Page 94 - Studio International - November December 1975

seems that the main benefit is the effect on the viewer. demonstrated that problem-solving and an ordered
He is more likely to be stimulated into unravelling the procedure were integral to the final statement. In the
incidents leading to the final piece and thereby catalogue introduction he pointed out that the exhibitors
specifically consider the thought process of the artist. shared what amounted almost to a self-deprecating
attitude ; they used a shield of anonymity which was
manifested either in the use of ideas of apparent banality
or of images associated with the style of another artist.
In some cases this facade was preserved only to underline
a simple subtlety which would inevitably emerge when
the spectator became aware of the direct connection
between the idea for the work of art and the actual
physical shape and character of the object.
Up until now Crumplin has worked with methods
already associated with an older generation, in particular
Kenneth Martin and the Systems group, and an
assessment of his work is bound to suffer from their
precedent. While his work is in no way a slick imitation
of these styles the Card Pieces have an uncanny
resemblance to Kenneth Martin's series Chance and
Order, mainly because of the clustering of short lines in
unorganic matrices. For both artists the final product had
mysterious and iconographic qualities not suggested in
Colin Crumplin Six 4.75 1975 the preliminary drawings. In Crumplin's piece ///, 12.74
the separate stratas, those groups of sticks which had
In the third group of works, an extended sequence of been dropped during a particular interval, were identified
drawings entitled Hommage a Queneau, Crumplin by a uniform colour, black/grey/brown. In addition a pair
again developed the variations of a constant subject. of each of the figures resulting from dropping the
Here the individual examples, pencil sketches of a cup, rectangles within a given area were reproduced in
embodied different artistic styles presumably chosen isolation and displayed to the right of the main
entirely by human will. Contrary to the two previous configuration. From a distance the visual importance of
series the set of possible permutations was in fact a large the various depths as a measure of work-time was
but finite group, namely all the recognizable, historic reduced, allowing the starkness of the quirky silhouettes
styles identifiable by the average viewer which the artist to take priority over the theoretical side of the piece.
had the desire to depict. In a useful handout which Indeed, some of the configurations resembled real
Crumplin wrote for the exhibition he explicitly objects : in /// an anchor shape stood out by itself.
acknowledged a) the inspiration for the series ; b) the It is obvious both Kenneth Martin and Colin Crumplin
event which led to his choice of subject matter. The idea take extreme care in making adjustments to their formulas
was adopted from Raymond Queneau's book, and in the selection of which works are brought to a
Exercises in Style in which the author explores the variety finished state from among the haphazard raw ingredients
of meanings/characters a single story takes on when told produced from the system. Their work triumphs visually
from different viewpoints and in various ways technically. because of this discrimination. However, when the
The impetus to work came to Crumplin when he was method is repeated in art schools it often has the less
drinking coffee, hence the choice of an ordinary cup as desirable effect of taking the place of fully difficult and
the subject matter. creative thinking. An undue emphasis on technical
Specifically each drawing possessed at least one of two experimentation and surface elaboration was perhaps the
sorts of information, either a factual statement about the outstanding limitation of the abundantly energetic work
anatomy and sociology of the coffee cup and/or an in the Chelsea post-graduate show. The show consisted
imitation of the style of a recognised draughtsman or of the work of 31 students who had completed a 48-week
school. Both sorts of information could be eventually session. Their work demonstrated that they had been in
linked to the known source. From the beginning the contact with an exceptionally professional staff(mainly
viewer would know he was looking for the cup in each of people who are artists before teachers) and which
the 12 in squares, and secondly he would soon begin coincidently includes Colin Crumplin (also a former
looking for the twist. In fact most of the anonymous student).
styles came either from Basic Design, for instance the Among the work of the better sculpture students was
radial cross-section of a cup, or else from advertising. that of John Newling, which was offered in bulk, objects
In the incidents where it was the style as such that was piled on tables and against walls rather like the contents
the motivation for the work, for example the imitations of of an ironmonger's shop. It was mainly two-dimensional
Seurat and Patrick Caulfield, Crumplin had a way of in feeling, for example one solid had been formed by
exaggerating their gestures so that the viewer was compressing identically sized squares of corrugated
ultimately conscious of the gulf between all fakes and all card, fabric and paper into a single unit. On a table
originals. Newling alternated stacks with single shapes cast in
In the cases where the viewpoint represented contained concrete and resin (rings, frames and bricks) with piles
a sociological bias the selection of locations was also of photographs, each a close-up shot. There were a
narrowed by the artist's personal inclinations. Crumplin number of slabs made by casting rough surfaces which
habitually settled on an uncluttered situation compatible contained a scattering of symbolic markings (grids,
with an emphatic separation of background and subject. crosses, etc.) Even when the works were shown out of the
There even emerged a characteristic dry wit with which studio context, as at the Whitechapel Art Gallery early in
the fashions of art school teachings were intermixed with the summer, they had an unfinished, deliberately
sketches mimicking the standards of commercial art. unheroic appearance as though they were building blocks
For instance the series contained both the hackneyed for something larger.
exercise of a continuous line drawing and an imitation of a Terence Wright's investigations demonstrated a more
Royal Doulton brochure. subjective approach. He used his camera to range across
Even in this rather complex series the strength of an imaginary line which transversed a three-dimensional
Crumplin's work remained its ability to give intriguing subject (one a room, another the Albert Bridge). The
clues about his procedures and thinking which very results were arranged in approximation of the way a scene
naturally led the viewer to speculate on the artist's aims is perceived by the moving eye but there were
and subjectivity. The notion that it is an asset to a good inconsistencies of scale which made it more exciting.
work of art to be at the same time didactic, has not always One of his best studies was that performed in lateral cross-
been popular nor understood. In the small exhibition sections on a girl's body.
Michael Compton chose for the Arts Council, Art as Using mainly photographs and drawings several other
Thought Process, the aesthetic level of the art artists explored the idea of the subdivision of an actual
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