M-M ^i-"- -- V/ L An organized or connected group of objects. System (srstem). Also 7-8 systeme,! ai8tem(e. [ad. late L. systetna musical interval

ouubuiiiuai i^uuiuei, ucLaabc an ouuiuuaiy _uuu^o ^iuiJ

of the three principal Substances, Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury

System ^{(srstem). Also 7-8 systeme,}

^!

ai8tem(e. ^{[ad. late L.} systetna musical interval

in _mecL or mod.L., the universe, _{body of th}

articles of faith, a. Gr. ^avarrjfia organized whole

government, constit ution

_,

_a bo dy of men or animals

•

_{4~\a »^r t 4~^a ran f^ hi wm~ ~h~. a~\a*}

Ull _metrAiinto

ramAolset u

fj

_w^i'ji* ^»«;//^|(i664,

^'

le system

Hlz..|arriiimL, Sp.|*|//L, P^

syfkfn, effb.] ^{M - M ^i-"- -- V/}

L ^{An organized or connected group of objects.}

1. _A set or assemblage of things _connected

associated, or interdependent, so as to form

^:

:omplex unity; _a whole composed of parts ii

gto s

eqrls

•s

Titties (iS

Cf

yeare ^is a

et

me

blag

ns lif

f four

Systemic (siste-mik), a. [irreg. f. _{System 4}

ic; _used for differentiation of meaning instead

the regular systematic]

1. Physiol, _and Path. Belonging to, supplying

- _{-a ^ m}

^

% •

in every sentence. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Matt. L 2

systematic treatise on the subject.

3. gen. _Arranged or conducted according to

system, plan, _or organized method

^;

^involving

observing _{a system}

;

^{(of a person)} acting accordin

:o _{system, regular and} methodical.

1790 Burke Rev. France ₈₄ These gentlemen value then

pelves on being systematic, 1706 — Regie. Peace ^ii. Wk

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ^Library and Archives

http://www.archive.org/details/systemicpaintingOOallo

SYSTEMIC

PAINTING

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM. NEW YORK

THE SOLOMON

It.

GUGtiGMIKIM

l'Or.MIATION

TRUSTEES

HARRY

^!".

GVGGENHEIM,

I'HKSinKNT

ALBERT

^!•:. THIELE, VICE

PRESIDENT

II.II.

ARNASON,

VICK

PRESIDENT, ART ADMIMSTKATIO.N

PETER

O.

LAWSON-JOHNSTON,

VICK

PRESIDENT, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

ELEANOR, COINTESS

f'ASTJ.E

STEWART

DANA DRAPER

A.

CHAINCEY

XKWI.IX

MRS, HENRY

OBR]

DANIEL CATTON RICH

MICHAEL

F.

WETTACH

MEDLEY

<i.II.

WHEI.PLEY

CAUL ZICROSSKH

Exhibitionsatthe

Guggenheim Museum

inrecentyears,

have been concerned most

often with the creative con- tributionofa singleartist.

At

times, the source, in

_form

of

an

already existing collection,

would determine an

exhibition's scope.

Surveys

of painting in a particular region, or

worldwide assessment

within a particular period

have

also

been

held at this

museum from time

to time.

The

current

show

avoids allthese categories

by

aiming, instead, to isolate a recognizable visual

pheno-

menon and

topursue,inthe

subsequent

catalogue pages,

its specific

meaning.

The

exhibitionof

"Systemic

Painting" has

been assem-

bled

by Lawrence

Alloway, the

Guggenheim Museum's

curator.

Thomas M.

Messer, Director

LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION

Steve Schapiro, Brooklyn Heights, Neiv

York

Mr. and

Mrs. RobertScull,

New

York.

Bykert Gallery,

New

York

Leo

Castelli Gallery,

New

York Galerie Chalette,

New

York Robert

Elkon

^Gallery,

New

York

Andre Emmerich

Gallery,

New

York Fischbach Gallery,

New

York Sidney Janis Gallery,

New

York Kornblee Gallery,

New

York

Pace

^Gallery,

New

York

Park

Place Gallery,

New

York Betty Parsons Gallery,

New

York Stephen

Radich

Gallery,

New

York

A. M.

Sachs Gallery, Neiv York

Allan

Stone Gallery,

New

York

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks

are

due

to the Galerie Chalette,

Andre Emmerich

Gallery, KornbleeGallery,

and

the

Pace

Gallery for

paying

thecost

_of

color plates.

Mary

Grigoriadis

worked

closelywith

me on

every

_{phase of}

theexhibition, includingthepreparation

_of

aworkingbibliography,which

was

completed by

Diane Waldman. The

catalogue ivas edited by

Linda Konheim and

Susan Tumarkin.

I

_am

gratefulfortheircollaboration

and

support.

L.A.

11

INTRODUCTION

The

painting that

made American

art famous,

done

mostly in

New York

between 1947

and

1954,firstappearedas a

drama

ofcreativity.

The

improvisatorycapacityof theartist

was enlarged

and

the materiality of

media

stressed.

The

process-record of the creative act dominated all other possibilities ofart

and

was boosted

by

Harold Rosenberg's term Action Painting. Thisphrase,

though

writtenwith de

Kooning

in mind, was not

announced

assuch,

and

itgot stretched to cover

new American

abstractartin general.

The

other popular term, Abstract Expressionism, shares with "action" a similar over-emphasis

on

work-procedures, defining the

work

ofartasaseismicrecord of theartist'sanxiety.However,withinthisperiod, there were painters

who

never fitted the lore of violence that surrounded

American

art.

The

work

of Clyfford Still,Barnett

Newman, and Mark Rothko

was clearlynot offeringrevelatory

brushwork

with autobiographical implications.

Not

only that, butanartist like Pollock,

who

in his

own

time,

seemed

all audacious gesture, appears very differently now. His large drip paintings of1950 havebeen,asitwere, de-gesturized

by

afewyears passing:what once looked like impulsive directional tracks have condensed into unitary fields of color. This all-over distributionofemphasis

and

theconsequentpulverizing of hierarchic

form

relates Pollockto Still,

Newman, and

Rothko.

Meyer

Shapiro

compared

the non-expressionistic, non-gestural painting of

Rothko

to

"an all-pervading, as if internalized, sensation of

dominant

color"¹. Later H. H.

