Page 89 - Studio International - November December 1975

Konrad Fischer Gallery in Düsseldorf. It is a similar group Hayward'.... could have been so much more positively
of artists (Darboven, Long, Fulton, Gilbert and George, deployed backing the kind of intelligent, progressive
Andre, LeWitt, Nauman, Ryman, Charlton, Weiner, programme which Nick Serota has succeeded in
Huebler, Dibbets, Buren, Merz, Marden, Richter, etc.) pursuing at Oxford's MOMA'. Tim Hilton disagreed :
who have been consistently shown by Herman Kern in 'MOMA continues its defensive policy of mounting
Munich, De Wilde at the Stedelijk, Klaus Honnef in moderately interesting but tangential exhibitions'.
Münster and Bonn, Johannes Gachnang in Berne and Apart from the Arts Council touring exhibitions,
Rudi Fuchs in Eindhoven. occasionally a private gallery organizes a touring show.
In Brussels similar exhibitions have been organized by The Francois Morellet exhibition was organized by Lucy
Yves Gaevert at the Palais des Beaux Arts. He organized Milton. The show had originally been planned by Peter
the exhibition of Six Belgian artists, Jacques Charlier, Ibsen for January 1974 during the Systems show.
Bernd Lohaus, Guy Mees, Panamarenko, Maurice Roquet Serota felt that the exhibition did not include the more
and Phillipe van Snick, at Oxford in July 1974. The interesting aspects of Morellet's work. He also
exhibition raised the problem of nationalist shows which commented that the Arts Council should give
are becoming increasingly frequent. Like many people, administrative advice and help to commercial galleries
Serota feels these exhibitions frequently include who organize touring exhibitions. The exhibition had
interesting work but that artists should not be used to caused some financial problems which are unfortunately
promote nationalistic culture. In the middle gallery was still outstanding.
an exhibition of Hanne Darboven also organized by Serota was enthusiastic about the David Tremlett
Gaevert and first shown in Brussels. Serota regretted not exhibition in the small and middle galleries. It was an
having worked with the artist to organize an exhibition exhibition where the artist responded fully to the demands
specifically for Oxford. A problem that he has constantly of the gallery, and his only regret was that he did not have
to face is organizing an exhibition which bridges the the facilities to arrange for the exhibition to travel to
lack of knowledge in England of major European or Europe. Tremlett spent a long time in the space before he
American artists. He curtly summed up the problem of began to plan the exhibition. He devised temporary
the Arts Council, saying 'they are not prejudiced, just screens that gave the space a new dimension
badly informed'. Although he learnt a lot administratively appropriate to his work. It has become fashionable to
at the Arts Council, it was not until he travelled to Europe, discuss the architectonic role of art in the context of
to Documenta 5 and to Kunstmarkts, that he felt he artists who travel to make exhibitions rather than
understood how desperate the situation had become in sending a packaged exhibition. It is important for
this country. artists to constantly question the permanence of a
After the summer break the gallery re-opened with a gallery or museum space. One of the few criticisms of
large exhibition of Jasper Johns drawings. The Oxford is that the conception of the exhibitions has been
exhibition was a touring show organized by Mark too academic. There has been little attempt to question
Lancaster and Richard Francis for the Arts Council. either the physical or social relationship of MOMA and
Serota heard about the exhibition while he was still the town.
working for the Arts Council and suggested Oxford for A third source of hired exhibitions for Oxford has been
the opening. At the time of the opening, Johns was the Victoria and Albert circulations department. The
living in Paris working on a series of etchings illustrating a Matisse lithographs were hired for £100, and several of
test by Samuel Beckett, to be published by the the photographic exhibitions in the lower gallery came
Petersburg Press. Johns attended the opening. It was a from the same source. The staff has grown slightly, with
visit that was unfortunately marred when the Jaguar in the appointment of Sandy Nairne as assistant director,
which he was returning to London crashed. and a part-time bookshop assistant, but the gallery is still
The Arts Council charged £150 to hire the exhibition. badly understaffed. However, it manages to provide 7 or 8
They organize a large series of touring exhibitions each complete programmes a year, filling all four areas of the
year, charging unbelievablefees of between £20 to £150. building with mostly separate exhibitions. By the end of
Depending on your viewpoint, the exhibitions are either 1975 there will have been 24 exhibitions in 12 months. It
an important contribution to the level of regional is a number which I doubt any other gallery with a full-
exhibitions or an example of the Arts Council's time staff of three could equal. The early part of 1975
paternalistic monopoly of the arts. Their research reflected exhibitions planned to encourage local interest.
department is currently investigating more regional The exhibitions of Matisse lithographs and Young
outlets for temporary exhibitions, particularly in galleries British Photographers were followed by the University of
and museums established by Victorian and Edwardian East Anglia collection of Vorticist, Constructivist, De Stijl
benefactors. and Bauhaus pure and applied arts, formed by Alistair
In the upper gallery in October, John Hilliard showed Grieve and Peter Lasko. The exhibition was planned to
photographic works executed between 1969 and 1974. encourage Oxford colleges to begin collections of
MOMA published a book by the artist, Elemental contemporary art. A useful relationship between MOMA
Conditioning, which was partly financed by the Lisson and the University has been gradually developed. Serota
Gallery's agreement to purchase 150 copies. In the small has been instrumental in the foundation of a fine art
and middle galleries was an exhibition of drawings by residence at Balliol College. Thefirst artist in residence,
Barry Flanagan from 1966 to 1974. The selection grew Noel Foster, was appointed in October for one year.
from a proposal to show recent drawings. The exhibition Further contacts will hopefully be encouraged with the
at Oxford coincided with an exhibition of his recent stone arrival of Lord Goodman as Master of University College.
sculptures at the Rowan Gallery. Serota is proud that attendances to the museum have
Oxford has received both an enthusiastic and a increased from 100 a week to around 150 a day. A major
comprehensive response from the national press, with achievement, as in the same period attendances to the
remarkably few sour notes. Even a critic like Paul Overy, Tate Gallery have dropped from over 1,200,000 to less
who recently stated his intention to'... consistently than 900,000 a year.
attack conceptual art in all its vacuous and pretentious The exhibition of Paul Neagu was covered by major
forms', has praised it as the best contemporary gallery arts page features in The Times and the Guardian. Neagu
outside London, adding in brackets'... and it does not, I is a Rumanian artist who has lived in London and Paris
think, have a rival in London either.' Nigel Gosling called it for the last six years. He proposed an exhibition for the
'very welcoming' and Marina Vaizey, also referring to the entire museum but he accepted Serota's less ambitious
coffee shop, recommended it as'... a lively and proposal to show in the upper gallery. Neagu works under
welcoming place ...'. Caroline Tisdall reported that the title of The Generative Arts Group, his alter egos, for
'MOMA is courageously continuing with a programme of whom he has secured grants from the Arts Council, a
the kind of contemporary art that has yet to find a one-man show at the Serpentine in 1974 and recently one
platform in London even though it has already found a of the £2,500 bursaries from the Arts Council.
safe niche on the International Gallery circuit'. And With the Bruce McLean and Marcel Broodthaers
Richard Cork suggested that the £30,000 wasted by the exhibitions in April the gallery returned to its main themes.
Arts Council on the cancelled theatre exhibition at the McLean had not been concerned with one-man
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