STARTING from SCRATCH
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BRAM VAN VELDE, UNTITLED, MONTROUGE, ca. 1939, gouache on paper, 49 7* x 30” / OHNE TITEL, MONTROUGE, Gouache auf Papier, 125,8 x 75,8 cm. (ALL IMAGES: MUSÉE DES BEAUX ARTS, LYON) Aus Europa I N JEDER AUSGABE VON PARKETT PEILT EINE CUMULUS-WOLKE AUS AMERIKA UND EINE AUS EUROPA DIE INTERESSIERTEN KUNSTFREUNDE 89), Mark Rothko (1903-70), and The situation is aptly illus AN. SIE TRÄGT PERSÖNLICHE RÜCKBLICKE, BEURTEILUNGEN UND DENK Clyfford Still (1904-80). trated by two artists who are WÜRDIGE BEGEGNUNGEN MIT SICH - ALS JEWEILS GANZ EIGENE DAR Who has heard of Franz Krause mentioned again and again STELLUNG EINER BERUFLICHEN AUSEINANDERSETZUNG. (1897-1979), who, with Willi as meaningful parameters Baumeister (1889-1955), engaged by Serge Guilbaut and Chas- in “organico-informal” experiments sey in a conversation that is with industrial paints, or Andrzej included in a postscript to RAINER MICHAEL MASON Wróblewski (1927-57), who com the exhibition catalogue. bined figuration and abstraction in Jackson Pollock (1912- the same works? Does anyone still 56) embodied the energy recall, and with due regard, James of the free enterpriser, re Budd Dixon (1900-67), Enrico Do lieved of the obligation to STARTING from nati (1909-2008), or Frank Lod- connect with a transmitted bell (b. 1921)? These artists can culture, be it figurative or be linked with the photographic (etymologically) abstract; SCRATCH experiments carried out by, say, in doing so, he sanctioned a radi Beckett’s support) the philosophy Aaron Siskind (1903-91) or Josef cally new modality that conformed of the necessary inadequacy of Istler (1919-2000). Meanwhile, as with the American political will to art, which remains linked with the early as 1948, Sal Sirugo (b. 1920) thwart Communism. The painter spiritual. When in 1970, for the film P ainters Comme si la peinture n ’avait ja and more often on Europe than was unknowingly echoing dripped was no longer speaking of himself, The two painters, each of whom P a in tin g , Barnett Newman (1905- mais existé” (“Going Back to Zero: “the trans-Atlantic war of images” and poured paintings, appearing and Freud and Jung were no lon took off from Matisse in his own 70) thought back to the period just As If Painting Never Existed”) at (Barcelona, 2007). The virtue of to connect Abstract Expressionism ger in play; only the highly con way, admittedly display a represen after World War II, he declared, Lyon’s Musée des Beaux-Arts (Oct. the Lyon project is that it consid with the great ink works of Henri crete dynamic painting process tation of the world in transition, “I had to start from scratch as if 2008-Feb. 2009). Both the show ers both sides of the Atlantic and Michaux (1899-1984) and the gal was of importance. Bram van Velde but via vocabularies that express painting didn’t exist, which is a and catalogue go over the field of doesn’t limit itself to Paris and New axies of Vija Celmins (b. 1938). (1895-1981), for instance, would diametrically opposed discourses special way of saying that painting art-historical study that extends York but ranges geographically as Following the great trauma, artis affirm that he didn’t “do painting” while resonating with art scenes was dead.”1) This rather apodictic from the collapse coming in the far as Poland and San Francisco. In tic approaches and laboratories, so and only strove “to make the phe of implacable ambitions. America declaration has provided Eric de wake of the Nazi nightmare to the this way, many names of unknown complex and surprising, were still nomena of [his] day and age vis wanted to set up her artists as the Chassey and Sylvie Ramond with all-out commitment to the Cold or forgotten artists have been res shielded from the coming efforts ible,” which he “often [lost] track protagonists of a new (and free) the title of their investigative exhi War that divided the planet.2' urrected from obscurity, artists at normalization. of’ (June 1948).3) After the war, world, and her triumph for a time bition “1945-1949 Repartir à zéro, This is not the first exploration who worked (at times in very simi “Repartir à zéro” puts its finger without any break in his approach, stemmed from her irrepressible of the “decisive years,” the period lar ways) without ever meeting or on a paradox, although surrepti he was to deploy formal means self-consciousness; Paris would RAINER MICHAEL MASON (b. 1943) from 1945 to 1953 (Saint-Etienne, knowing what their fellow artists tiously. If any continent faced a that he had in fact worked out as have liked to reassume her posi joined the Cabinet des estampes in Ge 1988). A number