Arnason

proposedthetermAbstractImagistforthose^artists

who

were notexpressionist (7)*. Thisisa recognition of thefactthattheunity ofActionPainting

and

Abstract Expressionism was purely verbal, aproduct of generalization

from

incompletedata. (Obviously,

any

generalizations are subjecttoscepticism,revision,

and

reversal,butthesetwo terms

seem

especiallyperfunctory.) It isthe "sensational", the "Imagist", painters

who

havebeen ^ratified

by

the

work

ofyounger

artists.Dissatisfactionwiththe expressionistbulkof

New York

paintingwas expressed

by

^the

number

of

young

painters

_who

turned

away from

gesturalartorneverenteredit.JasperJohns targets

from

1955,Noland'scircles

from

late1958,

and

Stella's symmetricalblack paintings of 1958-59are,itcan

now

beseen,significant shifts

from

the directional

brushwork and

projected anxiety of the Expressionists.Rauschenberg's twin paintings.

Factum

I

and Factum

II,1957, alongwith duplicated photographs, included almost identicalpaint splashes

and

trickles, an ironic

and

loaded image.

A

gestural

mark

was turnedinto arepeatable object.

The

changing situation can bewellindicated

by

the opinions ofWilliam

Rubin

sixyears ago: he not only deplored "the poorqualityof'de

Kooning

style painting'", healso

assumed

thefailure ofde

Kooning

himself

and

praised

Clement

Greenberg's "prophetic insight" in foreseeing the expressionist cul-de-sac (3). It is

symptomatic

thatthree years later

Ben

Heller stated, "the widespread interest in de Kooning's ideas has

been more

ofa hindrance than a help to the youngerartists" (14). Infact, itwas

now

possible forHellerto refer to"the post-de

Kooning

world"

(my

italics). In the late 50's de Kooning's

example

was oppressively accepted

and

alternatives to it were only fragmentarily visible.

There

was, ^1. the

work

ofthe older Field painters, 2. the development of stained as opposed to brushed techniques ^{(Pollock 1951.} Frankenthaler1952. Louis 1954), and, 3. the

mounting

interestinsymmetricalasopposedto

amorphous

formats, clear coloras opposed to dirty, hard edges as opposedto draggedones.

* _Numbersin parenthesesrefer tothe bibliography.

12

Barnett

Newman. EVE.

1950. Oiloncanvas,96x^68".

•^*5-

Barnett

Newman's

paintingshave hail two different audiences: firstthe com- pact groupofadmirersofhis exhibitionsin

New York

in 1950

and

1951. Second, the largeaudienceof thelater 50's,withtheshift ofsensibility

away from

gesturalart.

As

with anyartist

who

is called"ahead ofhis time" he hasa

complex

relationwith subsequent history.

On

the one

hand

hehas created his

own

audience

and

influencedyoungerartists

on

the other hand, his art waswaited for.

There wastalk

and

speculation about

New-

man

even

among

artists

who had

not seen his work.

New

^:

man

asserted the wholistic characterof paintingwitharigourpreviously

unknown;

his paintings could not be seen oranalyzed in terms of small parts.There are

no

subdivisions orplacement problems; the total field is the unit ofmeaning.

The

expressionist element in Still

(who

signed himselfClyffordinemulationof theVincent signature of

Van Gogh)

and the seductive air ofRothko, despite their sense of space as field,

meant

less toa

new

generation of artiststhan

Newman's

even but notpolished, brushed but not ostentatious,paint surface. In addition, the narrowcanvaseshepainted in1951.afewincheswide

and

closelyrelated inheight to a man's size,prefigure the de- velopment of the shaped canvas ten years later. Greenberg, considering the structural principles of

Newman's

paintingin theab- sence of internal divisions

and

the interplay of contrasted forms, suggested that his ver- tical bands are a "parody" of the frame.

"Newman's

picture

becomes

allframeinit- self", because "the picture edge isrepeated inside,

and makes

the picture instead of merely being echoed''²._This idea was later

blowm up by

Michael Fried into deductive structure (40)

and

applied to

Frank

Stella's paintingsinwhichthestretcher, as awhole, not just thesides,setsthelimitsforthede- velopmentof the surface³.

_Although

thisidea isnotcentraltothepaintings of

Newman,

it is indicative of his continuous presence

on

the scene in the 60's that a proposed es- thetic should rest, at least partially, on his work.

Barnett

Newman

Exhibition, BettyParsonsGallery, 1951. Left original plaster castat Here, right The Wild, 1950.

13

X~

^^J"4.

Alternatives to Abstract Expres- sionism were noteasily

come by

inthe50's

and

hadtobe formulatedexperimentally

by

artists

on

their own.

Leon

Smith,

who had

already suppressed modelling

and

textural variation in his painting, studied in 1954, thestitching patternson drawings of tennis balls, footballs,

and

basketballs. These im- ageslaid the foundationsofhiscontinuous, flowing space, both in tondos, close to the originalballs,

_and

transferredtorectangular canvases. In France, Ellsworth Kelly

made

a series ofpanel paintings, in

which

each panel carried a single solid color.

There

is

an echoof Neo-plasticpinks

and

bluesin his palette, buthis rejection ofvisual variation or contrastwasdrastically fresh,atthe time, 1952-53.

Ad

Reinhardt, after 1952 painted all red and all blue pictures

on

a strictly symmetrical lay-out,

combining

elements

from

early 20th century geometric art

and

mid-century Field painting (saturated or close-valued color). These three artists de- monstrate an unexpected reconciliation of geometric art, as structural precision,

and

recent

American

painting,as colorist inten- sity.

They showed

at Betty Parsons Gallery

and

her adjunct Section Eleven, 1958-61, along withAlexander Liberman,

Agnes

Mar-

tin,and Sidney Wolfson. It isto this phase of non-expressionistic

New York

painting that the term

Hard Edge

applies.

"The

phrase 'hard-edge'isaninvention of the Ca- liforniacritic,JulesLangsner,

who

suggested

LeonSmith.Drawing 1954.8i x3f.

Pencilandinkoncardboard,

Ellsworth Kelly.

Red

Yellow Black

W

^rhitesBlues. 1953. Synthetic paintoncanvas. 7 panels, each41ix 22*

fornia painters"⁴recordsGeorgeRickey. Infact. Langsneroriginallyintendedthe termtorefer togeometricabstractartingeneral,becauseof theambiguityoftheterm"geometric",ashetold

me

in conversationin1958. Incidentally, the exhibitionRickeyrefers to was calledeventuallv

Four

Abstract Classicists.

