Page 22 - Studio Internatinal - October 1974

Now the Biennale exhibition of sculpture at an awful lot of sculpture and in any country Furthermore, the 'selection' of artists-to-be-
the Open Air Museum in Antwerp's Middelheim one could predict that much of it would be invited would encourage this: evidently the
Park was an almost totally different kettle of awful. But ninety-five per cent? That's the committee wrote to about 100 'art experts'
fish. Subsidized totally by the city of Antwerp generalized percentage of work I found to be so (museum directors and critics) asking for a list
— to the tune of 4,000,000 francs (about undistinguished by a living personality that it of names who must be included — and then
£42,000) — its 'work committee' consisted of could easily be sold (and hidden) in an invited all artists named to send in a work.
the mayor, alderman for cultural affairs, and the international exhibition of works from the Supposedly what was sent in was what was
city's standing consultative committee on the 1940s. And yet people seemed to like the show. exhibited. The results may have been thoroughly
visual arts (which in its turn consists almost Is this the Belgian 'establishment bourgeois' representative of the actual situation of Belgian
totally of traditionally academic sculptors). taste? I think so — for most of these artists are sculpture, but I found it an appalling
Titled Belgium Sculpture in Middelheim, the represented in the local museums, their embarrassment for Belgian art. So when I took
catalogue presents 152 participants, not all of biographies list Belgian prizes won and their photographs of works, I tried to find
whom participated (I know) and some of selection by the government for inclusion in representative pieces as well as pieces I
whose participations I never found. Still, that is the Venice, Sao Paolo and Paris Biennales. personally liked.

André Bogaert Mutations 1974. An excellent example of popular academic Surrealism, distorting human form to an abstraction of no significance. I think of this work as a
slightly larger and more revolting version of the more kitsch-like mini-monkeys of Reinhoud, which populate Belgian museums and collections.
Poi Bury Monument no 4, dedicated to the refection of 15 demi-spheres 1971. An un-exceptionable piece by a serious, elderly, master. The simplicity of the idea is visibly and
physically activated by the use of stainless steel for all the elements connected by magnetic forces.
Pierre Caille Prince Coiffé 1963. An extraordinary bit of kitsch in polychromed wood and ceramic, done by a man who has been working in ceramics since 1935, has made a
number of major works for public spaces in Belgium, and still teaches at 'La Cambre' in Brussels.
Wybrand Ganzevoort, Wall 1973. A rather typically bland bit of constructivist plaster made by one of many artists who began as an abstract painter and evolved into
3-dimensional work, with an interest in the industrial potential of multiplication.
Roland Monteyne, The Hermit Discovers the Un-nameable, Thanks to Two Shining Catalysts 1974. The best thing I can say about this sculpture, which was done in a Henry
Moore style by a sculptural artist actually born in 1932, is that it attracted one viewer in the exhibition's opening to sit in its comfortable bronze lap. I tried to photograph
that, but the man rushed away.
This untitled, almost anonymous work (known as 22 because of the small bronze numeral in front of it) was the only piece that I really liked in the whole exhibition. After
much research on its authorship, I can tell you that it is in fact a work done by the gardeners — the real workers in the exhibition. Actually, the bands of grass turf and flower
pots which quietly dangled from the regular metal L's are by the gardeners, while the metal components are left from an exhibition in 1971 when they supported a sculpture
by Yutaka Toyota in the Biennale of that year. The excellence of this piece supports the old saying 'Anyone can do it' and leaves the question of why didn't more artists do it
in this exhibition.

Then there was the exhibition titled 'Aspects century architectural importance (Napoleon classic (establishment) taste manifest in the
of Contemporary Art in Belgium' at the ICC owned it and his bed is still there) whose walls Triennale, this exhibition was easily the most
(International Cultureel Centrum) in Antwerp. and ceilings must be preserved, the ICC consistently avant garde of the three:
As part of the regular exhibition programme of exhibition was smaller in scale and more flowing generally conceptualist in style, the work was
this institute organized by Flor Bex and Claude in installation than the Triennale or Middelheim often engaged in a socio-political awareness
de Vos, this show did not have the extraordinary exhibitions. Only nineteen artists were shown. which is non-establishment if not clearly anti-
administrative build-up (or comedown) of the Some were also presented in the Middelheim establishment. And although there was not a
other two. With a budget of 1,000,000 francs catalogue and Bruges exhibition, but here you higher proportion of good art (Le., successful
for exhibitions during all of 1974 (twenty-five could see more of their work in more personally within its own terms and redolent with
per cent of the Middelheim one-time big-bash), relevant installations. Initially conceived as a important implications) here than in the
and with a permanent building of eighteenth- sort of alternative information to the more Triennale, I certainly found it more consistently

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