Page 47 - Studio International - September 1974

better. Its acres of sentimentalized values. Nicolas is a thirty year old of vitality which one encounters only enlarged balderdash-telegrams. Now
female flesh and cosmetic romance Frenchman whose first showing in the more arresting examples of he displays what he calls 'well-made', RE
are not really exonerated by the all too presents serially composed drawings advertising. Now, however, in his new 'badly-made' and 'not made'
rare Daubignys and Corots or the of the hexagon and its partial aspects. show at Karl Flinker's, the illustrations of an arbitrary theme. It
very minor Gustave Moreau. He traces his constructivistic designs monotonous family album illustrations should be stressed that Filliou's
Retrospection wears many a with cut sticks of bamboo through are supplemented by a series of very realization of the 'well-made' VIE
disguise and sometimes has the carbon paper and the blind process distinguished drawings in which he composition observes very low
attractiveness of costume pieces. The succeeds in imbuing his geometric reveals himself as a superbly gifted
'Equipo Cronica', on view in the icons with a visionary purity. The artist. he tends to maintain that questions of
Musée d'Art Moderne, counterpoints serrated tool produces curtains of The monoprints exhibited by Antoni proficiency are of secondary concern
eclectic images with a sense of hostile narrow parallels and at a distance Tàpies at the Maeght Gallery were to the illustrator.
humour and the purity of it is a rare these merge into the mist's fresh unquestionably the most
feature in contemporary Spanish art. shades which contribute a chill to the distinguished objects on view in Paris new with Noland's horizontal stripes.
standards of craftsmanship — but then W
They transpose old masters like paper's white. Nicolas may well during the early summer. Tapies He narrows their bands and multiplies
Jean Michel Meurice identifies the 5
Velazquez into fields of allusive substitute an exceptional purity and belongs to the original band of their vibrancy with considerable skill.
modernity, counter-exposing freshness for real originality — but his abstract expressionists but he He has a strong and true sensibility for
Classicism against a recognizable work is forceful enough to suggest demonstrates that every real triumph chromatic harmonies; and this
notion of the contemporary. The that he prefers his deliberate stand to is timeless—even if its inspiration is no combines with genuine craftsmanship
anonymous features of the style the autistic modes of novelty. It is longer directly involved in the present. to produce attractive borders between
which designates this team, are well- interesting that he has such a firm His craft is ambiguous, allusive and interacting pigments.
equipped to stress a cooperative belief in the pristine state of the full of subversively intended Marcel Breuer's work, which is
venture. Rafael Solbès and Manuel original that he does not allow his metaphorical references. He is given a retrospective showing in the
Valdes surrendered their individuality work to be photographed or probably the only western artist whose Musée des Arts Décoratifs, does not
to a concept of partnership in 1964 reproduced. Sanchez, on the other calligraphy rivals the Far East's fit into either of my categories.
and since then they have explored the hand, is a proud and incorrigible capacity to echo physical realities in Obviously, Breuer had no nostalgia
potency of communal pictorial romantic—through whose eyes even line, splodge and sign. Only reds and for discarded ideals — and, even more
languages. Their reductively employed obsolescence bursts into the the sombre end of the spectrum obviously, his work evokes no longing
lines and colours delineate the varied rainbow's many-coloured bridge invade his pictorial fields; and their in the present for his showy,
possibilities of comment and they between two points in time. He is a chromatic contribution is always sculptural tenets. His buildings begin
have charted nearly all the areas which sculptor and old sewing machines exact. His suggestiveness is precisely to be regarded as masterpieces of an
lie between explicitly political and have provided him with the raw motivated. The cross in his oeuvre may utterly discredited kind. They are
painterly preoccupations. material of his dreams. Sanchez is a well allude to the child's clumsy game monuments built from stunningly
The extent of their success is the Peruvian artist and although he is with pigments but it becomes designed external details which
easier to gauge because their work is nearly forty years old, this appears to beginning as well as end when he culminate in surfaces of confrontation
contrasted with the panels of four be his first individual showing. The old introduces it into a design and its but their place in the urban
Milanese quasi-realists. One does not contraptions emit peculiarly eloquent violent colouring gives it the power of environment conforms only to the
quite understand how these four came echoes of a surreal biology and he an icon. city's artificial perspectives. Breuer
to represent Milan — a city which reanimates their apparitional joints Three artists represent the new and seems to have forgotten that the
happens to be the centre of Italy's long electrically. the contemporary. Robert Filliou at architect's dramatic eloquence
quest for a purity of intent in artistic In Dorothea Tanning's case the the Galerie Bama ; Jean Michel derives its force from the visionary
statements. Milan's young artists have hankering for bygone glories Meurice at Templon's and Piotr manipulation of inner spaces.