The

purpose of the term, asI used it1959-60, was to refer tothe

new

development which

combined economy

of

form and

neatness of surface withfullness of color,without continuallyraising

memories

ofearlier geometricart. It was a

way

ofstressing the wholistic properties of both the big asymmetrical shapes of

Smith and

Kelly and the symmetricallayoutsof

Liberman and

Martin.

Hard Edge

was defined in opposition to geometricart. in the following way.

"The

'cone, cylinder,

and

sphere' ofCezanne-fame have persisted in

much

20th century painting.

Even where

these forms are not purely represented, abstract artists have tended toward a compilationofseparable elements.

Form

hasbeentreatedasdiscrete entities",whereas"forms arefewinhard-edge

and

the surfaceimmaculate^...

The

wholepicture

becomes

theunit:forms extend thelength of the painting or are restricted to two or three tones.

The

result ofthis sparseness^isthatthespatial effectoffigures

on

a fieldisavoided"(5).Thiswholistic organization

is the difference that Field Painting

had made

to theformal resources ofgeometricart^5.

The

fundamentalarticle

on

thisphaseof the developmentofsystemic paintingisSidney Tillim"s early

"W

hat

Happened

to Geometry?", in

which

he formulated the situation in terms of geometricart "in the

shadow

of abstractexpressionism" (2).

The

emerging non-expressionist tendencies were often

complimented

as Timeless Form's^latest

embodiment,

as inthe

West

Coastgroup ofAbstractClassicists. JulesLangsner definedAbstractClassicismas

form

thatis"defined, explicit,ponderable, ratherthan ambigu- ous or fuzzily suggestive",

and

equated this description with the "enduring principles of Classicism"^6. Itis a tribute to the prestigeof the Expressionist-Action cluster of ideas thatit

was

assumed

any artist

who

didnotbelong theremust, ofnecessity, bea classicist. Langsner wrotein1959but,as lateas1964, E. C. Goossen couldrefer,

when

^discussing

symmetry,

toits

"underlying classical conventions" (86). \^hereas

Mondrian

and Malewitch. inthe formative period oftheirideas,believedinabsoluteformalstandards, of thekinda definitionofClassicism requires.

American

artists

had more

alternatives.

The

1903-13 generation,

by

stressing the existentialpresenceof theartistinhiswork,

had

sealed offthestrategiesof impersonality

and

timelessness

by which

earlier artists

had

defined

and

defended theirwork.

Now.

becauseof the intervening generation of exploratoryartists,thesystematic

and

the patient couldbe regarded asnolessidiosyncratic

and human

thanthe gestural

and

cathartic.

Only

defenders of the idea of classicismin

modern

liferesisted thisidea of the arbitrariness of the systemic.

Alexander

Liberman

producedpaintingsinwhichthe immaculate finish associated with internationalgeometric art was taken

up

toa physicalscale and fullness comparable to the

work

of the 1903-13 generation ofAmericans.

The

completeness ofsymmetry, in hispaintings of 1950. the

random

activation of afieldwithoutgestural traces in 1953. are remarkably early.

A

symmetrical

and

immaculate painting of hiswas seen at the

Guggenheim Museum

in 1951. whereits total absence of touch was

remarked

on by,

among

Alexander Liberman.Diptych.One 11 ay. L950. .4i x^80".

Alexander Liberman. 639. 1959.49i x98s

others,Johns

and

Rauschenberg. SeveralofLiberman'spaintings ofthisperiodwere designed

by him and

executed

by workmen,

ananticipationof

much

laterpractice.

Here

isa reallinkwith Malewitch,incidentally, though not onelikely tohave occuredto

Liberman

atthetime;inMale- witch's

book The

Non-Objective World, his Suprematist compositionsare rendered

by

pencil drawings, not

by

reproductionsof paintings.

_The

conceptualact of the artist, that is to say, nothis physical

engagement

with a

medium,

is the centralissue.

Ad

Reinhardt,afterworking asa traditional geometric artist,

began

his symmetrical, one-color paintings in1953, which darkened progressivelythroughthe50's,culminatingin 1960 in the series of identical black squares. His

numerous

statements, dramatic but flamboyant,incatalogues or even inAction Painting-oriented Art

News,

were well

known. "No

accidents orautomatism"; "Everything, wheretobegin

and

wheretoend,should be

worked

outinthe

mind

beforehand";

"No

symbols, images,or signs"⁷arecharacteristic,

and

prophetic (the dateis 1957).

It is not necessary to believe in thehistorical succession ofstyles, one irrevocably displacingitspredecessor, tosee that a shift ofsensibilityhad occurred. In the

most

extreme view, this shift destroyed gestural painting;inaless radicalview,itatleast

expanded

artists' possible choices in mid-century

New

York, restoring multiplicity.

Newman's

celebrated ex- hibitionatBennington Collegein 1958 was repeatedin

New York

thefollowingyear,

and

the echoes ofhis

work

were

immense.

In1960 Noland'scircles

which had

been

somewhat

gestural inhandling,

became more

tightand,asa result,the

dyed

color

became

disembodied, without hintsofmodellingortextural variation. Stella's seriesofcopperpaintingsin1961werefar

more

elaborately shaped than thenotchedpaintings of thepreceedingyear;

now

the stretcherswere like

huge

initialletters. In1962

Poons

painted hisfirstpaintingsinwhich fieldsof colorwere inflected

by

small discsofcolor;

Noland

paintedhis firstchevrons, inwhich theedges of the canvas, as well as the center, which had been stressed in the circles,

became

structurally important;and

Downing,

influencedhehas said

by

Noland.paintedhisgridsof two-colordots. In 1963 Stella

produced

his series of elaborately cut-out purplepaintings

and

Neil \Silliams

made

his series of saw-tooth edged shaped-canvases. Other examples could be cited, but

enough

isrecordedto

show

the

momentum and

diversityof the

new

sensibility.

A

seriesof

museum

exhibitions revealsanincreasing self-awareness

among

theartists

which

made

^possiblegroup appearances

and

public recognition of the

changed

sensibility.

