Page 83 - Studio International - May June 1975

of ascetisism to his have lost the dexterity to documentary boredom of this being seen in the West for the first
minimalizing purposes. The invigorate each graphic unit encyclopeadic style is inevitable time since the twenties when they
severity of his concept illustrates with a clear and vital energy and throughout the chronologies and were exhibited in Paris and
some conviction. the uncertainties of the individual biographies. Rather than Germany (when several were
The new premises of the Galerie notes combine with his concentrating on precise and acquired by an American
Paul Facchetti are surely one of repetitiveness to defeat the pertinent explications of the collector; others it seems,
the most elegant show-spaces rhythmic intent of his statement. works (many of which are newly have since been lost in the
in the Western world and R. C. Kenedy seen in the West) and on the dungeons of Soviet museums if
Hundertwasser's gouache-dayglo purely plastic problems which not simply destroyed). Despite
compositions are admirably they pose, the biographical texts the plans supplied by one of the
fitted to bring out the radiance get bogged down in pleonastic brothers, Vladimir Stenberg, the
of their marble setting. His rhetoric which compromises the spirit of Russian Constructivism
baroque vision continues Klimt's Russian Art publication. Thus, once more the is absent in the works exhibited by
Viennese flirtation with the hagiographic text outdoes the the Galerie Gmurzynska. They
golden beauty of surfaces and it Again works rather than contributing to are true to the originals only in
translates the urban stage of our their understanding. These size. The material, the finishing,
European experiences into a biographical notes, written by the assemblage are unfaithful to
graphic equivalent of the The first retrospective of John Bowlt, are certainly within the spirit of Constructivism. We
Arabian Nights' aesthetics. He Russian avant-garde art, the domain of documentary find ourselves confronted by
pushes description towards the organized in 1959 by E. accuracy (for the most part), but fragile and shiny structures
calligraphic signal's and the Steneberg, has been followed by a of lesser interest since the artists (those of Vladimir) where the
spiral's abstraction, multiplying regular succession of exhibitions. are all known to a well-informed love of the object, the solidity of
every means of visual notation as With the exception of the rare public (for whom, above all, this construction, the robust encounter
he goes along; and he arrives in one-man retrospective, most of catalogue is conceived). This fact of textures and different materials
dreams which have a drunken the exhibitions situate themselves is even more troublesome since are absent. The works by
decorative magic altogether their in the nebulous sphere of a the notes on the artists' work seem Vladimir Stenberg have suffered
own. `Russian avant-garde' and carefully thought through and even more severely from this
Alain Kirili (Galerie include all manner of work often refer to the artists' own reconstruction, as they are not
Sonnabend) exhibited oils on (despite the 1962 publication of words. Yet on more deliberate soldered (contrary to what
canvas and paperworks which Camilla Gray's book in which reading, the plastic notions Stenberg told me he wanted) and
strive to establish a clouded the general lines of the subject contained in the notes are of at the moment of my visit to the
version of abstract expressionism were made clear). The distressing poverty and often exhibition were precariously held
in quasi-monochromes, disturbed incoherence of a conglomerate erroneous. This disparity between together with scotch tape, leaving
by Tobeyish miniature signals. `Russian avant-garde' has the texts and the works exhibited the astonishing impression of a
He plays variations on continued to be such an indicates the artifice between the hasty handyman's job. Even if we
taciturnity with his metal strip amalgam, that only a geneticist means employed (and the admit that the invention of scotch
sculptures, laid out in wrinkles of the Institut Pasteur could initiating ambitions) and the tape proposes certain comparative
across the gallery floor and pierced distinguish the parts, which from results obtained. Among several parallels to the ingenuity of
with wire-thin steel rods. a historical point of view has examples, we can mention, for Russian Constructivism, it seems
Julio Le Parc (Galerie Denise little to recommend it. instance, the three elements of impossible to admire its
Rene) presented a series of The ups and downs of Miturich's Plastic Alphabet, application in this context. We
canvases in which unshaded complacent classification appearing in a western exhibition search in vain for precise
primary colours enact the victimizes exhibitions such as the for the first time (an artist known explanations or interpretations
convoluted pattern of illusory Hutton Gallery catalogue and since Camilla Gray's book and of the works in Szymon Bojko's
tubes, knotted and looped in show, 'Russian Avant Garde discussed in more recent article (pp. 26-30). He limits
symmetry-inspired designs. A 1908-1922' (New York 1971- publications). Here the elements himself to narrative platitudes
harsh illusionism inspires his 72), where one finds such total are simply entitled 'Cube' while concerning the general artistic
very cool and decoratively strangers to the Russian avant- the laborious biographical text activity of the two brothers, and
conceived pieces. The varnished garde as the Italo-Czech cubo- (p. 114) is preoccupied with sums up with the unimaginative
acrylic surfaces stress his futurist painter, Ruzhena lengthy descriptions of the repetition of commonplace
detachment and the disdain of it Zatkova; not to mention that of artist's figurative drawings and knowledge of Constructivism.
