Page 83 - Studio International - September October 1975

at Christmas. The committee for contemporary aesthetics. He
the Kunsthalle (18 people, six combines exhibitions such as the
artists and the rest local figures) Transformer show in 1972 with
have financial and artistic control. tactful exhibitions of the best of
Gachnang, partly for financial Swiss art.
reasons, would like to develop the Carlo Huber moved from
idea of exhibitions organized in Berne to Basle last year and has
Berne travelling to other presented two impressive
institutions. The Penck installation shows by Mario Merz
exhibition is scheduled to be and Dan Flavin. His next project
shown at the museum in is the complete graphics of Sol
Eindhoven. The proposed LeWitt. He organized important
Clyfford Still exhibition is drawing shows of LeWitt and
entirely dependent on other Jasper Johns in Berne. The
interested museums. The On structure of the Basle Kunsthalle
Kawara exhibition travelled to is similar to that of Berne, but
the Palais des Beaux Arts in less dependent on the GSMBA;
Brussels, although the and the building is large enough to
presentation of the exhibition in house three exhibitions at the
Berne was devised to make the same time, the directors all
work more acceptable to the co-operating on their exhibition
public of that city. Gachnang is programmes.
shrewd enough to follow Gachnang says that he wants to
Arnold Rudlinger's slogan: the present complex relationships
indifference of the Bernese people through art. He speaks of
does not assure their support - anxieties, constraints, resistance
only necessary tolerance. and convictions. They are made
Berne is a quiet city, populated possible by his personal desire to
by government bureaucrats. contribute to a culture he could
People come from the countryside be happy with. He hopes to
around the city. The other main continue his programme for a six-
institution, the Museum of year period, during which time
Visual Arts which houses the Paul the models he has in mind can be
Klee legacy, is not in active clearly visualized. He has made a
competition with the start which assures him the
Kunsthalle. The Swiss cities of support of artists apprehensive Elaine Johnson
Print
Berne and Basle have a humanist about half-hearted cultural agents
tradition which gives who only consider their own when East and West are fairly Ed Ruscha depicted an egg called
contemporary art a chance to be careers. equally represented. Nor can the Domestic Tranquillity. The subtlety
recognized in an historical The great advantage of allocation of prizes ever be of this print seems to have gone
framework. They also have an directing a public gallery in without some political balancing unheeded. First prize went to the
active exhibition and acquisition Switzerland is that it is a out, although never again it is West German artist Wolfgang
tradition. Twenty years ago politically neutral country which hoped on the same disastrous Troschke, with three images of a
Georg Schmidt and Arnold is very much concerned with level as the Venice Biennale. At sea geometrically enmeshed.
Rudlinger bought major works by national welfare. But it is also Jyvaskyla, however, this was The Jyvaskyla festival has been
Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso and a country which is concerned barely apparent. What was clear inaugurated against the
Leger. Rudlinger, director of the with contemporary international and intriguing in this convenient background of a cultural revival
Kunsthalle in Berne and then dialectics. venue between East and West was in Finland. The Finnish Artists'
director of the Kunsthalle in Basle, Marlis Grüterich the juxtaposition of images Association exhibition in London
was the first person in Europe to created by widely different last autumn showed the extent to
show American painting of the working situations, Never, for which a particular local vein of
fifties at a time when its example, did English work look social realism is (for instance)
independence made it a more subtly English, Scandinavian developing. This shows a
formative influence on European Finland work more obsessively Nordic, conscious intermingling of trends
artists. Japanese prints more energetic, from both East and West,
Between 1955-1961 Franz and American work more observing the contemporary
Meyer, as director of the Graphic Creativa, Jyvaskyla, confidently introspective. The extensions of social realism in the
Kunsthalle, drew attention to 24 June -3 July varying art, thus disposed in East together with the influences
French contemporary art, Graphic Creativa is a new festival. national blocs around the of photo-realism in the West. The
showing Chagall and the then Planned as a biennale, on the lines walls of the impeccable Alvar intricate drawings of Sven Oluf
unknown papiers découpés of of Cracow or Bradford, it has the Aalto Museum, exposed both the Westerlund, the paintings of
Matisse. He also moved to Basle same international aspirations. It myths and the realities of Harro Koskinen and Esko
where he showed leading 20th- forms a part of the Jyvaskyla Arts internationalism; appropriately Tirronen, and the figure sculpture
century European and American Festival, and together with the enough within a building of Rauni Liukko testify to the
artists, against a background of competition for graphic work a commemorating a renowned interplay of these influences in a
masterpieces of the Swiss/German series of exhibitions and lectures genius who was the most Finnish forceful way. Thus, far from
Renaissance formed from were arranged. These covered a of architects. occupying the peripheral cultural
donations made by the citizens of wide range, from posters from The reality of internationalism, sphere to which purely Western-
Basle on the personal initiative Chile and Portugal, and in this context, is the ready oriented critics unwittingly had
of the museum's directors. The Propaganda prints from the transferability of techniques and relegated them in the early 1970s,
museum in Basle was the first Russo-Finnish War (from both of images across geographical and Finnish artists have themselves
ever public collection of works of sides) to a collection of twentieth- ideological boundaries, in such a grasped the practical reality of
art bought by private citizens. century folk objects. The way as to make a mockery of the their present situation. Working
Harald Szeemann and Carlo Graphics exhibition comprised flag-waving concept. The myth, between the opposing dynasties
Huber continued the tradition of some 700 exhibits, of which 100 paradoxically, lies in the seeming of East and West, they seem
the Kunsthalle in Berne up to the were from Finland, 200 from reluctance of the artists increasingly able to demonstrate,
early seventies. Szeemann, who is Scandinavian countries and 400 themselves to break away from in a valid manner, the inherent
one of the leading contemporary from ten invited countries: local preoccupations, such as the contradictions in both domains.
historians in Germany, left Berne Britain, Spain, Japan, Yugoslavia, Englishman's shoes (Elaine What then emerges is a socially
to organize the Documenta 5 Federal Germany, the Soviet Johnson) or his soft landscapes aware range of artistic activity in
exhibition. Jean-Christophe Union, Poland, France, Hungary (Norman Ackroyd), or as ersatz Finland that is undeniably strong
Ammann, who was Szeemann's and the USA. sexism (Hannsjorg Voth and as well as relevant on an
assistant in Berne, organized the Such an exhibition is admirable Hans Voss) in Germany. Maybe international level. It will be well
Photo-Realism section of in its intentions, and the calm and in this lies the hope that the bland worth keeping in touch.
Documenta 5 and has continued efficient organization was apparatus of international Michael Spens
as director of the museum in exemplary. The problem of commercialism - credit cards,
Lucerne to devote his programme selection imposes inevitable airport shops, filling stations -
to the 'goldfish in the stream' of constraints, more particularly cannot blight local differentiation.

159