The

firstof these exhibitions was

Toward

a

New

Abstraction(The Jewish

Museum, Summer

1963) in

which Ben

Hellerproposed,asa centralcharacteristicof theartists,"aconceptual approach topainting"(14). In the followingyear therewas Post Painterly Abstraction (The Los Angeles

County Museum

of Art,Spring)inwhich

Clement

Greenberg proposedthattheartistsincluded inthe

show

revealed a

"move

towardsaphysicalopennessof design, ortowardslinearclarity, or towardsboth"(23a). Heller

and

Creenberg, the former

no

doubt affected

by

Greenberg's earlierwriting,wereanti-expressionist.In thefall of 1964

The Hudson

River

Museum

put

on

a significant though ^at the time little noticed exhibition of8

Young

Artists*

among them

Robert Barry and Robert Huot. E. C.

Goossen

described thegroupcharacteristics as follows:

"none of

them employs

illusion, realism, or anything that could possibly be described as

symbolism" and

stressedthe artists' "concern with conceptual order" (28).

Noland

occupied halfthe U.S. Pavillion at the Venice Biennale in 1964

and

hada near retrospectiveat

The

Jewish

Museum

in the following year. In the

summer

of 1965 the

Washington

Gallery of

Modern

Art presented

The Washington

ColorPainters,

which

included Noland.

Downing and

Mehring. Finally, in the spring, 1966

_The

Jewish

Museum

put

on

a sculpture exhibition.

Primary

Structures⁹. This list of

museum

exhibitions showsthatcritical

and

public interest in the early 60's

had

leftAbstract Expressionism,

and

the

main

area of abstractarton which

it

_now

concentrated can beidentifiedwith

Clement

Greenberg'sesthetics.

Greenberg's Post Painterly Abstraction was notable as a consolidation of the null- expressionist tendencies so

open

in this critic's later work.

He

sought an historical logic for

"clarity

and

openness" inpainting

by

taking the cyclictheory⁷ of

W

olfflin,accordingto

which

painterly

and

linear styles alternatein cycles. Translated intopresentrequirements, Abstract Expressionismfigures aspainterly,

now

degeneratedinto

mannerism, and more

recentdevelop- mentsareequated withthelinear.Thesecriteriaaresopermissiveas toabsorbFrankenthaler's

and

Olitski'sfree-formimprovisation

and

atmosphericcolor,

on

theone hand,

and

Feeley's

and

Stella's uninflected systemic painting as well. It is all Post Painterly Abstraction, a term certainly adapted

from Roger

Fry's Post-Impressionism,

which

similarly

lumped

together paintersas antithetical as

Van Gogh,

Gauguin,Seurat.

and

Cezanne.

The

coreofPost Painterly Abstraction isa technicalprocedure, the staining ofcanvas toobtain color uninterrupted

by

pressures of the

hand

or the operational limitsof brush work.

Poured

paint exists purelyas color, "freed" ofdrawing

and

modelling; hence the term Color Paintingfor stain painting^g.

It ischaracteristicofcriticismpreoccupiedwithformalmattersthatitshouldgivea

movement

a

name

derived

from

a technical constituent.

The

questionarises:areother, lessnarrow,descrip- tionsof post-expressionistartpossiblethanthat proposed

by

Greenberg? Itisimportanttogo into thisbecause his influenceisextensive, unlike that ofHarold

Rosenberg

(associatedwith Action Painting), butthereisa ceiling toGreenberg's estheticwhich

must

befaced.

The

basictext inGreenberg-influencedcriticismisanarticle,writtenafterthe publica- tionofArt

and

Culture,but

on

whichthe essays inhis

book

rest,called"ModernistPainting"¹⁰.

Here

heargues for self-criticismwithin eachart. "through the procedures themselvesofthat which is being criticized".

Thus

"flatness, two-dimensionality,was the only conditionshared with

no

other art,

and

so modernist painting oriented itselfto flatness". Thisidea has been elaborated

by

Michael Fried asa concentration

on

"problemsintrinsic to paintingitself" (40). Thisideaofart's

autonomy

descends

from

19th-century estheticism.

"As

thelaws oftheirArt were revealed ^to

them

(artists), they saw, in the development of^{their work, that real beauty} which, to them, was as

much

a matter of certainty

and triumph

as is tothe astronomer the verification of the result, foreseen with the light givento

him

alone"¹¹.

_Here

Whistlerstates clearlythe idea of

medium

purityasoperationalself-criticism,

on

which

American

formalistart criticismstillrests. Whistlertypifiesthefirstof threephasesofartfor art'ssake theory: first,

thepreciousand,atthe time, highlyoriginalestheticismof

W

alterPater,

_W

lustier,

and W

ilde; second,a classicizingofthisviewinthe early20thcentury, especially

by Roger

Fry, stressing

form and

plasticitywitha

new

sobriety;and,third,Greenberg'szealfor flatness

and

color,with a corresponding neglect ofnon-physiognomic elementsinart.

W

hat is missing

from

the formalistapproach topainting ^isa serious desireto study meanings

beyond

thepurelyvisualconfiguration. Considerthe following opinions,allof

them

formalist-hased.whichacknowledge orsupposetheexistence ofmeaningsfeelings.

Ben

Heller writes that

Noland

"has created not onlyan optical butan expressive art" (14)

ami

Michael Fried callsNoland's paintings"powerful emotional statements" (40). However,neither writer indicatedwhat wasexpressednorwhat emotions might bestated.Alan

Solomon

has written of

17

Noland'scircles,

which

earlierhe

had

called"targets"(14)^:

"some

are_buoyant

_and

cheerful.. .

others are sombre, brooding, tense, introspective" _(228), but this "sometimes-I'm happy, sometimes-I'mblue" interpretationisless thanone hopesfor. It

amounts

toareadingof color

and

concentric densityassymbols ofemotionalstates, _which takes us

back

to the early20th- centurybelief in emotionaltransmission

by

color-coding.

According to Greenberg the

Hard-Edge

artists in his Post PainterlyAbstraction exhibition "areincludedbecausetheyhave

won

their 'hardness'

from

the softness of Painterly Abstraction"(23a). Itiscertainlytruethat"a

good

part of the reaction againstAbstractExpres- sionismis...a continuation ofit", but to say of theartists, "they have notinheritedit (the hard edge)

from

Mondrian, the Bauhaus, Suprematism. or anything that

came

before", is

exaggerating. SinceGreenbergbelievesinevolutionaryideas,

and

hisproposalthat

Hard-Edge

artists

come

out of gesturalones showsthathedoes,itisunreasonabletosever thelater artists

from

the

renewed

contact withgeometricabstractart

which

clearly exists. If

we

omit Green- berg'simprovisatory painters,such asFrancis, Frankenthaler, Louis,

and

Olitski,

and

attend to the

more

systemic artists, there are definite connections to earlier geometric art. Kelly, Smith,

and Poons had

roots in earlier geometric art, for example,

and

it is hard to isolate

modular

paintingin

New York from

international abstractart.

