Page 75 - Studio International - January February 1975

The Chinese and Matisse and the gestures could sustain a maintained that our Gallic to put our logic into the fabric
exhibitions had been organized performance of five hours colleagues have fallen under very of our argument; the Paris critic
and paid for by newspapers, and duration. strange spells and that their puts it into the hardware of
it was to interview the president The sets and the actors (all the writing is inspired by nebulous existence - which happens to be
of one of these papers for the art women's parts are played by men, concepts concerning elusive the company he keeps. His
gallery magazine that I had come by the way) remind one constantly metaphysical concepts. Over position and his power depend
to Japan in the first place. of the subjects of the ukiyoe there the commentator concerns on the artists he has in tow; or, to
Although this man, Jiro Enjoji, is woodblock prints, and of course himself with what art ought to be put it more politely, who comprise
an important government the two forms are intimately and what art ought to do; not his following. Second rate critics
economic adviser and editor-in- connected. Both were the with objective realities. Most of resign themselves to the fact that
chief of Japan's most important cultural expressions of the the time the critic disregards the artists use them as intermediate
financial daily, the Nihon Keizei merchant class which, although actual evidence before the stops along the broken route which
Shimbun, his major interest is rich, was trapped by the rigid observer's eyes. There are, of turns into a career. An Otto
putting together spectacular art feudal system and was not course, very good reasons for the Hahn or a Gassiot-Talabot must
exhibitions. He it was who permitted to use its wealth on liberty enjoyed by the French be content with a transient band
organized the showing outside social improvement. And the critic during his flights of fancy. of wanderers - but the credit,
East Berlin for the first and last Kabuki stories and the stars of the Painting and sculpture provoke a which is due to discovery is often
time of the treasures of the Kabuii theatre provided the passionate and social response in theirs although their writing is
Pergamon Museum. He it was ukiyoe artists with one of their Parisian bourgeois circles. far too slack to exert any kind of
who persuaded the Russians to major subjects. Tourists to Edo Exhibitions provide themes for hold on the young marauders
lend masterpieces from the (old Tokyo) would almost always teatime and postprandial talk who form their troops. They lack
Hermitage and Pushkin Museums. see a Kabuki play and then go even amongst the idlest the passion and the ascetic
I sense that he's disappointed home with a set of prints of the representatives of privilege and commitment which is the hallmark
because it was another newspaper, play or the actors as souvenirs. the strange, stagnant values of of the best French critics. Thus,
the Asahi, and not the Nikei, The Kabuki was also an essential such conversations are bound to the French journalist may well
which succeeded in bringing the part of the ukiyoe, the floating exert an influence even on the strike the British observer as a
Mona Lisa to Japan. I also sense world, itself, for many of those propagators of the genuine little bit Greenberg-like - but
that all of Enjoji's cultural actors specializing in female roles article. The influence is, naturally there is a difference. The ardent
activities form part of his general were also catamites, the part-time enough, double edged. It Clementine invents his own
business dealings. Certainly his equivalents of the female oiran provokes the flowery style of the terms like 'quality' which are
newspaper does not think of working in the green houses in the critic who sacrifices everything meant to refer to a gamut of
itself as being in the charity Yoshiwara district of Edo. to good taste - but it motivates quantifiable accomplishments,
business. True, they don't make Frank Whitford the harsh intellectualism of the even if the orthodox Clementine
any money out of their exhibitions avant-garde as well; and for the refuses to quantify them - but his
but then they don't lose much time being both tendencies are French brother-in-law must
either and, should anything flop equally influential and equally produce a set of terms which
(which it rarely ever does) then detrimental to the true apply to specifiable phenomena
Enjoji sans rage is scrutable to Reviewing understanding of the artist's own only within a single category. A
all. concerns . French critic `defends' - and his
Kabuki is also culture and it is In France The situation is polarized and function revolves around this
also uniquely Japanese. The there is no absolute distinction, notion of 'defending' a certain
Kabuki-za, the theatre, is a long, no genuine antithesis between the attitude. The word is taken from
ornate, traditional building off PART ONE: forces which generate the actual the Parisian's current vocabulary
the Ginza and at 2.30, two hours The Critics conflict. We cannot speak about and fortunately it coincides with
before our performance began, French art criticism and the an ancien regime and an avant- our English term for a militant
little old ladies in kimono, carrying journals which carry it are hardly garde among the critics. The left and military attitude. The
