Page 87 - Studio International - May June 1975

taken to view the finished work.) horizontal bars or the horizontal might be ambiguity in the word's
Contrast this, for example, with top edge of vertical steel sheets reading or clarification only UK
William Tucker's late work which hints at the waist to shoulder- through reading further on, we
uses an almost consistent shape height concern with horizontality, cannot alter the position of the Reviews
and form element throughout to be later developed in an word in the sentence without
each sculpture and as a impressive and expansive way in altering the sentence's meaning.
consequence sets up a different Prairie, in 1967. Trefoil, 1968, Quite the opposite is true of
time structure. marks the reduction in the Anthony Caro's sculpture; we can Craigie Aitchison
It was inevitable from the way `established bulk' and reverse the order of its parts, in Rutland Gallery
disparate elements were used in sumptuousness of Prairie, as fact, we are openly invited to, by 12 March 2 May
the very first of Caro's works that though the artist had indigestion walking round the sculpture or by
source and location would come from providing such lavish meals increasing or decreasing the Craigie Aitchison's recent show
to play a larger part in structural and only by using Spartan distance between us and it. Not at the Rutland Gallery was his
decisions. His latest 'tent-like' methods would he be able to only is the meaning of the work most impressive since the closing
sculptures enclose space, maintain a proper perspective on changed in this reconnoitre (if of Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts
trapping it to the ground as events. Sight, 1969, marks the meaning is to be made from our Gallery in 1964. Although he has
though each was interchangeable, complete slim man against which experience of space and its had three one-man exhibitions
the space marking out the any further tightening of the articulation) but also the inflective since then, and has contributed to
sculpture's location in a reversal `waist' was to prove impossible. values of parts to parts and to the several group shows, his very
of roles, as in Durham Steel Flat The slow build up (or build down) whole. individual and precarious style
for example. was again to the skeleton, the This in a sense alters the has not been seen at its best.
What about the deceptive side, bones of the work spreading emphasis we place on the same Aitchison's pictures have always
as in Red Splash, where although horizontally, as in the ground part given each new position we needed plenty of space to assert
it relates physically to the human sculptures of 1965, but at the new adopt and the role it plays in their presence and do not
scale and is direct it nevertheless height which was sometime above subscribing to our interpretation necessarily gain from close
optically distorts space? eye level, these have subsequently of the whole sculptural gestalt. proximity to each other in the way
Mesh is deceptive. The ground been added to, as in Durham `Syntax' as a concept is a better that more self-contained pictures
format acts as a knowable gestalt Steel Flat. model for the pictorial cubist do. He is a master of subtle and
and is one half of the way I know In the increased height the relief because the eye movement delicate modulation and his
the sculpture. However, the triangle has come into play with across the surface is simpler and carefully achieved effects can
optical encounter with the work good effect, it keeps the implied sequential. easily be destroyed by a jarring
tells me something which is centre of gravity low in the The change in the emphasis of environment. Correspondingly,
diametrically opposed to this sculpture, below eye level, yet parts as we move round, alters the the pictures can be difficult to
known factor. As in the AMES allows the sculpture to rhythm and the mood, set by the look at; their surface charm often
room so here, my knowledge and physically extend above this line. work. In some ways metre in obscures their intention. There are
the visuals do not match up. I see The sculptor does not wish the poetry is more useful as a model few reference points with other
the four red verticals farther apart work to transcend the boundary for comparison to Caro's works, contemporary painters and few
than they really are. This refutes beyond personal scale. if only in that we can compare clues as to how he arrived at his
the measured real space in which Riviera, marks both the scale stressed and unstressed parts and picture making approach. The
they stand. and dividing line between the 'saw their speed. most common critical reaction to
The dichotomy between horse' and sumptuous `pig's ear' Riviera, almost subscribes to a Aitchison's work has always been
knowing and seeing finds its pieces of the last three years. formal demonstration in steel of to categorize him as a naïf. At
annex in Red Splash, and perhaps Muscle and bone are equally and `blank verse'. It is about the flow various times comparisons have
is more overtly a part of the minimally distributed along its of discreet parts brought together been made with such diverse
sculpture than in any subsequent length. Smaller notes echoing in communion that has always artists as Redon, Douanier
or preceding works. incidents found in the larger been the problem and in which Rousseau, Hockney, Japanese
However, it may be that this struts and regular steel beams, are the art is shown. printmakers and medieval
optical differential is tied in some influenced in outline by additions It is the very denial of syntax religious painters. Seeing four of
way to the explicit statement made of wavering-edged components that Caro promotes in many the largest pictures in the big
in the sculpture about placement. which overlap or lock onto the works, so that undivided attention inner room at the Rutland,
And, more especially, placement expanding overall motif. to 'pace, pause, and time', can be Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler
to the floor than to internal Twenty-seven feet long and ten made when a regularly known could be added to this list without
aspects. The mesh is important in feet high, Riviera is to the Durham beat and unit is not required. it coming any closer to defining
making sense of this since it links Veduggio and Vermont works Another comparison, if and explaining Aitchison's
and lightens the bulk weight what Trefoil was to Prairie, comparison is required, is with painting.
