led quite simply environment in which, as in Germany
12 January. 38 Presidents of the United States who, to the disruption of any confidence in ten years before, the artist was expected
Heiner Friedrich Maximilianstrasse 15. in his inaugural address, identified
Palermo: new work; November. inflation as the single most serious the moral assumptions of European to justify his activity in terms of its
Kunstraum Nikolaistrasse 15 issue facing the nation. Some weeks culture. It was the resulting sense of contribution to social progress. And in
(089-39 30 38). Palermo: works on later Dr Kissinger was warning the social outrage that lent such creative order to ensure that creative effort was
paper; 13 November — 21 December. impetus to the work of artists like not wasted, Roosevelt's administration
General Assembly of the United
George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Otto now assumed responsibility for art's
Nations that world economic strains
Dix and others. Their obsessive focus relationship to society, the result of
threaten widespread depression. And which was the creation of the Federal
ITALY the recent economic summit meeting on the horrors of war and the
BRESCIA convened by President Ford confirmed subsequent demoralization of the Art Project. Through this programme
Sincron Via Moretto 31. beyond any informed dispute that the defeated has never been equalled as a artists were employed by the
Mariano Carrera; 29 November — creative document. Its impact derives with the purpose of
December. world has now entered a period of largely from the post-war conviction effecting a massive transformation of
MI LAN economic crisis. Of all the developed that art-for-art's-sake could no longer the visual environment. Murals were
L'Annunciata Via Manzoni 46. countries, with the possible exception be afforded and should therefore be painted in everything from airline
Larry Bell; November. of Italy, England is the most vulnerable terminals to housing projects, and
Ariete Grafica Via Saint Andrea 5 to the accumulated economic jettisoned in favour of an art that sees
(392-79 55 73). Francesco Ravizza; turbulence which is affecting Western itself firmly locked into the structure were primarily centered on themes of
November. society. Indeed the most optimistic of contemporary life. It was this social realism (though without the
Multicenter Grafica Via Pietro Verri 1 belief, common to all periods of bitter pessimism of the Germans) and
(392-79 97 67). Jasper Johns: forecast for our own short-term future economic hardship, that in Germany's landscape evocations of typically white-
graphic works from 1968 to 1974; is the certainty of a serious recession case led not only to the unflinching picket-fence America.
November. with an historically high rate of realism of artists like Grosz but also So that in comparing these two
Galleria Schwarz Via Gesul 7 inflation. There is still a discrepancy, lent impetus to the functionalist aims periods of economic disruption the
(392-70 90 24). Gallery artists; however, between the urgency of the
November & December. problem and public awareness of it. of the Bauhaus. following characteristics emerge: while
ROME This applies as much to Europe and A very different situation arose in the quality of aesthetic innovation in
Galleria La Medusa Via del Babuino 124 America as to Britain despite the America at the time of the Great Germany throughout the twenties
(396-68 65 46). Nöbauer; November. Depression. Enormous wealth had completely outstripped the somewhat
Grafica Romero Via A. Brunetti 28 shattering slump on the major stock been accumulated in a relatively short unadventurous artistic results of the
(396-79 40 89). Pop Art; November. exchanges. Few of us have therefore period of time and the American Federal Art Project, common to both
VENICE thought much about its implications confidence in an economic new world periods was a clarification of artistic
Galleria D'Arte Del Carallino San and most have no doubt shrugged off had been fully justified by the virtually purpose, namely the determination to
Marco 1725 (041-20 528). Piccolo discomforting projections as so much unhindered growth of the economy. use art in the service of society.
Sillani 8 November — 6 December. scare-mongering. Nevertheless it is
The sudden collapse of the banking Although state intervention became
worth examining the possible effects of
system and the stock-market, added to prominent in both countries, only in
the critical period confronting us, for
NETHERLANDS nothing can now divert the storm- the sharp reversal of the growth pattern the United States did it actually
AMSTERDAM clouds above us. in the economy, administered such a determine the parameters of creative
Galerie Magdalene Sothmann blow to traditional expectations that effort. The predominant theme in
NZ Voorburgwal 284. (020-36 92 0). To assess in what ways the art-world general confidence was deeply affected. both cases was the depiction of
E. W. Van der Meer: oils & watercolours will be affected by the sort of crisis contemporary reality. Finally the art-
November. just discussed it may be helpful to turn While everyone knows that the market, though undoubtedly less fragile
Printshop Piet Clement Prinsengracht 845 to previous economic upheavals in the stock-market on Wall Street crashed
(020-51 65 6). Lucebert: etchings & twentieth century. Though neither and fortunes were lost overnight, a than most other 'values', was obviously
lithographs; November. the rampant inflation of the Weimar tenacious myth has claimed that the not immune from conditions of
Stedelijk Museum Paulus Potterstraat 13 Republic during the early post-First art market emerged virtually unscathed. social and economic collapse.