What

seemsrelevant

_now

is_to

define systems in art, free of classicism,

which

is to say free of the absolutes

which

were previously associatedwithideas of order. Thus, thestatusof orderas

human

proposals rather than astheecho offundamentalprinciples, ispart of the legacy of the 1903-1915generation. Theiremphasis

on

the artist as a

human

beingatwork,

however much

itled,inonedirection toautobiographical gestures, lessenedthe prestigeofartasamirrorof the absolute. Malewitch, Kandinsky,

and

Mondrian,in differentways, universalizedtheir art

by

theory,butin

_New York

thereis littlereliance

on

Platonic orPythagorianmysteries.

A

system is as

human

as a splash ofpaint,

more

so

when

the splash getsroutinized.

Definitions ofartasanobject, in relation togeometricart,havetoo oftenconsolidated

itwithin the

web

offormal relations.

The

internal structure,purified ofall reference,

became

theessence ofart.

The

object qualityofartisstressedinshaped canvaspaintings,but withouta corresponding appealto idealism.

When

the traditionalrectangleisbitten into or thrustout- wards, the spectator obviously hasanincreasedconsciousness of theambience.

The

wall

may

appearatthecenterof thepainting orintersectthepaintedsurface. Despitetheenvironmental space of theshapedcanvas,however,ithasalso agreat internalsolidity, usuallyemphasized

by

thick stretchers(Stella,Williams).

The

bulkof the paintingisphysical

and awkward,

notapure essence ofart.

On

the contrary, the contoured edges are highly

ambiguous:

the balance of internal

and

outsidespaceiskeptinsuspenseso thatthere areconnectionswith painting(color), sculpture (real

volume and

shaping),

and

craft(thebasic carpentry).

Shaped

canvases tend to

mix

these possibilities.

Another

non-formal approach is indicated

by

Robert Smithson's reaction to Stella's "impure-purist surface", especially the purple, green,

and

silver series:

"like Mallarme's Herodiade, these surfaces disclosea 'cold scintillation'; they

seem

to 'love thehorrorofbeingvirgin' " (60).Mallarme^isbeing quoted, nottotake possession of the

work

in literaryterms, but to indicate experiences

beyond

the eyeball. It is a reminder that shaped blocks ofonecolorhavethe

power

oftouchingemotion

and memory

atthe

same

timethatthey arebeingseen.

Stella'srecent paintings (started inthefallof1965

from

drawings

made

in 1962) are asymmetrical

and

multi-colored,

compared

tothesymmetrical and/orone-color paintings

done

since 1958.

The

changeisnot a

_move

to a world full ofpossibilities

from

one thatwas con- stricted.Simplicityisassustainingin art aselaboration. It is

more

probablethatthe

new work

is

prompted

aggressively, asarenewal of the problematic, forthestylechange

came

atatime

when

anestheticforminimal, cool,or

_ABC

art(to

which

his earlier

work

iscentral),wasoutin

the open.

The new

paintings area kind of two-levelimage, withthecontoured stretcherpro- vidingone kindofdefinition

and

the painted forms,^cued

by

the stretcherbut not

bound

toit,

making

another.Coloris

bounded by

paintedbandsor

by

theedgeof thecanvas,

which

hasthe effectofscrambling thespatiallevelsof the painting. Thisactof superposition disregards the idea ofdeductivestructure

which

MichaelFriedproposedasthepresenthistoricalnecessityof

"modernist"painting in

which

the painted

image

^isobedienttotheshapeoftheperimeter.

Each

of^Stella's

new

shaped canvasesexistsin fourpermutations, withalternatecolors

though

with fixed boundaries.

Kenneth Noland

painteda series ofsquare canvasesin 1964,ashape thatis

more

in use

now

thanatanyothertimeinthe20thcentury.

Presumably

itsnon-directional character, with neither east-westnor north-south axes,accountsforits currency. However, Noland,

who

laidinbars of colorparallel tothesidesofhissquares,was oppressed

by

the sense of the edge. For thisreason he turned thesquares 45°,

making them diamonds;

thisled

him

to the long

diamond

format, of

which

one isinthepresent exhibition.

The

points of the

diamond

are the farthestpoints

from

thecenter,aformat

which

frees

Noland from

hissense ofconfinement

by

the edge.

The

edge is reduced to a functional oblique, linking the

most

distant parts of the painting. Thus,the

diamond

formatisnotso

much

a shapedcanvas,withconsequent connec- tions to thepictorial

and

to the object-like,butthe discovery of aformathighly suitedto the

"disembodied" ^coloreffects ofstaining.

The

essentializing

moves made by Newman

to reduce theformal complexity of the elements in painting to largeareas of asingle color, have

an

extraordinaryimportance.

The

paintings are a saddle-pointbetween art predicated

on

expression

and

art as

an

object.

New-

man's recentlycompleted Stations

_of

the Cross representbothlevels: the

theme

isthePassion ofChrist,but eachStationisapparentlynon-iconographical, astrict

minimal

statement. Levels of reference

and

display,presentin allart, are presentednot ineasy partnershipbut almost antagonistically.

When we

^{view art as}

an

object

we

view it in opposition to the process of signification.

Meaning

follows

from

the presence of the

work

ofart, not

from

its capacityto signifyabsentevents or values(alandscape, the Passion, or whatever). This does not

mean we

are facedwithanartofnothingnessor

boredom

ashasbeensaidwithboringfrequency.

On

the contrary,itsuggeststhattheexperienceof

meaning

hastobe soughtinother ways.

Firstis the fact thatpaintings, such as thosein this exhibition arenot, as hasbeen often claimed, impersonal.

The

personalisnot

expunged by

usinganeattechnique;

anonymity

is not a consequence ofhighly finishing a painting.

The

artist's conceptual order is just as personalasautographictracks.Marcel

Duchamp

reducedthe creativeact tochoice

and we may

considerthisitsirreduciblepersonalrequirement.Choicesetsthelimitsof thesystem, regard- lessof

how much

or

how

little

manual

evidenceis carried

by

the painting.

