EXHIBITION REVIEWS

tion. Zero disbanded in aU Eustache le Sueur; the drawing of Two female Zero Although 1966, founder members are stui active. figures (no.D3o; GaUerie deU'Accademia, D?sseldorf and Saint-Etienne three me no to The exhibition ZERO. Internationale ) seems to to bear relation a woman STONARD der seen CorneiUe. The Portrait of and child by JOHN-PAUL K?nstler-Avantgarde $oer/6oer Jahre, by an this reviewer at the Museum Kunst Palast, (no.D3i; Pushkin Museum, Moscow) is FORMED IN D?SSELDORF ?l the Zero D?sseldorf and to interestingtrau, but the attributioncan hardly I958, (closed 9th July), travelling core theMus?e d'Art Saint-Etienne be sustained. Coquery has emphasised that group comprised at its three German Moderne, CorneiUe's name is mentioned once in con artists, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and G?nther (15th September to 15thJanuary), shows that the monochrome and thisbrief can be nection with portraiture but thatnothing of Uecker. Inspired by history gready expanded by never Yves with a broad cross-section of his survives in this genre: we should kinetic experiments of, respectively, comparison used new and art of the late 1950s theless not ignore the possibiUty of accrediting Klein and Jean Tinguely, they European Japanese In fact at first to be to him the fine Portrait ofMichel leMask materials and processes to create art that sym and 1960s.1 what appears boUsed renewal for a from a local of the Zero movement turns (Mus?e Carnavalet, Paris), whose attribution country emerging survey to me the shadow of war. Zero was also out to be an convocation of those to CorneiUe was suggested verbally by decade-long impromptu to a to the strain international often under Nicolas Sainte Fare Garnot. With regard rebuff tepid 'neo-expressionist' groups gathered a source has in in the label 'NouveUe Tendance': Nouveau the drawings, that of informelpainting Germany, particular are D?sseldorf-based R?aUsme and GRAV de Recherche become extremely tricky, several rejected works produced by the (Groupe in coUective activities d'Art in theMilan-based coUec by Coquery as not being by CorneiUe Gruppe 53, favour of Visuel) Paris; are and works made in the Constructivist tradi tivesAzimuth and N from (nos.DR2?5). It is regrettable that these Gruppe T; Gruppe because the not reproduced in the catalogue and juxtaposition would have been interesting the this reviewer remains totaUy convinced by a woman Figure of seated (no.DR3). to I In regard CorneiUe's drawings, should like tomention three that I discovered on a recent visit to the Museo de BeUas Artes, Valencia: a Study of aflying angel (Fig. 54), the an at the of preparatory sketch for angel top theMassacre of theInnocents in theMus?e des a sea to Beaux-Arts, Tours;7 a Study of god similar the Neptune (no.D25; BibUoth?que nationale, Paris) and comparable in spiritto thefigures in theGalerie de Psych? in theH?tel Amelot de Bisseu?;8 and a study of a flying angel seen from thefront (Fig. 5 5) in relation to the Visi tation in the Mus?e des Beaux-Arts, Blois - a (no.Pn),9 truncated painting the engrav ing after it by Pierre Daret (no.G3) restores the curved upper part in which this angel a can holding pennant be found. FinaUy, I should like to emphasise the admirable work carried out over the past few years at the Mus?e des Beaux-Arts, Orl?ans, where French artists of the seventeenth cen turyhave been researched to great effect.This fine exhibition provides a vital link in the was chain; how fortunate that it organised in the birthplace ofMichel CorneiUe.

1 un Catalogue: Michel CorneiUe (vers 1603?1664), peintre du roi au tempsde Mazarin. By Emmanuel Coquery. 144 + pp. incl. 64 col. pis. 40 b. & w. ills. (Mus?e des Beaux Arts, Orl?ans, and Somogy ?ditions d'art, Paris, 2006), 30. ISBN 2-85056-961-5. 2 couronne J. Guiffrey: Inventaireg?n?ral du mobilier de la sousLouis XIV, Paris 1885-86,1, p.343. 3 See S. Loire: 'Le Salon de 1673', Bulletin de la Sod?t? de l'Histoire de l'Artfran?ais (1992), pp.31-68. 4 N. Forti Grazzini: Gli arazzi d?lia Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice 2003, p.155, no.25. 5 M. Fenaille: Etat g?n?ral des Tapisseries de la manufac turedes Gobelins, Paris 1923^.361. 6 N. Sainte Fare Garnot: Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674), Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (1631-1681), Nicolas de Plattemontagne (1631?1706), Paris 2000, p. 12, no.7. 7 A. Espinos Diaz: exh. cat. Dibujos europeos desMuseo de BeUas Artes de Valenda, Colecdon Real Accademia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos, Valencia (Museo de Bellas Artes) 2004, no.28 (as by Philippe de Champaigne). 8 Mixed and Ibid., no.3o (as by Eustache Le Sueur). 56. Stelae ensemble (Stelenensemble),by Heinz Mack. 1960-97. media, including Plexiglas aluminium, 9 of exh. Mus?e d'Art Ibid., no.31 (as by Eustache Le Sueur). various dimensions. (Collection the artist; Moderne, Saint-Etienne).