conveys his pursuit of an the Galerie Gmurzynska's contributes nothing to the This exposé is even more
anonymous elegance. 1973 'Progressive Russian Art' understanding of the astonishing disappointing in that no
James McGarrell's oils (at in which we find Charchoun and Plastic Alphabet. The narrative commentary - factual or '
Claude Bernard's) presented a Zadkin in a Russian avant-garde paraphrases, so unrelated to the historical - describes the
dreamy world of domestic context. Their art owes nothing exhibition itself, become even sculptures.
interiors and landscapes glimpsed to that avant-garde, nor did they more seriously damaging to the The reconstruction of the
through open windows. His ever try to associate themselves conception of a scientific text and Rodchenko works is, by far, more
events are contained within the with Russian avant-garde merely serve to mask the lack of convincing (even though certain
abstractive field of a painted aesthetic postulates. essential information. Thus, for inexactitudes exist in the
secondary frame, borne by the This tendency to `salon' the book 'The Universal War', suspension of the rings on No. 38).
canvas, and its slate greys classification determines the Rozanova's (and Kruchenykhs') Here, Bojko's text contributes
contribute asentimental haze to character of recent exhibition collages are presented without many factual elements, but, like
his narrative. He paints his scenes catalogues in which the pedantic indication of their edition (which his text on Stenberg, is
with artfully naive brushwork, enumeration of facts, conceived would appear to compromise the uninterpretative regarding the
concentrating on impressionistic in a chronological formula, has exhibition itself where works are place of these works in the two
detailing. The figures, that stray replaced the old technique of art not only shown but are for sale). distinct periods of the artist's
into his design, enact bucolic critics' chatter. The latest It is also unfortunate that works development: the two white
pursuits and even their most exhibition to date where this reproduced in full page sculptures are of his 'pictorial'
intimate encounters carry only attitude is adopted is at the illustration (Kliun No 9, Popova period and strongly influenced by
the anonymous charm of the Galerie Gmurzynska of Cologne, No 32, and the two Exter works) Malevich and Tatlin, while the
fairy tale - even though the a gallery which has demonstrated are not hung in the exhibition. suspended work, executed after
setting is almost modern. He its interest in Russian art for The real interest of the his study of the line follows the
goes beyond shrinking perspectives several years. Contrary to its exhibition is found in the works `Xth Exhibition of Non-
by miniaturizing the passions and, exhibition catalogues of 1970 and of Suetin, Matiushin, Objective Art and Suprematism'
consequently, even his records of 1973, whose value lies only in the Rodchenko (the latter from the (Moscow 1919). It would be very
a love-making couple are without reproductions, the exhibition Costakis Collection, Moscow, useful to the proper understanding
the slightest hint of eroticism. `From Surface to Space' which one is glad to see again of Russian art of this period to
Henri Michaux's new works (18 Sept-30 Nov, 1974) was following its inclusion in the precisely clarify the brutal break
(in Le Point Cardinal) continued reinforced by a voluminous London exhibition, 'Tatlin's in the evolution of pictorial ideas
to explore the possibilities of publication and endowed with Dream' at Fischer Fine Art), provoked by Malevich's White
automatic turbulence. He scientific ambitions which and especially by the Suprematism in 1919 (which
reproduces the energies of flatter the gallery. Failing the reconstruction of three created such consternation among
prehistoric and primitive art in discovery of unknown artists, the Rodchenko sculptures and four the younger artists). It is there
his script but the tumultuous Galerie Gmurzynska has by the Stenberg brothers. But it is that we must search for the source
regimentation of his signals adopted the 'historical' approach with great regret that one must of the Stenberg brothers'
begins to display signs of which leads to a richly illustrated admit the unhappy result of the `technological' constructions,
fatigue. His hand appears to catalogue of 165 pages. Yet the four latter sculptures, which are for Productivism as well as for

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