Second

isthefact that formal complexity is not an index ofrichness of content. "I

am

using the

same

basic composition over

and

over again",

_Howard Mehring

has said, "I never

seem

to exhaust its possibilities" (218).

A

third relatedpoint isthat

most

oftheartistsin this exhibition

work

in runs, groups, or periods.

The work

thatconstitutessuch runsor periodsisoftenlessoutwardly diverse than, say,the

work

ofotherartists' periods.

A

possibletermfortherepeateduse ofaconfiguration^is

One Image

art (noting that legiblerepetitionrequires a fairly simpleform).

Examples

are Noland'schevrons, Downing's grids,Feeley'squatrefoils,

and

Reinhardt'scrosses.

The

artist

who

usesagiven

form

beginseach painting further along, deeperintothe process,thananexpressionist,

who

is,intheoryatleast, lost ineach beginning;allthe

One Image

artisthasto have

done

^is tohavepaintedhis earlier work.

One Image

artabolishes the lingering notion ofHistory Painting thatinvention is the

19

test of theartist.

Here form becomes

meaningful, not because ofingenuity or surprise, but becauseof repetition

and

extension.

_The

recurrent

image

issubjecttocontinuoustransforma- tion, destruction

and

reconstruction;itrequirestobereadintimeaswellasinspace.Instyle analysis

we

look for unity within variety; in

One Image

art

we

look for variety within con- spicuousunity.

The

runof the

image

constitutesasystem,withlimits set

up

bytheartisthim-

self,

which we

learnempirically

by

seeing

enough

of thework.

Thus

thesystemisthe

means by

which we

approachthe

work

ofart.

When

a

work

ofartis definedasanobject

we

clearly stress itsmateriality

and

factualness, butitsrepetition,

on

thisbasis, returns

meaning

tothe syntax. Possibly,therefore, the evasivenessabout

meaning

in

Noland

alreadymentioned,

may

haveto do withtheexpectationthat a

meaning

iscompleteineachsinglepainting ratherthanlocated overarun or aset.

The

application of the term systemicto

One Image

paintingisobvious, but,infact, itisapplied

more

widelyhere. Itrefers to paintings

which

consistofa singlefieldofcolor,or to groups ofsuchpaintings. Paintings based

on modules

are included, with the grideither containedinarectangle orexpandingtotakeinparts of thesurroundingspace(Gourfain

and

Insleyrespectively). Itrefers to painters

who work

ina

much

freer manner, but

who end up

with either a wholistic area or a reduced

number

of colors (Held

and Youngerman

^respec-

tively).

_The

field

and

the

module

(with its serial potential as an extendable grid) have in

common

^{a level}of organizationthatprecludesbreakingthe system. Thisorganizationdoes not functionastheinvisibleservicing of the

work

ofart,butis_thevisibleskin.It isnot,thatis to say,

an

underlying composition, butafactual display. Inallthese works, the end-state of the paintingis

known

priortocompletion(unlikethetheoryofAbstractExpressionism).This does not exclude empirical modifications ofa

work

in progress, but it does focus

them

withina system.

A

systemis an organized whole, the parts of

which

demonstrate

some

regularities.

A

systemisnotantithetical tothevaluessuggested

by

suchartworldword-clustersashumanist, organic,

and

process.

On

the contrary, while theartistisengaged withit,asystemisaprocess

;

trial

and

error, instead ofbeing incorporated into the painting, occur off the canvas.

The

predictive

power

of the artist, minimized

by

the prestige of gestural painting, is strongly operative,

from

ideas

and

earlysketches,totheorderingof exactly scaled

and

shapedstretchers

and

help

by

assistants.

The

spreadof

Pop

Artinthe 60's coincideswiththe

development

ofsystemicabstract painting

and

there areparallels.

Frank

Stella's paintings,with their bilateral

symmetry,

have as

much

in

common

withJohns'targets aswithReinhardtand,ifthisisso,his early

work

can

be compared

to

Yves

Klein's

monochromes, which

wereintentionally problematic.

The

question

"whatisart?"israised

more

thanthe question, "isthis a

good example

of art?"Thisskeptical undercurrent ofStella's art,in

which

logic

and

doubtcohabit, is analogous to those aspects of

Pop

Art

which

areconcerned withproblemsofsignification. Lichtenstein's pointillism

and

Warhol'srepetitiveimagery,is

more

likesystemicartinitslackofformaldiversitythanitislike otherstyles of20th centuryart.

A

lack ofinterest ingesturalhandling

marks

boththisareaof

Pop

Art

and

systemic abstract art. In addition, there are artists

who

have

made

a

move

to introduce

pop

references into thebarehallsof abstractarttheory.

One way

todothis^is

by

using colorinsucha

way

thatitretains aresidueofenvironmental echoes;_commercial

and

industrial paint

and

finishescanbe usedinthisway. For example, Al Brunellehas written ofthispainting inthe present exhibition:

"Jayne

has ablue edge

on

theleft, superimposed

upon

the under- lyingscheme.

On

thissideshedoesnotsilhouetteasbrightlyasontheright,nor dotheedges

on

left 'track'asthey doso nicelywithin the painting.

The

blue linedoes not

remedy

anyof this. It has a function similar to eyeliner"¹².

_The

_reference to eyeliner,

combined

with the

"cobra skin" finish, the crystals,

and

the pink plastic surfaces, raises an association of

pop

culturethat is hardto shake.

Irving Sandler'stermforsystemicpainting,bothabstract

and

pop,^is"Cool-Art"(36), as characterized

_by

calculation, impersonality,

and boredom. "An

art as negativeas Stella's cannot butconveyutter futility

and boredom"

;heconsidersconceptualartasmerely"mecha- nistic".\ShatSandlerhas

done

is totake theAbstract Classicistlabel

and

thenattackitlikea Romantic,oratleastasupporterofAbstract Expressionistart,should.

He

^isagainst"one-shot art"becauseofhisrequirementof

good

artists: "they havetogrope".This quotation is

from

acatalogueofConcrete Expressionism,histermfor agroupof paintersincludingAlHeld.

He

argues that theirsisstruggle painting,likeexpressionism,butthat theirformsare"disassoci- ated",histermfornon-relational.