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE CXLVIII AUGUST 200? $6$

This content downloaded from 78.33.29.104 on Tue, 26 May 2015 16:43:46 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EXHIBITION REVIEWS

Padua; theDutch Nul group; Equipo 57 from pioneering range of works produced in Osaka most was C?rdoba; and, interestingly, the Gutai in the early 1950s given impetus by group, founded inOsaka in 1954 and led by the exhibitions Out ofActions (Museum of tour the abstract painter Jiro Yoshihara. Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1998, A comparison between Gutai and Zero ing to various locations) and Gutai (Galerie acute reveals points of simUarity in the way nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1999) and artistsfrom both countries faced the post-War has been fruitfuUy developed by Visser's moment. were Germany and Japan in very contextual display of Gutai paintings and as sirmlar situations after 1945, both recovering sculptures. Nevertheless, Atsuo Yamamoto from terrible destruction and moral coUapse, points out in his catalogue essay, itmay have both occupied by AUied miUtary govern been that the Gutai artists turned to informel ments. was That the Gutai group preceded painting after a visit from Michel Tapie in a move by another group, Zero-Kai, founded in 1952 1957, ironicaUy away from the anti concerns by Akira Kanayama, would be uncanny, if it expressive of the Zero and Nul were not for the fact that the Japanese artists groups.4 con concern a anticipated and inspired their European Yves Klein's that Gutai exhibi fr?res in so many other ways. Artists of both tion in theWest would undermine the tabula were rasa Zero-Kai and Gutai pioneers in their claims ofWestern groups, cited by Visser, ? use new was not of techniques Toshio Yashida, for misplaced. Seeing here works by the was to a example, using fire burn images into Japanese artists, combined with magnificent use wood in 1954, anticipating Yves Klein's of display of Klein's ultramarine objects, includ as the technique. Sculptures such Kanayama's ing Pluie bleue (1961), and with the inclusion Boru (Bait) of 1956, an inflatablevinyl shape of works by Fontana, Manzoni, Haacke and on not which multicoloured dots grow Uke MoreUet, it is immediately clear whether as Uchen, appear if they could have been made eitherworks by theRhenish trio of Piene, today (which is incidentaUy almost true, as Mack and Uecker, or the coUective claim to most on are to of the Japanese works display have wiped the slate clean, w?l stand up 58. Ice, polar bear, refrigerator(Ijs, ijsbeer, ijskast), Henk Peeters. Mixed 112 reconstructions of the original pieces, which scrutiny. by 1961. media, 115 by were In by 67 cm. (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, usuaUy destroyed afterbeing exhibited). the Ught of international precedents, the Rotterdam; exh. Museum Kunst Palast, D?sseldorf). Mattijs Visser, the curator of the current exhi ab ovo claim of the Zero group can be taken a bition, highUghts in his catalogue essay that with large pinch of salt: in any case, absolute art this is the firsttime works by theGerman and originality renders any work of incompre ic and industrial materials, many of which were are con Japanese groups have appeared together since hensible and uninteresting. Works by the and st?l produced by industrial was cerns are 1965, when Gutai invited by the Dutch three Zero founders gain essential qualities in the Rhineland, and not without Nul to in a sources group show large international when compared with and cognate historical significance.The production of alu in are was exhibition Amsterdam.2 Previous emphasis, works. EquaUy interesting the clear differ minium, of which Germany world leader ences was largely determined by AUan Kaprow, had between their respective approaches, in the 1930s, decisive for the manufacture in terms was an framed Gutai of performance, rather differences thatmake it difficult to discern of warplanes. Plexiglas invented by as a movement common than concerned with informel any aesthetic programme, but which Essen-based company, and the steel thatMack as a painting and minimal, anti-aesthetic object may also explain their lasting appeal trio. used would probably have been produced by A reassessment in most to making.3 the West of the Piene is clearly the member influ Krupps, who notoriously used slave labour armaments enced by Klein, and the least willing to produce for Hider, and got off means. one abandon traditional pictorial Many of very Ughdy after 1945. Can reaUy start his works are stiU largely in the tradition of from zero with materials such as these? informalpainting, and by no means relinquish Uecker, whose trademark is the workman's even as as expressive claims, they progress from na?, anticipated the work of artists such the Klee-like shimmering surfaces of the late Joseph Beuys and Georg Herold in revaluing 1950s to his Kleinian (perhaps one should say a basic symbol of the rebu?ding of Germany. a sense Yashidian) fire paintings of the early 1960s. His works demonstrate pre-Pop of comes across as Bow-tied, Piene the Frenchi self-irony which is lacking inMack and Piene. fied devotee of Klein; in a photograph from Paintings and reUefs, invariably bristUng room 1961 included in the documentary of with three-inch na?s, combine the tentative stu rawness the exhibition he is shown in the latter's strangeness of Twombly with the of a dio, sitting cross-legged Uke good pup?. tribalfetishes. His New York dancerI (Fig. 57), is to an a canvas Mack, by contrast, closest imper heavy cape studded with na?s, which sonal Constructivist tradition (Fig. 56). The spins violendy and dangerously when set-off ? to was exam a materials which he drawn for by foot pedal, is medieval in comparison ple Plexiglas, aluminium, synthetic resin, with Mack's glass and steel aesthetic. If ? ? stainless steel, lacquer and chrome enabled Uecker is less refined than his coUeagues his him to create a aes a satellite-dish, space-age Lichtregen (1966) is heavy northern version most two men thetic that is evident in the large of Klein's deUcate and ethereal original, ? set-piece installations Ad alta potenza (1960/ tioned above his idiom is aU the more a 76), large aluminium fo?-covered stage in authentic for it. which brightUghts and rotatingmirrors create Despite these contrasting temperaments, a futuristic scenography, and Relief-Wand the Zero artistsmerged in the production of (1958-61), shown in theGalerie Diogenes in moving sculptures producing Ught and shad in a as BerUn 1961, waU of Plexiglas and steel ow, such those made for the installation 57-New York dancer I, by G?nther Uecker. 1965. reUefsthat looks a Uttle like a of bath Lichtraum ? Lucio This Nails, canvas, metal and electric motor, 200 by 30 display (Hommage Fontana). room cabinets. It to room is a a by 30 cm. (Private collection; exh. Mus?e d'Art would be fascinating have permanent installation in different some use Moderne, Saint-Etienne). historical insight into his of synthet wing of the D?sseldorf Museum Kunst Palast

