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EXHIBITION REVIEWS 51. Counter- burg as a painter, certain omissions were composition,by unfortunate. The most significant set of Theovan Does- paintings of the latter part of his career burg.1924-25. are the eleven made be- 50.7 Counter-compositions Gouache, by tween 1924 and of which were 50 cm. (Centraal 1926, eight Museum, Utrecht; included in the Otterlo section (Fig.51). exh. Kriller- With only a few extra loans we could have MullerMuseum, seen the entire group together, something Otterlo). not achieved before. Notably missing were the Tate Gallery's Counter-compositionVI and Peggy Guggenheim's Counter-compositionXIII. Similarly 'Arithmetic Composition', which had been in the 1968 exhibition, was miss- ing from the final room displaying Art Concret,although it is the only painting Van Doesburg ever made which fulfils the criteria he set out for concrete rather than abstract art. We were left with only the preparatory sketches for it. Perhaps the most interesting thread run- ning through the exhibition was the image of Van Doesburg himself. Not only were there the huge photographs of him already mentioned but a sequence of self-portraits ran from his earliest years through to the very end, often unfinished works not intend- ed for exhibition or public consumption. Their placement from room to room en- sured some continuity amidst the otherwise impenetrable twists and turns and demon- strated an unexpected anxiety concerning his identity that neatly paralleled the exhibi- tion, as the shift from one medium to the paintings. Given the sheer range of Van collaborated with would inevitably lead to next, the constant formulation and rejection Doesburg's activities, that was never going comparisons being made. Certainly in the of styles and theories destabilised our image to be an option here. If the show in The Utrecht section, the curators were very of him. While such access to his most per- Hague reinforced the image we have of careful to keep a safe distance between Van sonal moments has only been made possible Mondrian as restrained and semi-monastic, Doesburg's paintings and a small selection because of the legacy of Nelly van Does- this exhibition gave us Van Doesburg the by Mondrian, Vilmos, Huzsar and Bart van burg, until somebody dares to challenge her bombastic frontman, the experimenter, the der Leck displayed in a balcony space above version of his career, Van Doesburg will not restless character who got on everybody's the main exhibition area. In Otterlo works be interpreted for a new audience. nerves. by other artists were far more evenly scat- MICHAELWHITE The frustration of not being able to follow tered but on the whole direct juxtapositions Universityof York the trajectory of any one of Van Does- were avoided. burg's activities without the interference of Unfortunately there is no accompany- 'The speech given by Cor van Eesterenat the opening at the another was exacerbated by the division ing catalogue which might have clarified of the 1936 Van Doesburg retrospective of the exhibition over two sites. The the exhibition's rationale. an StedelijkMuseum tried to give an overview but ulti- years Instead, as the until were on at the Centraal is to coincideoeuvre mately fell back on Van Doesburg'spersonality 1922 display catalogue being published varied while the in Paris with it was still unavailable at only explanationfor his production('Opening Museum, Utrecht, period it, although van Museum in the time of This indicates the lack tentoonstelling Doesburg,Stedelijk from 1923 until Van Doesburg's death my visit.2 1936', MS, Van EesterenArchive, NAI, Rotterdam). 1931 could be found at the Kr6ller-Mtiller of will that exists in The Netherlands to 'Theovan Doesburg (Euvrecatalogus. Edited by E. Hoek. Museum, Otterlo. Chances are that a large make a significant reinterpretation of Van (CentraalMuseum, Utrecht, and KrollerMiller Mus- number of people will have seen only one Doesburg. The publication of this book, eum, Otterlo, 2000). ISBN 90-6868-255-5. half, or the two parts out of sequence - timed to follow hard on the heels of the which makes one wonder how important Mondrian catalogue raisonn6, indicates that the narrative of the exhibition might have he should be considered to have an muvrein been in the first place. Tracking Van Does- the traditional sense that a painter might. burg's individual development is a difficult The chaotic arrangement of the exhibition New York and Cologne procedure and it might have been worth suggests something very different: it con- Picabia devising an arrangement free of a constrain- stantly shows moments where Van Does- ing chronology. burg abandoned one medium in favour of The vogue for Francis Picabia's once When the show was being planned sev- another. The Utrecht section finished with despised later works seems set to outlast the eral years ago, it was suggested that it would a room in