made an enormous contribution in combines the natural leanings of the Kowalski in the Galerie Eric Fabre. Throughout his career he has
marrying Minimalism and American with the moods of a Kowalski is one of the most serious remained so preoccupied with
Constructivism with illusive baroque vanished period. Her palette sculptors working in Europe. He has statuary concepts that he has paid no
energies— but they have not been reproduces the Salons' pusillanimous moved from an apparently arbitrary heed to the human need for live
renowned for a mature consideration classicism in her surrealist paintings search for new techniques towards inner spaces. Only one genuine
of human involvement. The chaos of and it abandons verisimilitude for applying his very real technological masterpiece survives to commemorate
Italian politics and the inability to deal Francois Boucher's sweet lyricism or discoveries to constructivist notions. his vision ; the Whitney Museum—
with the simple matters of divorce for the robust swirls of a Rubens An example of it is illustrated here but where the requirement for enclosures
laws and social services are inevitably without the slightest sign of hesitation. his work will have to be discussed in a to house art-objects did, in fact,
reflected in these rather childish Nevertheless, a note of harmony longer study and this can only be inspire him to grapple with sculptured
attempts to provoke the spectator succeeds in uniting the disparate published in a later issue of Studio inner volumes— and his triumph in
with visceral realities. Umberto phases of her career— which are International. creating a beautiful environment for
Mariani's are the most impressive brought together in her retrospective Filliou's part as an initiator of inhuman objects owes a good deal to
cartoons, because he carries his case showing at the CNAC. She is a painter conceptualism is not to be denied. his calculated, insensitive
furthest towards a degree of of more or less physical love —just as Jacqueline Ranson gave his early preoccupation with unnatural shells.
abstraction. Boucher and Rubens could be at schemes a showing in 1966, during (The Association des Amis de Le
Spadari introduces a cast which times ; and as most academicians the halcyon days of irresponsible Corbusier and the Fondation Le
illustrates the Great Depression and pretended to be when their customers dada-worship — and the schizophrenic Corbusier are planning to
he enwraps his protagonists in the demanded objects of unconcealed duality of his thinking was already commemorate Le Corbusier's
forgotten revolutionary slogans of eroticism. In Dorothea Tanning's evident then. Eight years ago he contribution with this sort of
1918-1919. The horizontality of his work, however, the flavours are exhibited genuine objects (medallions re-evaluation during the tenth year of
carefully copied headline-captions genuine, the love is real—and merely and do-it-yourself tools) against a his death.)
owes, unfortunately, nothing to the ill-argued sequence of styles background of photographically R. C. Kenedy
the magnificent typographic seems slightly suspect.
inventiveness shown by the cubists Eduardo Arroyo's realism has been Piotr Kowalski Identity+ no. 2 1973 Steel ant/ Neon
at the beginning of this century. dedicated to the impersonal values of
De Filippi indulges in straight the photograph for a long time.
propaganda and he does not Fashionably enough, he was quick to
prevaricate. His portrayals have the modify its shaded perspectives; he
accuracy and the gravity to decorate introduced the less comprehensive
local party headquarters. Baratella, on processes of simplification into his
the other hand, explores only obscene work but he has remained faithful to
episodes of the class conflict. the tenets formulated in schools and
There are, of course, some very academies of commercial art. This is
sensibly argued attitudes for listening not to say that he has failed to
to the call of the past. Fabian Sanchez, contribute a note of brashness—
at the Point Cardinal, and Richard which gave his work a measure of
Nicolas, in the Galerie Sonnabend, distinction among the multitudes who
represent the opposite extremes of this followed his trade. His portrayals have
tradition-inspired respect for attested always managed to convey a degree