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Alison and Peter Smithson The Independent Group~ Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty I I Edited by David Robbtris I Exhibition Organized by Introduction by Essays by Hood Museum ofArt, Dartmouth College . Jacquelynn Baas Lawrence Alloway Wstitute ofContemporary Arts, London lbeo Crosby The Museum ofContemporary Art, Lo~ Angeles Chronology by Barr-r, Curtis University Art Museum, University ofCalifomia at Berkeley . Graham Whitham Diane Kirkpatrick . David Mellor I I David Robbins Denise Scott Brown Alison and Peter Smithson I! David Thistlewood ! Retrospective Statements by ·1 Lawrence Alloway ! MaryBanham Richard Haniilton Geoffrey Holroyd I ~ Magda Cordell McHale ·1 Dorothy Morl~d Eduardo Paolom Toni del Renzi~ Alison and Peter Smithson \ James Stirling William Turnbull Colin St. John Wilson I i I ! ' I I Jhe MIT·Press. Cambridge. Massochusetts,\a~d London, Enaland This publication accompanies the exhibition, The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty February 1-April 1. 1990 Institute of Contemporary Arts. London May 16 - September 16, 1990 Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centro Julio Gonzalez, Valencia November 4, 1990 - January 13, 1991 The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. February 6 - April 21, 1991 University Art Museum, University of Cali forriia at Berkeley June 8 - August 18, 1991 Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Hanover, New Hampshire Organize~. by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. Organizing commi t tee for the catalog\le and exhibition: Jacquelynn Baas (Director. UAM. Berkeley) , Mary Jane Jacob, James Lingwood (Adjunct Curator. ICA,. London) • David Robbins, Timothy Rub (Assistant Director, liMA. Hanover). Elizabeth Smi th (Associate Curator. MQCA, Lps Angeles), andGraham Whi tham. Edited by David Robbins with Barbara Anderman, Brenda Gilchrist, and Sheila Schwartz Designed'by Lorraine Wild,' Los Angeles Typeset in Clarinda and Joanna by Continental Typographics. Chatsworth, California Printed by Donahue Printing Co. , Inc. , Los Angeles Copyright © 1990 The Regents of The University o'f California. , , Richard Hamilton retrospective statement" • , Copyright C Richard Hamilton; • 'Learning from Brutalism " . Copyright C 1990. Denise Scott Brown. The Independent Group is made possible by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, Federal Agencies. Support for this project was also provided by David Hockney and by The British Council. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thelndependent Group: postwar Britain andthe aesth~tics of plenty I edited by David Robbins. p cm. EXhibition organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth'College ... [et a1. J held between February 1. 1990 and August 16. 1991 at va~ious locations. "N.u~-';:lt{"\.o(;;:l ~\,~~1 ~<~;$:-t-tt.: Includes bibliographical references . .ir t ! .,i",;t. Libn.1'T ISBN 0-262-18139-8 (MIT Hardcover Edi tion) 8t&1c,';j;~:;t\. ~1l 1. Independent Group (Association: Great Britain )-Exhibitions. 2. Art. Modern-20th century-Great Britain-Exhibitions. 11. Jjmt16, II). ~1.~ 1. Robbins, David. 1937- I I . Hood Museum 0 f Art. N6766 _5 .153153 1990 709' .41'074-dc20 89-43668 CIP ,. Table of contents 6 Foreword and acknowledgments 187 Retrospecq.ve Statements Lawrence Alloway 10' IDtroduction by Jacquelynn Baas Mary Banham . Richard Hamilton 12' Chropology by Graham Whitham Geoffrey Hokoyd Magda Cordell McHale 49 The Independent Group and the Aesthetics ofPlenty Dorothy Morland by Lawrence Alloway , Edj.lardo Paolozzi Toni del Renzio '55 Sources Alison and Peter Smithson ModerniSt Sources James Stirling American Ads William Turnbull Sdence Fiction Colin St. John Wilson 63 Works in This Exhibir10n 197, Night Thoughts ofa Faded Utopia Magda Cordell by Jacquelynn Baas by Theo Crosby Richard Hamilton by Graham Whitham Nigel Henderson by James Lingwood 291 The '~ Found" and the "Found" John McHa,le by Jacquelynn Baas by Alison and Peter Smithson Eduardo Paolozzi by David Robbins Alison and Peter Smithson by David RObbins 203 Learning from Brutalism William Turnbull by Graham Whitham by Denise Scott Brown 123 Exhibitions by Graham Whitham 207 The Artists ofthe IG: Backgrounds and Continuities Parallel of Life Oild Art (1953) by Diane Kirkpatrick Man, Machine and Motion (1955) This Is Tomorrow (1956) 213 The Independent Group and Art Education in Britain ,1950-1965 by David Thistlewood an Exhibit (1957) 221 - From: Ivory To;wer t;' Control Tower by Barry Curtis 162 Selections from Critical Writings Lawrence Alloway 229 A "Glorious Techniculture" in Nineteen-Fifties Britain: Reyner Banham The Many Cultural Contexts ofthe Independent Group by David Mellor Toni del Renzio Richard Hamilton 237 The Independent Group: Forerunners ofPostmodernism? by David Robbins John McHale Eduardo Paolo7.Zi 247 Appendix: An Account ofthe 1955 IG Meetings Alison and