Art
Acts of Caro
Evan Anthony For all the pretentious twaddle that 'modern' art seems to encourage those of us who write about it to write — artists and critics alike — there are always those occasions when simple, direct description is used to launch yet the latest creative novelty. Given a name, it immediately develops the aura of authenticity and with any luck a household label has been coined, bandied about by the cognoscenti and friends, as though this newest bit of language had been engraved in the stones of Stonehenge. Thus Anthony Caro's work, now on view at Kenwood. The rusted pieces of steel scrap are assembled in what may appear to some a rather casual, off-hand arrangement, resting on top, or hanging over the edge, of what could be called a table. The collection is called Table Top Sculptures 1973/4. What could be more logical?
Caro's reputation as an innovator precedes him: the man who freed British sculpture from the shackles of figuratism (why not?), and he has rummaged through the scrap yards of Italy and Durham for his raw material, diligently. The sculptures have names like 'CL VI, 1973' (hanging over the edge), and 'CLXXX, 1974' (firmly resting atop), laid out for inspection, ready for the examiners to determine just how the accident happened to happen. Metal fatigue? Sabotage? Act of God? Clearly, they are the acts of Caro, abandoning his large, brightly-painted steel structures for the moment, in favour of smaller-scale works that allow the sometimes varnished rusty surfaces to glisten while remaining rusty surfaces. And so they rest for those weary of the Vermeers and Reubens and Rembrandts below stairs, aching for something new and challenging to stir, if not indeed bewilder, the spirit and imagination. ',`Although made of industrial materials, with engineering processes, Caro's sculptures do not ape industrial products, but rather reaffirm, for our day, a belief in the human faith in values that are not solely materialistic." Maybe. How materialistic William Scott can be considered to be is not a subject that will be explored here. His interest in pots and pans is, one supposes, purely aesthetic, like his earlier fish, or the guitar of the Cubists. At Gimpel Fils, he appears to have concentrated on a variation on a theme, adding to it two or three paintings of an Egyptian series, and some not very interesting 'Drawing towards etching' pictures. Recalling his retrospective at the Tate a couple of years back, which I liked very much, I felt some disappointment in the current effort. It may well be that without the build-up possible at the Tate, showing Scott's development of more than one idea, what we now see doesn't seem sufficient to a viewer who may wonder and worry about a preoccupation with kitchenware. But that is not to deny that two or three of the pictures are very lovely, while others invite the suspicion that the simplification is becoming too much a formula and not all that interesting.
Terence Pope's Space Constructions at Lucy Milton's (Notting Hill Gate) aren't exactly easy on the eyes but they are well worth the ordeal they put you through trying to divine just how many layers of Perspex stand behind one another, or how many holes have been punched. It is a complex body of work, beautifully constructed and dazzlingly ingenious. If I was too busy puzzling out how they were designed to conclude that they "not only heighten the sense of space, but also make possible new and different readings of it" it doesn't mean that I am unwilling to go back and try again. At the Curwen Gallery, Charlotte Street, it may seem too much like damning with faint praise to say that James Burr's relief prints are a pleasant relief from the profundities attempted by the other shows mentioned. That is not my intention, even as I add that Burr's wood and lino prints are decorative, beautifully coloured, and cleverly composed. He is that rare creature, an artist who does his own printing, and there is little doubt that he combines the talent of the artist with the technical skill of the craftsman. Lovely prints, abstractions based on landscape themes, reasonably priced.
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