(020-73 21 66). Siet Zuyderland: In fact of course the art market, or Since the Second World War we have
drawings; 2 November — 12 January. World War years, nor the Great been free of the sort of major crises just
Constant: retrospective of his drawings; Depression of the following decade can rather the level of art prices established
15 November.— 12 January. be directly compared with the prospects at auctions, sank to levels that were not discussed. Indeed they have been years
Ger van Elk 16 November — 12 January. facing us today, there are enough regained until after the war. It is true of almost uninterrupted prosperity. As
EINDHOVEN similarities to make an analysis that Duveen's collections had been everyone knows the swift advance of
Municipal van Abbemuseum worthwhile. It is also worth looking at effectively sealed off from market economic growth was accompanied by
Bilderdijklaan 10 (040-68811). Duiker the two relatively harmless post-war pressure by never being put on it and an extraordinary, fairy-tale surge in the
to 3 November. Cortier, De Keyzer therefore neatly provided the source of prices of art. So extraordinary in fact
to 24 November. recessions.
The art world of the Weimar this profitable myth. They were that the art-world has become a thing
collections that had already been apart, a subject of wonder, isolated
Republic was a victim of the fractured
bequeathed for fiscal reasons to public from public comprehension. Thus it is
social environment that followed the
SPAIN First World War. Economic life in and thus permanent ownership. It may not surprising that the concept of art
MADRID Germany had been so radically also be true that when the banker as investment is a truly post-war
Galeria Kreisler Dos Hermosilla 8 dislocated and relative values of George Blumenthal sold his collection phenomenon. Certainly in the previous
(226 42 64). Raba to 9 November. during the depression for 30 per cent thirty or forty years art was considered
Juan Romero: paintings; 12 November — everything from currency to less than he paid for it and was consoled a sound means of diversifying wealth,
7 December. commodities so eroded, that the
bourgeois infrastructure still so vital in by his friends, he could buoyantly but this was a far cry from the heady
reply 'Not at all, I am losing 75 per expansion of art consciousness we have
this century for support to the arts,
cent on my securities'. And although experienced since the early 1950s. It
was in full rout. Under these
SWITZERLAND in general it was undoubtedly difficult seems as if the mentality which
GENEVA conditions of roaring inflation the to realise liquidity through the sale of
Artel Galerie 5 Grand-Rue institutional framework, within which attributes investment potential to
(022-21 75 22). Ipousteguy: sculptures in the pre-war period such progress assets, Andrew Mellon's art career everything from an eighteenth-century
& drawings to 16 November. had been made both by inspired continued undaunted. This was grandmother-clock to a coronation
LAUSANNE museum policy and by the galleries, perhaps most dramatically symbolised milk-mug is now firmly entrenched.
White Gallery Grand Rue 1095 Lutry was no longer in existence. by his purchase in 1931 of 21 pictures This remains to be seen. What is certain
(021-29 70 99). Hanging exhibition: Furthermore, the purchase of art from the Hermitage for nearly however is that its momentum was
d'Arman, Le Corbusier, Max Ernst, seemed irrelevant in a period when £1,500,000. But the fact remains that generally powerful enough to sustain
Yves Klein, Picasso & Christo. although the art market fell appreciably
economic survival had become a art prices during the two post-war
ZURICH less over the five-year period than Wall recessions of 1960-61 and 1968-70
Galerie André Emmerich Tödistrasse 40 priority and the traditional defence
(01-25 03 00). Robert Motherwell against uncertainty was the flight into Street, and of course no total loss when the stock market slumped badly
to 23 November. gold. It could represent no dependable could be registered providing the (approximately 35 per cent on major
Gimpel & Hanover Clarindenstrasse 35 value in a world which relied for price paintings were held, prices over-all did exchanges in 1968-9). This buoyancy
(01-36 71 55). Jean Crotti to support on the vagaries of taste in more fall approximately 60 per cent from not only emphasised a marked
9 November. robust economies. Thus it was a sad their peak in 1929 to the low-point in psychological re-appraisal of art since
Kunsthaus Zurich Heimplatz 1 irony that, just when the astonishingly 1934. It is probable, however, that the the 1930s but also reinforced growing
(01-32 17 22). Photography in reasons for this drop were not popular convictions. In other words, it
Switzerland to January 1975. volatile economic variations began to seemed as if a new principle had
Marlborough Galerie AG subside and conditions for the necessary exclusively economic. A puritanical
Glärnischstrasse 10 (01-36 34 90). return of confidence re-emerged, the guilt about the previous years of become established, namely the
Fernando Botero to 16 November. political bias of the country shifted to indulgent optimism linked to a realistic compelling notion that works of art
Galerie Paul Facchetti the right and the potential support to appraisal of the measures needed to appreciate in price in proportion to the
Spiegelgasse 11. Permanent collection: the serious art-world from the restored break out of the slump led to a rate at which all other capital values
Pollock, Dubuffet, Nevelson, bourgeoisie was smothered by the philosophy that became temporarily decline. In fact, art becomes a bastion
Abrahams, Del Pezzo. advance of Fascism. hostile to wealth and correspondingly against the erosion of capital. Of course