ART
Thinking big
Evan Anthony
Is there anyone who has not yet heard that the Royal Academy's winter exhibition is A Break With Tradition? (Excited?) If you have, no one could blame you for feeling apprehensive, wondering if you can face your responsibility as a member of the arts public. The choice has been made excruciatingly clear: either you support the Academy's brave foray into the present, or a return to Reactionary Policies will be on your head. Should that happen, your only option in protest will be to join Henry Moore as he passes by the Academy on the Fortnum and Mason side of Piccadilly, thus showing his continuing contempt for That Place and What It Stands For.
' Storming the Bastille 'and 'a drop of gin in the holy water' are the sort of colourful comments being made to describe the showing of modern sculpture in the galleries of the RA. What fun to be alive during a revolution! Considering all the stuff that has been written about the exhibition, it's a toss-up whether the focal point of British Sculptors '72 (actually, it's work done in '71) is supposed to be the audacity of the RA in venturing upon a new era of enlightenment, or the work of the sculptors represented in the show.
Perhaps one shouldn't criticise those responsible for attempting a PR job that copies methods used by those associated with the more popular arts — how else do you stir the public into a frenzy so that queues for a sculpture exhibition will rival those for Straw Dogs? But frankly, I don't think they've gone quite far enough. The saturation principle seems to have been learned satisfactorily — press, TV and radio have been reasonably co-operative — but there has been a detectable note of apology in the exhortations, asking you to stand by the Academy because of, and at the same time in spite of, the avant-garde (for the Academy) nature of the exhibition. It's almost as though the disapproval of the public had been assumed in advance. On the other hand, hinting at controversy may be a deliberate ploy to arouse interest. Whatever the thinking, it is obvious that what is missing from the campaign is the personal appearance of at least one sculptor with ' charisma,' While the art world may never have its very own Georgie Best, consider what Andre Previn has done for music via Mia. Come, gent lemen sculptors, there are twenty-four of you — don't think you can expect adulation just because you spend all your time hacking and welding Not that the hacking and welding is negligible; no one seeing the exhibition could possibly think that. Its scale is impressively large. Having seen WR-Mysteries of the Organism just before visiting the Royal Academy, I couldn't help thinking that the penis, so painstakingly cast in that movie, would never have passed the RA selection committee, even if the lady who sculpted it had been British: it just wouldn't have been considered big enough. The works prepared for this particular exhibition were designed to take advantage of the vast space available, and answering the challenge must have been an exhilarating experience.
In attempting to appraise the exhibition, your judgement will doubtless be influenced by the accompanying propaganda. Bryan Robertson instructs us that " there is practically no native tradition of any potency for British sculpture" and much has been written along similar lines, telling us that sculpture has long been a neglected art form in this country. Such comments may goad you into feeling kindly towards the underdog — the British sculptor in 1972. There is an unmistakable appeal to chauvinism that is at least as strong as the appeal to your aesthetic senses in Robertson's long (and sometimes eloquent) introduction to the catalogue. If you want to understand this show, and possibly even enjoy it, you must be willing to adjust your ideas, should you have any, about what sculpture is, and be prepared to delve into the deeper question of what it could be. As you look at these abstract and (for the most part) nonfigurative works, you will have to accept the use of new materials — as well as new concepts about how old materials might be used.
From this sage advice, you may gather that I am in sympathy with the exhibition. It is an interesting and 'worthwhile ' show — not because the Academy has broken with tradition, or is giving, young artist a boost, or is doing its 10 British sculpture, but because there many pieces on view that are stimule' interesting and even beautiful to lool There are also, alas, many with hoe' those virtues.
We'll start with the bad news, the 'P 's seem to be among my I
favourites. Carl Plackman's Towards an Economical Statement misnomer if there ever was one. He been given a whole room to use as sr stacle course, complete with pipes strings attached and debris of all ! placed in your path. We are offered a' fling that, "Visitors are at liberty to e this room but do so on their own re5I sibility," but I still think his use of facilities can be considered an indulge Roland Fiche's preoccupation with blob fibre-glass and resin painted red yellow and looking like something out' butcher's shop is depressing, OP revolting and very repetitious. And try do to appreciate Edouard Paolozzi, a gal, full of Thunder and Lightning with I, and Jack Kennedy is a heap of rob' that irritates me because it is so bone! pushed, I can say a good worclfot painting of flies that hangs on a v which, I imagine, explains at least a of the title.
On to more positive things: /3r Kneale, instigator of the exhibition, 10 a welcome contribution with his maculate use of steel in a sleek ( struction called Cirrus. Robert Adams,' at fifty-four must be considered one of grand old men of the show, is well, presented with two of his most exclel pieces: Vertex I, looking like a gr: graceful fin, made of wood, painted and Insert, a screen-like sculpture bronzed steel. Ralph Brown's undulst forms in polyester and gunmetal are pealingly gentle, with subtle hints human forms in Wedding. He also some lovely figure drawings on disP, Geoffrey Clarke's Call it Hadrian's 14 made of cast aluminium, repeatedly. ving, and embedded in gravel, is an esting interplay of form and material.' Kenneth Draper's overhanging structions in painted wood, steel aluminium make a fascinating displaY good use of one entire gallery. I anl not all that keen about Antanas Braid) stainless steel sculptures, seen recent!) another gallery, but it is interesting note how much better they look in larger space available at the AcademY. This question of size which I seem t° emphasising, becomes increasingly W,°,, considering if you wander over to the P, fern Gallery, Cork Street, where the artists are showing smaller works .! maquettes for some of the larger We seen at the Royal Academy. You st0 try to see both exhibitions; they plement and supplement each other. Redfern looks a bit overcrowded, all', don't think the sculptures are shown tO vantage huddled together, but it offers t fine opportunity of examining both t aesthetic and technical problems , question of size presents to a sculPt You will, in fact, find examples of W° that look much better on a smaller 5c$
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