Page 103 - Studio International - July August 1975

Gerald Newman tape is put together according world at one remove. In fact they
to a precise, though not function rather like a caged bird
The Gallery particularly complicated put down in an orchard to
April-May mathematically based system. A confuse and trap the other free
detailed apprehension of the birds.
Two of our most common overlapping forms of its Newman has discovered, like
states of consciousness concern composition is probably Warhol, Long, Burgin and
the difference between being important only in so far as it others, that reality can be
indoors and out, or the provides a crutch for the represented as long as the artist
awareness of the other which subconscious and a series of does not attempt to limit its
either situation implies. In pegs on which to hang the boundaries or to do more than
Orders I at The Gallery, thoughts and perceptions of the rearrange it. He can trap
Gerald Newman created a observer. something of what we can
synthesis of both, of a delicacy The construction of the work perceive but cannot express
and toughness in the highest seems to suggest a fugal without destroying.
minimal/conceptual traditions. parallel, not only from the point of In so far as he is in control of
Orders I is made up of two view of the tape structure, but his perceptions, the order in which
parts: on the wall at one end of also in the way all the sound the observer views the work is
the room a black board (not the layers enter and re-enter the entirely his own affair. The room Vija Celmins, Drawings
hyphenated kind or chalked work in various changing forms. is empty. He is not involved with at Felicity Samuel Gallery, May
upon but having something of (Indeed it's a neat paradigm of objects but with areas of thought,
the tutelary function) enjoins an artist's career as such). Bach perception, the relation of masses Jennifer Bartlett,
consideration through the few is important, but so is Cage of space and masses of sound
white words printed on it of (the Sonatas and Interludes for delimited only by his physical Paintings
things above, near and distant, Prepared Piano is a key piece) capabilities. Such a meditation at Garage, 23 April-17 May
of (sun) light on a wall and gulls. and especially perhaps in the upon the beauty and shape of
At the other end of the room, economy of the work, in the the living world would in the Sylvia Guirey,
relayed through two speakers quietness, in the simple seventeenth or eighteenth
high on the wall, a sound-tape repetition of the short phrase of centuries have taken a Drawings on Canvas
constructed from a recorded gulls and in the way silences are metaphysical or religious at Hester van Royen Gallery,
snatch of seagulls runs for 45 used. One is particularly aware of direction. The modern world 6-13 May
minutes, the effect being of silences in the tape because they is more concerned with patterns
continuity rather than reveal real sounds and silences of fact for their own sake. The realist corpse still refuses
performance. and thus the structure of real There are obvious parallels to lie down and regularly returns
Order is of the essence - hence space. In so doing they also alter with Burgin's 1970 Room piece. to haunt us. One such visitation
the title. There are three main the observer's mode of perception But Orders I focusses the has been Photo-Realism, a
kinds, though numerous others as well as his mood. observer's attention away from recent West Coast phenomenon.
emerge as perception of the In the catalogue of the 1973 himself - rather as music does. Vija Celmins is one of this group
piece expands: the natural Tooth's Critics Choice The situation is more directly of artists who have rejected the
order of things, as represented by exhibition Newman used an apt sensual, the framework less freedom they inherited and
the gulls, the ordering of the quotation from Thoreau to closely demanding. It enwraps regressed to the nineteenth-
piece on tape (and the physical accompany a piece called the observer in its structure while century practice of copying
construction of the work Soundings 1, of which the layout directing his attention to things photographs.
generally), and the order in which of the verbal equivalent and the other than itself. The delicacy of Many Photo-Realists use their
the observer views it. use of natural sounds - rain, the piece, its casualness - the crass painting technique and
The physical board/tape birdsong, street noises, observer can walk in and out at carefully selected images to
composition of the piece aeroplanes - suggest at least a will - means that after the first comment on American life and
functions as a kind of blue-print. subconscious relationship with glance the structure functions values, but Celmins prefers
It is deliberately elementary and Orders I. 'Silence is even less almost as a hidden order. romantic-escapist subjects
contrasts with the complexity of strange than noise, lurking among Nevertheless by entering the devoid of social reference. She
the areas of real world the work the boughs of the hemlock or room he enters its sphere of draws from photographs of the
encompasses in terms of space pine just in proportion as we influence, so that he finds ocean, pebbles on the shore,
and in the mind of the observer. find ourselves there. The himself both driving the machine and the heavenly bodies -
As such the gesture is similar to nuthatch, tapping the upright at the same time as it drives him. representatives of land, sea and
manifold art usages (not only trunks by our side, is only a Like David Dye's current new air, or of matter in its three
conceptual) of systems or partial spokesman for the piece round the corner at the primary states gaseous, liquid
geometries overlaying or solemn stillness.' (Journal, Lisson Gallery, this is an and solid. She frames off all
dovetailing into landscape or Dec. 15th, 1838). important contribution to a reference to the human scale of
other natural orders. In the same catalogue Richard flourishing tradition. Gerald daily life and usage and presents
The tape happened to be made Cork wrote that Newman wanted Newman doesn't feature in them as endless, untouched
first, but it plays perhaps the less our response to be more like Lucy Lippard's Dematerialization expanses of molecules for
of the Art Object or Germano
important role. The verbal passing through a patch of mist Celant's Art Povera. He is perhaps contemplation and dreaming
instructions would still be than studying its meteorological the least well-known of all the only.
operative on their own. Though causes. Newman himself said of artists who have been included In her drawings of the sea
the levels of interest would be an earlier work shown in the in the various British surveys of Celmins is content to copy the
considerably diminished, since entrance hall of the New York the area. His work deserves more skin of the water, which resembles
the tape, which mingles with Cultural Center, that he wanted attention. human skin magnified many
real noises external to the room, people to pass through it as one Anne Seymour thousand times, and she poses
constitutes a mirror image or experiences atmosphere walking as a dispassionate observer with
copy of the outside world on a around London. no involvement or attitude, coolly
different time scale transported The notion of the presenting her images as visual
to the present inner world of the dematerialized work which is records without comment. As a
room. The idea has parallels in part of reality is important. So result communication is blocked,
Nash (notably The Empty Room) too is the way the buffers of and the drawings say nothing,
and Magritte, as well as more perception bring the observer up serving merely to demonstrate the
recent artists. The work is short against the perceptual and artist's skill at manipulating an
perceived at its best when the philosophical problems H.B. For most people
volume of sound and silence expressed so well in the Ninth imitative virtuosity has never
within the room is equal to that Duino Elegy. The gulls do in a been enough, and especially not
outside, so that a mysterious certain degree heighten the since the daguérrotype took over
balance of sounds is set up, atmospheric effect, but that function.
questioning, answering and objectively they mean no more Copying photographs,
suggesting across space and time. than a familiar noise coming however, also flourished as an
There are close musical links generally from overhead. As the artistic quirk in the late
in all Newman's productions. In words on the board are nineteenth century, and so the
fact he wrote pieces of music indicative of perceptual processes, Symbolists, as an antidote to
before he did his first sound the gulls are symbolic of the mindless mimicry, stressed the
works of this kind. The present natural order of things. The real importance of starting from an
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