bags containing packed food and related to British examples of the produces its own fair share of barricades are a frequent
a flask of tea, began to queue genre. There are categorical waffle while the right also phenomenon in the streets of
outside. The food and tea is to correspondences between indulges in the romantic Paris and one must not be
sustain them during the French and British art; and Paris manufacture of systematically surprised that allegorically and
proceedings which will last five does not exert a unilateral pseudo-artistic ideas; and vice- metaphorically their appearance
hours. The sheer length of Kabuki influence as Constable's case versa - although it is almost is no less regular. The battle for
and the fact that most of the has shown - which happens to certainly true that the game with survival must go on in cities which
audience knows each play have many, though less significant abstract thought is the lack civilized safeguards against
backwards explain why there are parallels in the present. But there progressive's self-appointed man's innate cannibalism. Until
so many restaurants and snack are hardly any demonstrable province, as a rule. However, recently at any rate we did have
bars in the theatre. When people connexions between French there is a good deal of confusion such safeguards; there was state
feel hungry or thirsty they simply critical attitudes and our own in these matters and the fluidity support for the arts and our
pop out for a bite to eat or a bottle evaluative principles. The is due to the French critic's artists could find a livelihood in
of beer. situation is strange. It is generally position in a turbulent the art schools if buyers were
To a foreigner the plot of each assumed that the French are environment which has violent scarce - but further afield there
Kabuki play seems very much given to regard logical thought undercurrents. Paris has always are no schools and only sales
the same: unhappy woman, having processes in high esteem and it boasted a superabundant guarantee a modicum of
lost husband in battle, is searching is widely believed that we here diversity in the arts and recognition; which ought to
for her son, carried off by enemy prefer an empirical approach but Darwinists could profitably study ensure the basic comforts even
warriors ten years before. She any reader of art criticism will the survival of the fittest among artists deserve.
arrives at a boatman's house. His quickly discover that this is not the internecine groups of the Thus, the French critic's very
son-in-law is really the husband of so in reviews of contemporary French art world. Objectivity real power has firm foundations.
the heroine. He only pretended to art. Mercifully, we still tend to of any kind is, in the He is the artist's mouthpiece as
be killed in battle and he himself assume that art is always about circumstances, not a tenable well as his sole means of virtually
carried off his own son to protect something and that it has proposition. Sooner rather than free publicity. It is, therefore, only
him from the enemy warriors. It something to communicate - later, the French critic is sucked natural that the artist pays rather
grows more complicated later and true though it is that we had to into a camp or into a group; the heavily for the advertising he
provides at every turn rich bend definitions and admit that strong-minded form their own receives. He will offer the finest
opportunities for the heroine to art may be about art and that its circle of alliances - which must examples of his craft to the critic
declaim long, sad speeches in a messages may be minimal. seem to have a recognizable willing enough to accept his bribes
voice which sounds like a cross Consequently, we are still quite character. The critic's stand and when Parisian painters
between a whimpering whippet ready to discuss ideas when we would have no publicity value approach journalists there may
and a girl of six learning to talk. It describe and, what is more unless it was associated with an well be very real tears in their
also provides opportunities for important, we practise the art of 'image' - and his predicament eyes as they proffer their pieces on
the stage designers to create exact description - which leads differs from ours in this respect. allegorically bended knees.
brilliantly lit panoramas of foamy to formalist criticism. In general, (In this sense, and in this sense Visits to homes of critics are
seas or large parts of towns in the newer generation of French alone, Stephen Bann is our only especially revealing. The walls
cherry-blossom time. The critics seems to have abandoned French-influenced critic; his resemble leaves from a stamp
costumes are also spectacular. our ideals; criticism has given leadership in the Systems Group collector's album and in the
Indeed, for the foreigner, Kabuki up the notion that art has some illustrates the French critic's passages movement is difficult
must remain an entirely visual special art-content and it has place as an authoritative program- due to the stacked offerings which
experience and only the magic of branched out into mystiques of designer in a body of more or less hinder progress from one storage
the makeup, the dress, the sets various sorts. It could in fact be like-minded men.) We attempt place to the next. It is interesting
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