Page 93 - Studio International - July August 1975

simplicity and ingenuity that is in order to elucidate their formal
meant to be one of the things we content and to unify the elements
are all looking for in art. of his design in telling
Boltanski had it: two lightning compositions. A geometric
spins round the ring in a calligraphy is the guiding principle
humanly impossible position, of his craft and he uses its simple
half dwarf, half cripple, in figures to describe a universe of
perfect control and leaving the intellective shapes. His simplified
bizarre effect of his photographic perspectives recite the hymns of
images : A mourir de rire (to die of Pythagorean order. He dissects
laughter). So did Beuys who had and realigns even natural
perhaps the unfair advantage of phenomena; and he translates the
being an ex-professional: a imagery of the sky into a sequence
balancing act round a copper of superimposed semicircles in
walking stick on a toppling order to relate planetary events
upright piano, then a crashing to abstract thought. The
footstep on the keyboard and the lightning's zigzag bursts from his
thunder of amplified copper panels with the energy and beauty
hitting copper. Tony Morgan, of spectral bands, illuminating
recovered from his illness and its setting with the grandeur of
able to mock himself, showed the an independent force. His
artist as clown: narcissistic signals are of an extraordinary
mumblings of inept superstardom precision and this ensures that
and miserable weddings in SoHo. his notation is counterpointed
P. A. Hubert turned into the whenever he introduces marks
archetypal Mr Toad and switched of a philosophically intended
terror and delight with smoke and script. His semiotics derive
fire until the whole place was formulae from a limited area but
smoked out. He was the only this is not exclusive; it includes
performer who managed to keep elements taken from games, sport
the tension up for a long time - and the sciences in addition to the
a professional knife-thrower pure symbols of geometry - and Lucio del Pezzo
failed rather spectacularly. he possesses the audacity to La Porte, 1974.
The interesting thing about the envisage them in a numinous Painted wood,
acts that succeeded was that they context. An immaculate 64.5 x 65 x 16cm
all related fairly directly to the refinement goes into the
artist's 'real' work, but had to be juxtapositions which
done with greater economy and characterize his large-scale
greater gaiety than is usually conceptions and he arrives at
demanded of the artist. Vying for stating multipartite visions
space had no part - it had to be through individuating the
replaced with cooperation in separate constituents of a
sequence and timing. Even complete tectonic concept.
Ben's aggro with tomatoes, that Through the use of platforms,
sent the band packing in pillars, pyramids, sceptres and
disgust when the audience got orbs he transfigures the idea of
aggressively carried away, was the bed into a funeral
something that he had to get over monument's aspect. Indeed,
and control by the simple gesture Del Pezzo's art is intricately
of offering himself as object- involved in exploiting the magic Hessie
target. The slogan on the banner of a metamorphic process. Ecriture
put the onus of change in art onto Hessie's is an altogether alludes to domestic pursuits and
change in man. A simple event different kind of magic - and it is its modest overtones renounce to capture momentary and
like this circus demonstrated that impossible to avoid references to the arrogance of Minimalism evanescent impressions and its
a shift in the attitude of the artist suspect metaphysical concepts of details allude to the fragmentation
himself can generate a lost one kind or another when one with a conviction in feminine of a shattered mirror. He attempts
virtues. This was an exceptional
wealth of flexibility, interaction, describes her minimal canvases. first show. to reproduce the mind's struggle
generosity - and human warmth. The thread is her vehicle and in The fine arts break down into against forgetfulness and the
Caroline Tisdall her embroideries it becomes an many groupings but functionally artificiality of every desire to
remember complete experiences -
independent signal, meant to the most important distinction as though trying to deny the live
replace self-sufficient lines. She lies between two kinds of intent reaches of memory itself. He is
organizes loosely structured commemoration and celebration. obsessed by the antithesis between
spaces with large stitches, Jean Le Gac's art belongs to the the record and its changing forms
Paris illustrating rhythmic and quasi- category of commemoration which re-emerge, through
gesturally conceived patterns. (while Del Pezzo's and Hessie's oblivion, as personal
The limp yarn separates the are exemplary instances of recollections. There is something
Three personal exhibitions of linear component of her design celebration). Le Gac's work has very French in his precise and
outstanding merit claimed from the support to a certain superficial connections with calculated approach to the
attention in Paris. Lucio del extent and the measure of this document art and it has, no problems of the past's survival
Pezzo's at the Galerie Paul independence provides the doubt, conceptually motivated in present thoughts; and this
Facchetti; Jean Le Gac's at the vitality of her graphic springs. He employs a combinative knowingness gives his exhibition
Galerie Templon and Hessie's statements. Slender shadows process in which photographs of a distinction which comes from
in the Musée d'Art Moderne de underline the uncertainties of her places are explicated to a certain the disciplined nature of Le Gac's
la Ville (A.R.C. 2). Del Pezzo's needleworked calligraphy; and it extent by additive comment. His experimentation. Le Gac
success is probably the easiest to is significant that she titles a compositions are carefully laid contrasts the glossy, journalistic
account for. His work has a firm great many of her compositions out panels in which text and accomplishment of his camera
place in continuing and converging 'Ecritures'. Several controlled imagery are balanced according work with the deliberately
traditions. His oeuvre is directly notions contribute to the to the classic rules of typography. amateurish nature of his prose.
related to facets of an Italian, success of her work. Her First impressions recall structures The panels carry enlargements of
baroque interpretation given to sensitivity is superbly responsive of wall journalism. Only closer the versions he produces on his
Constructivism and it brings these to the needs of an environment inspection reveals the scrupulous typewriter and his style is based
findings into harmony with of restraint; she is fully aware of harmonies evoked by Le Gac in on a peculiar mixture of models.
Giorgio de Chirico's theatrical, the rhythmic nature of her this difficult medium. His Sade's Justine may well have
silent and void-inspired resources and she regiments her illustrations are evocative and it served as a pattern for the
surrealism. Del Pezzo's raw signals into cadences which should be stressed that he is a episodic structure of his recitals -
material is sculpted wood. He stress the idea of free fall. Gravity superb photographer with a keen but they echo the coy verbiage
paints structured surfaces with transmits both its meanings in eye for haunted and melodramatic of short stories from Woman's
shrill, mostly primary pigments her compositions. Her craft scenery. His iconography is meant Own - in spite of the surrealizing

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