Page 96 - Studio International - July August 1975

rooted than critical directive or seemed unaware of the language the fastenings for reference points, successfully reworked since its
commercial convenience can they had unwittingly and that give no clues, except to show showing in Holland. The
dictate.' partially absorbed. This was seen joining points for the laminated application of colour passages to
The show is divided between more overtly in the younger wood. If the sculpture makes sense interior spaces gives the work
foreign, mostly American, and contributors' works. at all it is in the line of probings added dimension and increases the
British artists. However, if the Misunderstanding was rendered visible by the artist to visibility of the once hidden
work is not representative of one duplicated further by inside and outside space, though 'volume'. It is a noticeably
man's partisan view but rather a presentational problems which most of his earlier work important work in the context of
broader view of sculpture, were not however just the significantly distinguished the one this show. Peter Hide's Pomeroy,
perhaps the containing vehicle prerogative of the young. from the other. His tunnel of 1960 1975, confronts the gallery
of the exhibition is wrong. Sylvia Stone, who was one of was small and identifiable in entrance and sets a qualitative
Having a 'beginning' and 'end' it the oldest contributors, is showing extent, the strips of iron giving standard unrealized by most
is presented as a major show for Manhattan Express, which is as urgent direction to space. No such works to follow. The sculpture's
reasons not arrived at through the flashy and ostentatious as Carl clues aid our view of Tunnel upper horizontal bar is the least
sculpture itself. For instance, how Andre's clay 'brick-bats' were 1972/5, though following on the interesting and operates to link
different the work of younger reductive. If Stone's work first Tunnel came a spate of and span the main centres of
artists working in different elicited the worst kind of feelings extremely fine works. More and visual foci welded into the lower
countries might have seemed if about jumbo-sized American more however there seems within half, its contrasting effect perhaps
they had not been chosen for their mistakes then Carl Andre's this artist's work a gap between too obvious. Hide has seen
similar treatment of a theme. An mingy 'song' to the building trade the mechanics set intuitively to through aspects of a Caro-type
argument contrary to that might merited a score, huddled as it was those principles that construct the style to emerge with work quite
point out the value of such under the stairs in admission of work and the reason why the work honestly his own, the stamp of
duplication. its muted voice. Even Larry is set. authorship supported by a broad
William Tucker's endeavours Bell's 'jar' stood bemused. The sheer force of historical and convincing handling.
to establish the space and place Both these artists represent the 'inevitability' within the The show to its credit will cause
for this exhibition and his absurd conditions that can be conventions of its own a harder and one hopes more
unstinted and unselfish devotion created through polarising development seems to have lost virile approach to sculpture
to the cause of sculpture should be technique and showing the much of its original credibility as making. One reason being that
applauded, especially in these content of the work solely idea. It isn't enough to know that most of the 'experimental-looking'
times of blatant disassociation by through the handling of specific 'b' followed 'a' in retrospect. In sculpture appeared to result from
many with the progress of any material. This is in its broader some ways it was what was left too self-conscious an approach
form of art that requires a context a problem that few out and forgotten that often and that little, if any, new
developed critical faculty to be artists on show were prepared to proved stimulating and in urgent territory has been opened up in
appreciated. meet. need of redefinition at a later the language of sculpture.
The show included 41 artists. One man who does just that is time. It isn't the formula that Some sculptors appear to have
Few were self-exclamatory in Tucker but the piece, entitled needs a retrial any more but the been caught in an after-effect
style and most rested in the Tunnel 1972/5, remains awkward ingredients. situation. Nobody wishes to stop
shadows, shadows from which and unresolved. The tunnel The lack of faith by nearly all enthusiasm or effect a change in
Brancusi once ran proclaiming starting and leading nowhere the artists on show to extend their their commitment to art. But, in
that there nothing ever grew. The attempts what perhaps crustacea work and demonstrations of its broader terms which a show like
group's age ranges from the young show to be a complicated task. materiality, poses the most serious this allows, we are able to compare
twenty year-olds to those in their Our knowledge of the functional dilemma. From the thin, vain the many stereotypes made
mid-forties. aspect of all tunnels leading us to work of Nigel Hall to the available to us here with their
Most of the sculptures were confuse in this case the wall for ponderous buffer-states of David originals. Jeff Lowe's Sculpture,
small scaled and some sculptors object, the inside for the outside, van de Kop, a mechanistic trail of curiously dated November 1975,
articulating material rides and is unfortunate in that it not only
slides seemingly undirected to emulates Caro's late style but
Peter Hide. Pomeroy, 1975. Steel anything other than the appears as a facsimile of half of
artists' immediate sensory Riviera, made by Caro between
reaction. Julian Hawkes' Kami 1974/5. Many of the works
might have maintained the individually had little to commend
contemplative characteristics them. It isn't the style that's at
suggested by its black and white fault but the tame and 'corseted'
reproduction had not the orange approach by Bolus, Fauteux (this
textured glow of leather grim steel frame had unforgiveably
transplanted its tranquillity into unsquare corners for such a slim
claustrophobic and airless build), Witkin, Madsen, Wolfe
confrontation. Garth Evans's and others.
interwoven conundrum entitled Equally revealing and
Untitled has mathematical depressing is the way that some
associations which act solely as artists elevated to the level of
content. Phillip King's Open international hero can at best
(Red-Blue) Bound has been deliver very mediocre work.

William Tucker. Tunnel, 1972/5. Laminated wood