566 AUGUST 2OO6 CXLVIII THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE

This content downloaded from 78.33.29.104 on Tue, 26 May 2015 16:43:46 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EXHIBITION REVIEWS

to (thus not travelling Saint-Etienne) of what Adam Elsheimer afterthe pioneering Elsheimer exhibition held to be for a at the St?delschesKumtinstitut in That appears moving stage machinery Frankfurtam Main, and London 1966.2 a space-age bauet. They creak and rotate like exhibition comprised almost three hundred authentic Tinguely and cast shimmering, expressionistic by LUUK PIJL entries, including many painting?, and works It was Ught and shadows. Moholy-Nagy's Light-space repUcas by contemporaries. an adam elsheimer's brightly instrumental in attribu modulator (1922-30) is obvious precursor, coloured land criticaUy reviewing more as tions to artist and a yet the effect here is much theatrical. scapeswith deUghtful atmospheric effects, the provided strong impe Although two of the kinetic sculptures on weU as his highly dramatic night pieces, have tus forElsheimer studies, resulting in 1977 in Keith show are coUaborative works, it is clear which always been admired by feUow artists and the exceUent, succinct monograph by ? never a to the current artist contributed what Zero reaUy smaU group of sophisticated coUectors. Both Andrews,3 whose memory art as a exhibition is dedicated. The show moved beyond the idea of form of indi Rubens and painted works catalogue as and are focused on the vidual expression, perhaps the group hoped. inspired by Elsheimer's mesmerising Flight pubUcation strongly as a Other works on display provide diverse intoEgypt (cat. no.36; Fig.59), and it is fair to artist painter: his drawings, gouaches and is the ultimate artist's artist are included if there is a con points of comparison. Fran?ois MoreUet, chief say that Elsheimer prints only Born in in nection with an extant or lost The representative of the GRAV group, combines of the seventeenth century. 1578 painting. a town of he was in was the tight-lipped classicism with deadpan the mercantile Frankfurt, single exception pen a Denial St included ex humour, reUef after the occasionaUy misty taughtby the local pictordoctus PhiUpp Uffen drawing of the of Peter, to recent for eyed seriousness ofMack and Piene. Henk bach. Shortly before 1600 he traveUed via catalogue celebrate its acquisition to an Peeters, doyen of Nul, is represented by three Munich Venice, where he became the Stadel. AU generaUy accepted paintings by use Elsheimer are discussed and in the paintings that the smoke-stain technique acquaintance of Johan Rottenhammer, who reproduced was details. of which Piene fond. 'Reconstructed' for transformed the large-scale works of Venetian catalogue, often with exceUent Only two were this exhibition, they are displayed opposite masters such as Veronese into refined cabinet paintings included in the catalogue on In Elsheimer not on in St in the his Pop-assemblage Ice, polar bear, refrigerator pictures copper. display Frankfurt:the Jerome an wilderness no. was (Fig. 5 8), combining ice-cream display cab entered into the artistic and inteUectual circle (private coUection; 17) a an not on even when a inet and a framed tuftof polar bear's pelt, of Rubens and his brother PhiUpp, Johann regrettably given loan, installation that reveals the competing claims Faber and . He died in Rome in confrontation with the Petworth series an at a its of old-world expressive pictorial approach 1610, the