of shows have al were up to, along with those who tabula rasa after the war years it early as 1938 to move beyond Pi tion as the center of the world and neva in 1971, and was its director from ternately focused on the “figures nowadays seem like leading lights, was indeed Europe. Yet it was in casso and Cubism. While the artist at best integrate an awareness of 1979 to 2005. He is now a freelance art of freedom” (Geneva, 1995) or the figures such as Lucio Fontana the United States that one chose did give a very modest voice to his the upheaval Europe had just lived historian and exhibition maker. “reconstruction” (Antibes, 1996), (1899-68), Hans Hartung (1904- to make a clean sweep of the past. ego, he represents (if only through through. PARKETT 85 2009 222 223 American critics focused on the that imagination—propelled (and in organizing their presentation native output alone and readily repelled) artists like Jean René (experiment, betoken, express RAINER MICHAEL MASON ignored the Europeans who exhib Bazaine (1904-2001), Roger Bis- hesitatingly, explore, trace, satu ited in New York (such as Bram van sière (1886-1964), Jean Fautrier rate, fill, empty) clearly show that Velde at Kootz’s gallery in March (1898-1964), and Jean Dubuffet the world of forms, in their indi 1948). Writing (in a militant vein) (1901-85) toward the temptation vidual specificities and universal in thejanuary 1948 issue of the P ar of primitivism and archaism. The properties, escape categorization: RÉPARTIR À tisan Review, Clement Greenberg barbarity of the times points to the works are usually, if not always, made this illuminating assertion: wards the medieval, and rationality this or that, more this and/or less One has the impression— but only in crisis towards Art Brut. Bissière that, etc. Thus, one runs across a the impression— that the immediate fu liked to “think he was in the world’s few more or less figurative works ZÉRO ture of Western art, if it is to have any early stages” (April 1945),6) while by such artists as Bissière, Dubuf immediate future, depends on what is Dubuffet would wonder “whether fet, Germaine Richier (1904-59), done in this country... Now when it our Western world doesn’t have and David Smith (1906-65), which comes to the Zeitgeist, we Americans a thing or two to learn from the leads one to wonder why the series are the most advanced people on earth, primitives” and would go on to from the great trauma that are on Als Barnett Newman (1905-1970) if only because we are the most indus state, “As for me, I hold in high display in “Repartir à zéro” had to im Film Painters painting (1970) trialized. The activity that goes on in regard the values of primitivism: be exclusively “abstract,” as if Fran über die Nachkriegssituation Paris, the talk, the many literary and instinct, passion, caprice, violence, cis Bacon (1909-92), Francis Gru spricht, erklärt er: «Für mich hiess art magazines, the quick recognition, frenzy. Moreover, I don’t mean that ber (1912-48), or Lucian Freud das, wieder bei Null anfangen, the tokens of reward, the crowded open those values are in any way lacking (b. 1922) hadn’t themselves ques als ob es die Malerei nie gegeben ings— all these, which once were signs in our Western world. On the con tioned what remained of painting. hätte, was nichts anderes bedeu of life, have now become a means of trary! But the values celebrated by They no doubt thought, like André tete, als dass die Malerei tot war.»1' suppressing reality, a contradiction of our culture do not seem to me to Malraux, that art is first and fore Diese eher apodiktische Aussage reality, an evasion .4) correspond to the true movement most the art of the past. ist titelgebend für die von Eric de “Starting from scratch” doesn’t of our thought” (1951).7) Chassey und Sylvie Ramond ku- signify the same tabula rasa every In a word then, thanks to the {Translation:John O’Toole) ratierte Ausstellung «1945-1949, where, and if that blank slate in breadth of its outlook and the un Répartir à zéro - Comme si la deed exists, it isn’t translated by expected proposals it contains, the 1) Emile de Antonio, Painters Painting: The peinture n’avait jamais existé». Die New York Art Scene 1940-1970, d o c u m e n the same perspectives on either Lyon catalogue passionately under Ausstellung im Musée des Beaux tary, 1972. side of the Atlantic. “Free from scores the effect produced by the 2) See catalog: 1 9 4 5 -1 9 4 9 , R epartir à zéro, Arts von Lyon und die Texte des the weight of European culture,” shaking up of the usual points of comme si la peinture n ’avait jamais existé, Katalogs untersuchen den Zeit as Barnett Newman put the ques reference in the 1940s.