Thus

Sandlerlocatesan energy

and power

in their

work

said to be missing

from

hollow

and

easy "Cool-Art^"'.

The

difference between so-called Concrete Expressionist

and

AbstractExpressionist paintings,however,issignificant;theyareflatter

_and

smoother. AlHeld's pictures are thick

and

encrusted withreworkings,buthe ends

up

witha relatively clear

and

hard surface.

The

shift of sensibility,

which

this exhibition records, is evidentin his work.

Held may

regardhis paintingsasbigforms, but

when

the

background

is onlya notchat the picture'smargin, he isvirtually dealingwithfields.

The

pressing

problem

ofartcriticism

now

isto re-establishabstractart'sconnections withotherexperience without, of course,

abandoning

the

now

generalsense ofart's

autonomy.

One way

is

by

the repetition ofimages,

which

without preassigned

meanings become

therecord

and monument

of theartist.

Another way

is

by

the retention of

known

iconography,in

however

abbreviated orellipticalform.PriscillaColt,referringto

Ad

Reinhardt'sbasic crossnoted: "In earlierpaintingsit

assumed

theelongatedproportionsof thecrucifix; inthe blacksquaresthe pointednessof thereferenceis diminished,sincethe

arms

are equal, butitremains".MissColt alsonotes the expressive connotations ofReinhardt's"pushingof thevisible towardthebrink of theinvisible"¹³.Noland'scircles,whatever he

may

haveintended, nevereffaced our knowl- edge, built-in

and

natural

by

now,ofcircularsystemsofvarioustypes. Circleshave aniconog- raphy; images

become

motives with histories.

The

presence of covert orspontaneousiconog- raphicimagesis basic to abstract art,ratherthanthe purity

and

pictorial

autonomy

sooften ascribed to it.

The

approachof formalist critics splits the

work

ofartinto separateelements, isolatingthesyntax

from

allitsechoes

and

consequences.

The

exerciseofformalanalysis, atthe expense ofother properties ofart, _{might be} called formalistic positivism¹⁴.

Formal

analysis needs the iconographical

and

experiential aspects, too, which can no longer be dismissed as "literary" except

on

the basisofanarchaic estheticism.

Lawrence

Alloway

21

\OTE«

1. MeyerShapiro. "The \ounger AmericanPainters ofToday",TheListener,London,no. 1404,January26, 1956, pp. 146^7.

2. Clement Greenberg. "American-typePainting",Art_andCulture,Boston,BeaconPress 1961, pp.^208-29. 3. Deductivestructureisthe verbalechoandopposite ofwhat WilliamRubincalled"'inductive'or indirect

painting"(3),butthephrase (whichmeantpaintingwithoutabrush) never caughton.

4. _George Rickey. "The

New

Tendency (Nouvelle Tendence Recherche Continuelle)", ArtJournal,

New

York,vol.XXIII,no.4,

Summer

1964,p.272.

5. Theformaldifferencebetweenwholisticandhierarchicformisoftendescribedas "relational"and"non- relational".Relationalrefers topaintingslikethatof theearliergeometricartistswhicharesubdividedand balanced with a hierarchy offorms, large-medium-small. Non-relational, on the contrary, refers to un- modulatedmonochromes,completelysymmetricallayouts,orunaccentedgrids.Infact,of course,relation- ships(the

mode

inwhich onething standstoanotherortwoormorethingstooneanother)persist,even whentherelationsarethose of continuityandrepetitionratherthan of contrastandinterplay.

(Formore information onHard-Edge seeJohn Coplans:"John McLaughlin, HardEdge, and American Painting")Artforum, SanFrancisco,vol.II,no. 7,January1964, pp. 28-31.

6. The Los AngelesCountyMuseum,July 1959,FourAbstractClassicists. TextbyJules Langsner. 7.

_Ad

Reinhardt. "Twelve Rules for a

_New

Academy", Art News,

New

^{York, vol.} 56, no. 3,

May

1957,

pp. 37-38, 56.

8.

_When

thepresent exhibition was proposedoriginally inJune 1964^itwas intendedto showpaintingand sculpture,butPrimaryStructurescoveredthegroundtooclosely torepeatit. Thereasonsforplanningto

showflatand

3D

workare (1)analogiesbetween workin bothmediaand (2) the

number

ofartists

who

combinethe technologyofonewith theformalcharacteristicsof the other.The shapedcanvases in this exhibition are those withlateralvariationsratherthan with volumetricprojections;thatistosay, closer topainting.

9. Opticalhas, atpresent,twomeaningsin artcriticism.InGreenberg'sestheticscolorisopticalifitcreatesa purely visualand non-tactilespace. It isone of thepropertiesof"Color" Painting, theterm Greenberg applied to Louisand Noland in 1960 (whichhas beenwidely used, including adaptations of^it such as

W

illiam Seitz's"ColorImage"). It is curious,since colorismandatoryforallpainting, thatone wayof using it should be canonized.The othermeaningofoptical,anditsbest

known

usage, isas theoptical in

Op

Art, meaningartthat shifts duringthe spectator'sactofperception.

10. Clement Greenberg. "ModernistPainting",Arts Yearbook4,

New

York, 1961, pp. ^101-108. 11. JamesA.McNeillWhistler. TenO'Clock, Portland, Maine,

Thomas

BirdMosher,1925. 12. Unpublishedstatementbytheartist,1966.

13. Priscilla Colt. "Notes on

Ad

Reinhardt",Art International,Lugano,vol.VIII,no.8, October20, 1964, pp. 32-34.

14. Adapted fromLeoSpitzer's"imagistic positivism"bywhich he deploredliterarycritics'overemphasison imageryattheexpenseof a

poem

asa whole.

STATEMENTS

JO BAER

23

Thesepaintingsformpartof aseriesof twelve.Thereare four colors in the.series: blue, green, purple, yellow. Therearealsofoursizesandshapes:largesquares,small squares,vertical rectangles, horizontal rectangles. Each particular sizeand shape needsparticular properties of color:intense,orpale,or grayed, or bright.Thepossibili. tiesforcombinationorgroupingofthepaintings are the permutations of twelve (831,753,600) or whatever set factorsare chosen.Thepaintingshere are the threelarge squares and they use the intense color bands. All the paintings are colorin aluminous mode,butthisgroup alsorenders theprimarycolorsoflight:ared (magenta), agreen,a blue.Theyareeachconstructed equivalentto one anotherasa colorpresence.