implied by the round corner posts. Smoulder and the 1965 pieces. 'free-verse' in prose where a The most recent and significant
However, it also substitutes itself Their scales and composition suspension of syntax is in order. work in the inner room was Dog
as the internal structure. Linked though are obviously of a Riviera holds up to this too, with in Red Painting. The title implies
to this is the seductive way it different order. top and bottom stress that the painting was there before
allows us to accept its role. This Fried: 'Everything in Caro's counterchanged during its the dog. The effect depends upon
sleight of hand sometimes lets art that is worth looking, except lengthwise movement. an exact conception of space and
Caro's real inventory powers slip the colour, is in its syntax.' Steel sculpture is a convention light which is rendered very
by without notice. Rubin: 'Caro accepted the of the late fifties, sixties and early quietly and which exists so
The Bennington and Vermont tenets of Cubism to do something seventies in Britain. There is little strongly that the dog seems
'saw-horse' works are skeletal in utterly new . This was made either good or bad in the amount almost an abstract element in the
character, eg Silk Road, 1971-74, possible by identifying the a work subscribes to those composition. But if the dog was
but have developed into works essence of Cubism as its syntax.' conventions already in existence. not standing in the right
such as Durham Steel Flat 1973/4 From the first to the last, Caro What is important is how effective foreground, would the red painting
and Riviera, 1974/5; the latter is a has confronted the problem of a use the artist puts them to. And be worth looking at? This was
complex statement where the syntax. One could go further and Anthony Caro is effective. perhaps the only picture in the
march of angle to vertical is say that he has done away with it. Barry Martin show whose ostensible subject is
coordinated to form an organic The idea that the concept of not invested with the emotional
series of movements, absent from syntax is a vehicle through which significance which brings his work
the stripped and bare Vermont we might understand Caro's its hypnotic impact. The large
pieces. sculpture better is false and only Crucifixion, hung next to Dog in
It is of interest to note the serves to hinder any undertaking Red Painting, was equally
sequence of major events in we might make to understand the composed of abstract elements
Caro's work, for instance, the fullness of his composition and with the important exception of
other great period of 'reduction', construction techniques. the small figure of Christ at its
where stripping occurred was in A singleness in the meaning of centre. Helen Lessore, in her
1965 and is represented by such any word in sentence- catalogue introduction, has said
works as Smoulder. This was construction is a prerequisite for of Aitchison's Crucifixion
followed by adding expanded syntax and is dependent on pictures: 'It is a peculiarity of his
metal to the vertically rising sequential arrangement. It can approach that, while form and
ground elements, as found in only make sense by strictly colour are of the utmost
Smoulder. The results can be seen following a set pattern, for importance to him, substance is
in Carriage, 1966, or The Window example, by following the rule of of none whatever. Simplicity and
1966/7, where the additions of before and after. Although there clearness are, however, vital so
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