which only two Van Doesburg fashionability of much of the 1980s 'new be something like the Andre Breton exhibi- paintings were on display, alongside many figuration' that was indebted to him and tion held in Paris in 1991, giving an oppor- works produced by students at the Bau- contributed to his reputation's revival. The tunity to see Van Doesburg in a different haus who followed his De Stjl course. We exhibition of his paintings, dating from the light, as a theorist, a facilitator and a propa- restarted in Otterlo with a room full of Dada 1920s to the end of his life, recently in New gandist. This was partly promised by the objects including works by Schwitters and York at Michael Werner's new space on 77th introductory panel in Utrecht which stated Picabia. The rest of the exhibition was dom- Street, (closed 10th June), and currently at that Van Doesburg 'wanted to control the inated by architectural drawings featuring Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne (to international avant-garde scene of his day colour designs. This does not seem to me 29thJuly), features over forty works, mostly like a spider at the centre of its web'. The to be the obvious pattern for someone oils, several of them major pieces. The difficulty of the original scheme was obvi- who was, as the exhibition leaflet tells us, 'a gallery (which represents several artists asso- ously that, unlike Breton, Van Doesburg did painter in heart and soul' nor does it add up ciated with the figurative revival of the have a career as an artist and to include to the fulfilment of a particular goal. 1980s) has had a long association with the the works of all those he knew, promoted or Even in the presentation of Van Does- artist, and works in the current show have 462 Burlington Magazine is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Burlington Magazine ® www.jstor.org EXHIBITION REVIEWS 52. LesAcrobates, by Francis Picabia. 1926. Water-colour on paper,86 by 73 cm. 53. Hirisieet sorcellerie, by Francis Picabia. 1948. 116 by 89 cm. (Michael (MichaelWerner, New York; exh. Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne). Werner, New York; exh. Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne). been loaned to the various museum exhibi- elements add to the mix. The effect is always form and meaning. The proto-conceptual tions of recent years marking Picabia's initially compelling at a level of visual puz- gesture of translating kitsch photography post-modern apotheosis, notably the 1997 zle, but frequently resolves into a pleasing, into the high-art medium of oils creates retrospective at the Centro Cultural de pungently associative chaos before the view- a predictable frisson, and this is enhanced Belem, Lisbon.' er can bother to discern any narrative or by strategies such as creating exaggerated As with so much revisionist art history, other logic. These works can be easily read craquelure (no.18) or excessively thick and there has been a tendency to revive Picabia's as standing for a dream-like confusion of yellowed varnish (no.31). The wartime Por- post-Orphist and post-Dada work whole- signification itself, illustrations of a popu- trait d'un couple (no.28) must have been a sale, where once it was wrongly dismissed larised Saussurean notion of slippery seman- sourly wry comment on propaganda, show- wholesale. The sceptical post-modern ethos tics. Picabia's repeated use of divergently ing a bland pair gazing with anodyne con- into which he has been assimilated, and squinting eyes, and other distortions of tentment against a backdrop of youthful of which he is seen as a godfather, also rendition that take on the look of genetic lovers wholesomely cavorting amid cherry discourages discriminating criticism and warpage, often lend an atmosphere of hys- blossom in a bright idyllic future. But the exegesis of his paintings by its celebration teria or delirium as a possible 'explanation' enduring images are those in which the very of the relative and the arbitrary. The text in for the intoxicated incoherence of the world means of rendition becomes charged and the catalogue to this show' is by the very au depicted. In the best works, though, such as is somehow interrogated, as in Nue de dos courantcritic Dave Hickey and, sophisticated Les Acrobatesof 1926 (cat. no. 1; Fig.52), the (1942-44; no.35). Here Picabia critiques a as it inevitably is, celebrates Picabia as the interplay of separate layers is actively orch- whole genre of paintings of the model's ever-elusive liberator, the hero of creative estrated, so that limbs, for example, read as back: Derain was one obvious practitioner, irresponsibility, presager of later artists' belonging now to one figure, now another. but his too were quite conscious exercises infatuation with the 'off hand' liberation A mercurial dynamism results that chimes in convention; there were less self-aware from meaning.

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