Summer, 1966

DEA\

FLElIIXft

I

am

working in the area of the totally primal and

available.

Geometry, optics, scienceand psychologyarehereused onlyastoolsand, therefore,haveonly arelativebearing onthe significance of thework.

Thedominantsubjectof the paintingisitseffecton each individual observer. In the case of these immediate paintings I have limited the relationships to only the most primaryandintense.

Inaneffortto clarifythe subjectIhave usedonlystraight lines.

Most of these paintings can objectively be defined by saying that they arecomposedofoneortwopoints within the canvas and the connection of these points to the outer edges.

Thisapproachtotheworkyieldsnothing whatsoeverand we must venture further to reach significant under- standing.

Thesituationisoneof polar contrastsandtheirinevitable interchange of space; the aggression or recession of a color,the abilityof a single colorto changeintermsof dark andlight,therednessandblueness

when

relatedto anothercolor.

Iuse colorbecauseofitsrelativitytothe

human

eyeand believeincolorandnotcolordogma.

Formallythey contain the tensionsandlucidchangesthat existbetweenthe diagonalandthe horizontalandvertical.

We

^arealreadyaware of the passivity of thehorizontal, the ascension and descension of the vertical, and the dynamicsof the diagonal.

I

am

using these thingsas tools toevokelike states inthe receiver.

Theeffectivenessof thepaintingcanbefacilitatedbythe ability of the observer to be free of references and

attitudes.

Likemusic,thisworkcanbebestreceivedin silence. Blue, red, black, whiteandyellowhavenatures oftheir

own

which vary accordingtothe receptivity ofeach ob- serverandmustbeabsorbed according totheindividual rhythmandtime-grasp ofeach person concerned. Thesecanbeawayofunderstandingyourself in aprimal position.

Thepainting must transcend its materiality both as a canvasandin the viewer'seye.

Ifanopen viewerallows thereadingtobein his

own

time he can begin to receive an experience which separates from the work he sees and he can participate in the reversals ofspace and the apparent contradictions be- tweenstillness andsudden motion, weight and gravita- tionlessness.

A

deeply experienced participation with the work can yeild asense of transcensionand can create anintense lightwhichcontainsnocolor.

January 1965

The subject ofart is ultimatelyspiritual. That vibrant aspect of thenature of existence which demands tobe createdthoughitisnotcalledfor. Stillthisnew workis utilitarianinthatitservestoextendthe consciousnessof spaceand time, a necessity for the psychic survival of everynewsociety. Now, whenbasicforms and primary colors have the strength and velocity to communicate a

new

dimension, itis thespirit ofourtimesanartist expresses rather than thefact.

1966

WILL I\SLL1

^{I \l»\}

^\UI KCKATAMA

NOTEBOOK EXCERPTS

Physical Engineering

_—

practical function

_—

bridge or building

VisualEngineering

_—

only visual function

—

^art

Grid

—

^select

—

^vary

freedomwithinlaw-

Form

perceived inmostbasic senseasflatshape Silhouette

Objectmotivatedbysurroundingspace Diagramofvisualforces

Form

movementparallel to theeye plane Colormovementperpendiculartotheeye plane Resultant conflict

—

visual experience

transcends physical limitations of the material

Physical structure a ^{support for} the visual experience therealityof theworkofart

Flatvisual object

The painting is an object.

Any

attempt to consider the paintingas afield or spaceinwhichother objects appearto existisavoiding the issue ofhistoricalneces- sitytoday.Thepaintingisthe object^itselfandexists inthespace of the viewer.

Problem

—

devise structuralformsystem Futureofartliesin mass production Objects capable ofeconomicrepetition Simpleunits

_—

stock material

Gridspace

_—

selectthenecessary

1964

Painting

—

thediagramedobject

Abandon historical rectilinear context of contained illusion

Extendintoactualsurroundingspace tomotivateand be motivated Fragmentofflatvisualmaterial Problemclarifiedandreduced Possibilitiesdiminish

Particular colorseemslessandlessimportant Color a material coating

visualextensiontobase material object Reducepaintingtoflatsilhouette Exposetomoststringenttest

proportion ofelements

relationof closedandopenspaces

Onlybasic relationships withstand observation Emotionalandseductiveicingofhistoricalcakeremoved Paintingbecomes^wall

—

^wallbecomesenvironment Systematic relationship ofmeasured elements

calculatedtoprojectvisualforcebeyondmaterial thing Grid space

—

selectthe necessary

1966

Ideas,thoughts,philosophy, reasons,meanings, eventhe humanityof theartist,donot enterinto

my

workatall.

Thereis only theartitself.Thatisall.

1964

DAVID

III

EXCERPTS FROM STATEMENT

3

1

am

tempted to distinguish three stages in the recent history ofpainting orifyou prefer,whichIfearisnn

likely,threeattitudestowarddecoration.Image. Object. Environment.ByimageIrefer totheframedillustrations which used to be so prevalent and whose dimensions seemedmoretheresultof convieniencethananyart.The secondstagecorrespondstothose paintings, occasionally resembling a familiar object, often abstract, often very large, and usually unframed, whose content, at least in the most famous examples, is precisely equivalent in spiritandin fact toitsdimensions. Onehopes nomore

willbesaidofcubism.

Iwouldliketo say of thethird,theenvironmentalstage thatthese paintingshave no beginningandnoend, but despite our wishful thinking paintings don't naturally existintime.Perhapstheyhavenomiddle.Theyexhibit a penchant for presenting materials factually and for employing a numerical set as something signifying nothing but itself. The content of these paintings is a certain quantity, an accumulation, and they are some- times quite witless. Theirdistinction, and theirvulner- ability,isthatthey don'texistexceptonawall, atbeston a particularwall, the wall forwhichthey weredesigned, oftennoother wall than thepainter'sown.

Likemostlabor-saving devices, the reduction of a pain- ter'saesthetic choicestowhatsetsand

how

fineaseriesis spiritualizing.Unfortunatelyaneffectofemployinglabor- saving devices is that people get out of the habit of working, in our case of looking, and ^it shows.

On

the other hand, the perfection of technique by which we reducelaboris not generallyintended foranyspiritual- izingend.

We

don't respect a perfected technique; we say we're bored. CharlesBaudouinsaysoftechniquethat

whenitisanyuseitadvancesto closethecircleofman's achievement whereitbegan,atmysticism.