Page 101 - Studio International - July August 1975

images, especially advertising trembling strings.
images, have been subjected to the Thomas Gray, 'The Progress of
same kind of critical analysis Poesy' (1755)
previously lavished on paintings:
a pioneering study was A rational, objective basis is
McLuhan's Mechanical bride necessary to the wildest flights of
(1951) and an outstanding example fancy . . . From such a basis the
was Barthes' essay `Rhétorique artist levers himself into the
de l'image' (1964). It is in literary unknown.
productions such as these that Kenneth Martin (1956)
precedents for Stezaker's recent It would be possible to write
works must be sought rather of Kenneth Martin's
than in the work of other artists retrospective exhibition at the
who are concerned with the Tate using nothing but the
meaning of photographs or who reductionist terminology which
employ combinations of serves us for the most part in the
photographs and texts. discussion of modernist art. His
It is obvious that these works work does not repel, indeed it
address vital political issues, but, welcomes a metalanguage which
unlike overtly political art, adheres as closely as possible to
Stezaker's does not offer glib the formal description of linear
political solutions of either a coordinates in space. Just as it
socialist or conservative kind. encourages analytic descriptions
In this respect its function is in terms of the numerical matrix
similar to that of critical theory and the permutational series, of
in philosophy and sociology; the type successfully undertaken
that is, it presents a critique of by Michael Compton in his
existing problems. However, if contribution to the catalogue.
we accept the moral displayed on But these are not the only
the final panel of 'Look on the possibilities that exist. Surely a
bright side' then Stezaker's distinctive and unavoidable
message is optimistic: it claims implication which arose from this
that the unity of work, thought splendid exhibition is that
and play is to be found in we are invited to reassess, or
creation and that the unity of indeed reanimate, the notion of a
subject, object and value is classic art. Kenneth Martin's
embodied in artworks which are preoccupation with series and
self-consistent in terms of number, chance and order —
subject-matter, content and reason and fancy — is certainly
form. Thus by the example of his Modernist in its radical departure
creative products the artist from an aesthetic of mimesis,
demonstrates in terms of his own from any tradition of art as
speciality how problems in representation. But it rejoins Kenneth Martin. Chance and Order Drawing, 1974. 9 7/8 X 7 7/8 in.
society could be overcome. another tradition, that of the
Stezaker is aware that at the classical norm which has never Kenneth Martin. Chance and Order Drawing, 1974. 9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.
moment his work, by appearing been far below the surface in the
in art galleries and art periodicals, development of the Modern
is to some extent insulated from Movement (especially in the case
the world at large and that to of the Constructivists). To
fulfil its social function it needs disentangle this classic kernel is
exposure outside the art context. not to import irrelevant archaisms
He is therefore seeking the into our apprehension of the
resources with which to match the
campaigns of advertising work as it is. On the contrary, it is
to gain the opportunity of
agencies. Although Stezaker has situating the work with a
simplified his means considerably necessary precision in the
in recent months, to equal the morphology of Western art.
perceptual impact of the mass The first stage in this
media, an even greater particular argument could well be
simplicity in the use of text and the point noted by Anthony Hill
image, and an increase in in his intelligent contribution to
physical scale, are required. In the catalogue: that 'Martin
fact a direct use of photograph realized almost immediately that
and slogan seems to be needed abstract art was the issue i.e.
(Stezaker's recent works are not an option for painting or
second-order creations in that even sculpture alone.' There
they take existing signs and remain of course numerous
surround them with a new different ways of side-stepping the
commentary). One reason why `issue' as it is presented here.
contemporary art meets resistance Indeed the separation of painting
from the public is that it relies and sculpture into specific
on a number of esoteric codes. practices, each with its own
The great advantage to be gained exclusive formal and spatial
by annexing the communication conditions, has the force of a
codes of the mass media is that dogma both in the American
the public is already familiar with criticism which follows Greenberg
them. The artist therefore gains and in the polemical stance of a
the possibility of reaching a much younger French critic like
larger audience. Marcelin Pleynet. But that is
John A. Walker hardly the end of the matter.
Lessing, writing in the later
Kenneth Martin, eighteenth century, was the first
retrospective critic to repudiate the heritage of
'ut pictura poesis' — to insist that
Tate Gallery,14 May-29 June specific conditions of expression
and perception inevitably
Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake, differentiated the arts of space,
And give to rapture all thy such as sculpture, from those of
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