age of thirty-two, leaving smaU (no.21) would probably have confirmed uvre a and thenew world of Pop objects. Both Enri of paintings, drawings and few prints. autograph status,wh?e the Burning of Troy a no. was con co CasteUani's Spazio ambiente, white padded Seven masterly engravings by the Utrecht (, Munich; 10) sidered unfit to travel. The latter's absence is room with strange pre-Kapoorian corners, print-maker and draughtsman Hendrick a and the reconstruction of an installation of Goudt, who Uved with Elsheimer inRome, compensated for by recendy rediscovered were in the of this same on the four Concetto spaziale sculptures by Fontana, extremely important proliferation gouache subject focusing originaUy conceived by the artistfor theNul of his inventions throughout Europe. figures of Aeneas and Anchises (no. 12), the on a fuU 65 exhibition in Amsterdam, have an ambi The Elsheimer retrospective under review only work paper that receives entry a more was seen writer at the in the tion and subdety that suggest far styl here by the present catalogue. ish southern tradition, shortlyafter to develop St?delsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt; it is For the Frankfurt showing the organisers on a to include with Arte Povera. Six works by Hans Haacke, currendy show in sUghdymodified form had luck?y resisted the temptation who exhibited with the Zero group from at theNational Gallery of Scotland, Edin too many works by related, contemporary and 1963-65, attempt to capture natural processes burgh (to 3rd September; then atDulwich later artists: only eighteen related paintings were is not in a way that combines scientific and aesthet Picture Gallery, London; 20th September included (a section which shown a to It comes decades as as ic interest, producing quiet, reflective qual 3rd December).1 four in Edinburgh and Dulwich) and, far ity difficult to reconc?e with any group aesthetic. Despite the wealth of works on display, no context. there is provision for historical Although there are plenty of reconstructed works to be seen, one has to infer the situation

of post-War reconstruction in which they we a were being made. What get from such display is a compelling feeUng of the original were intentions behind these works: they as made to float symbols above the broken post-War world, and capture the spirit of we not is incipient restoration. What do get the real historical circumstances and cultural landscape of their origins. Such information would reinforce the point that nothing reaUy zero. begins from

1 Catalogue: ZERO. InternationaleK?nstler-Avantgarde der 50er/60erJahre. By Catherine Millet, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Bazon Brock, L?r?nd Hegyi, Heike van den Valentyn, Tiziana Caianiello, Valerie L. Hillings, Atsuo Yamamoto andMattijs Visser. 336 pp. incl. 152 col. pis. + 276 b. & w. ills. (Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildem, 2006), 39.80. ISBN 3-9809060-4-3. 2 M. Visser: 'Von NUL 65 Zur?ck zu ZERO o6\ in ibid.,pp. 100-05. 3 A. Kaprow: Assemblage, environmentsand happenings, cm. New York 1966, pp.211-25. 59- Flight intoEgypt, by Adam Elsheimer. c.1609. Copper, 31 by 41 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich; 4 A. Yamamoto, inMillet, op. dt. (note 1), pp.86?99. exh. of Scotland, Edinburgh).

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE CXLVIII AUGUST 200? $6j

This content downloaded from 78.33.29.104 on Tue, 26 May 2015 16:43:46 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions