Art
Sssch...
John McEwen
Julian Schnabel is 31 and hails from Brooklyn. His painting (Tate Gallery till 3 September) is a visual equivalent of Funk Rock. It makes up in bombast what it lacks in skill. Recklessness celebrates freedom from standard. In America a useful word has been coined for this kind of thing ' `Schlock'. Out of 'Schlock' conies Schnabel, king of it all. He is, in the words of the catalogue, `one of the most celebrated young artists working anywhere in the world today'. 'Early' (three years ago) Schnabel consists of great boxes lumped together, covered with smashed crockery and daubed over with paint. The daubs are sometimes recognisable as images — a face here, a sword there — and the crockery still serves as a trademark, though today imagery rather than surface cony plication predominates. Drawings done in his madness by the playwright Artaud have been much pros moted over the last year or so, and Schnabel acknowledges him as a master with a huge portrait tribute in oil and Rustoleum on draped canvas. The academic point is made. Schlock is seen to have impeccable Parisian credentials. But why the enormous size? On present evidence Schnabel has one ounce of talent, two of wit and a ton of ambition. This recipe for success has been cooked and delivered to stunning effect by the most ar- dent of the new dealers, Mary Boone, with the result that `Schnabels' have proved one of the best investments of the past two or three years, jumping from roughly 2,000 to 50,000 dollars a picture in that time. No one has collected them more avidly than the outstanding English collectors of contem- Porary art, Doris and Charles Saatchi, and all but a couple of the works in this small show of a dozen paintings have been lent by them.
The Saatchis, as recently appointed Patrons of the Friends of the Tate, have also been instrumental in proposing a scheme that would extend the privilege of such patronage to anyone prepared to pay a Minimum annual subscription of £250, covenanted for five years — membership limited to 200. In this way it is hoped that funds will be raised to enable the Gallery to buy up-to-the-minute works for a 'New Art' collection, eventually to be housed in a similarly funded 'Museum of New Art', in- tegral to, but distinct from, the present Tate. The 'Patrons of New Art' would be like club members of this new establish- ment. In a foreword to the catalogue for the current show, the Director states that the Schnabel Exhibition marks the formation of the Patrons and the change in emphasis for which they stand. We are promised More shows by the most internationally talked about younger artists — in other words, we will be kept more abreast of fashion than has previously been the case. For the Tate to be, inevitably, so much in league with the market is obviously fraught with undesirable possibilities, and it is only the proven openness of the new Director's Policies that gives it credence. It is a pity, therefore, that the present exhibition is such a Poor advertisement for the scheme it laun- ches. To appear in a 'Museum of New Art' (Museum'?) is one thing, to appear at the Tate — hallowed as it is by intention and tradition — is quite another, whatever the excuse.
Nor, in the case of fashionable new ar- tists like Schnabel, does there seem to be a great need for exposure. Their cause is already well served by commercial galleries like Anthony d'Of fay and Waddington and Public institutions like the Whitechapel. Two paintings by the artist can be seen at this moment in a mixed show at Anthony ti Offay, 23 Dering Street, WI (till 25 July) and his work has already been hung at the Royal Academy as part of last year's 'New Spirit in Painting' extravaganza. But the ex- posure of over-exposed artists does not in- validate the 'New Patrons' scheme. The Tate is already engaged in subdividing, and obviously the given contemporary flux must be accommodated more imaginatively and
less arbitrarily than is, unavoidably, possi- ble at present. A cheap and appropriately flexible building (deflatable or easily dismantled) should be erected as soon as sufficient money has been raised through the new patronage; but to attract such patrons the Director would surely be well advised to drop his advertising campaign of sassy shows and rely on whispers.
The 150th anniversary of the founding of Winsor & Newton is also commemorated at the Tate (till 18 July) with a didactic exhibi- tion and two sales tents, one giving visitors the chance to paint, the other to rest their legs and have a cup of coffee. The tents are rather over-elaborate, but they are not in- tended as exhibits as some passers-by rashly suppose.
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