Peter Smithson 249 Bibliography The 'As Found' thetic" ofall our "Ouster" ideograms, diagrams and theories. which we took first to ClAM 9 at Aix-en-Provence. then to La Sarraz, and finally to OAM 10 at and the ' Found' Dubrovnik. Alison and Peter Smi thson The' 'As Found' , in Exhibi tions; Seen from the Late 19806; Nigel Henderson made up the quartet with ourselves and Eduardo Paolozzi The "as found," where the art is in the picking up, twning over and putting­ that manifested our intellectually different aspect ofthe Independent Group. with.... This difference - even to a certain apartness - can be seen in our exhibition and the "found," where the art is in the process and the watchful eye.... Parallel of Life and Art of 1951; which although mounted in the front room at the leA, had nothing to do with the Independent Group also meeting in that Wi th Hindsight ... The • • As Found' , in Archi tecture: room. In willing the exhibition to happen, developing its idea, and during its In architecture, the "as found" aesthetic was something we thought we making. our meetings with Nigel and Eduardo were often excruciatingly named in the early 19505 when we first knew Nigel Henderson and saw in his funny. esped.ally in word play and cross reference:~ Our shared values - of photographs a perceptive recognition ofthe actuality around his house in not needing to say again what had been adequately said by their "inventor" ­ Bethnal Green: children's pavement play-graphics; repetition of"kind" in were bodied out by the sense ofa continuity parallel to that ofthe heroic doors used as site hoardings; the items in the detritus on bombed sites, such period ofmodem architecture, flowing througlI Nigel; from the Blootnsbury as the old boot, heaps ofnails, fragments ofsack or mesh and so on.' Group. from Paris ofthe 19305 and 194QS, from Marcel Duchamp, from early Setting ourselves the task ofrethinking architecture in the early Dubuffet and so on .... 19505, we meant by the "as found" not only adjacent buildings but all those Again, our Patio and Pavilion of1956 had nothing whatsoever to do marlcs that constitute remembrancers in a place and that are to be read with the Independent Group but was part ofthe This Is Tomorrow exhibition through finding out how the existing built fabric ofthe place had come to be that grew out ofa series ofmeetings in Bill Scott's studio in dIarlotte Street ­ as it was. Hence our respect for the mature trees as the existing "structuring" the tail end of the Euston Road Group? - to do with a vague English inher­ ofa site on which the building was to be the incomer.... As soon as archi­ ited belief that the arts should be able to again collaborate as in the Renais­ tecture begins to be thought about its ideogram should be so touched by the sance. The initial discussiOns, with people'stacked up in a wonderful "as found" as to make it specific-to-place. Edwardian way, were long, contentious. The studio venue changed once, as Thus the "as found" was a new seeing ofthe ordinary, an openness those attending gathered, to the adjacent top floor studio; the personnel 20 as to how prosaic "things" could re-energise our inventive activity. A con­ changed dramatically, the originators virtually all dropping out. We stuck fronting recognition ofwhat the postwar world actually was like. In a sodety with the discussions - as did John Weeks and Erno Goldfinger, who had that had nothing. You reached for what there was, previously unthought of been their artist's choice from the start - and once Theo Crosby appeared things.... In tum this impressed fordbly - seen in the coat ofwhite paint and agreed to organise it, rounded up all the architects we knew o( including that "renewed" the ship. 1957 - how the new could re-energise the existing Michael Pine who worked in plaster, so that each group had an architect. fabric. Catleugh might have been Theo's contact. We were concerned with the seeing ofmaterials for what they The This Is T(}IIJOIroW exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery was only were; the woodness ofwood;> the sandiness ofsand.! With this came a dis­ possible through Theo Crosby's willingness to undertake the organisation; taste ofthe simulated, such as the new plastics ofthe period - printed, col­ his position at Architectural Design offering the necessary contacts for materials oured to imitate a previous product in "natural" materials. Dislike for certain and so on, since nobody had any money. Our Patio and Pavilion answered a mixes, particularly with technology. such as the walnut dashboard in a car. "programme" ofour own making, offering a definitive statement ofanother We were interested in how things could be with technology touching every­ attitude to "collaboration"; the "dressing" ofa building, its place, by the "art thing and everyone. We foresaw a general reappraisal ofvalues would occur, ofinhabitation." We were taking position in the acquisitive society as it since as we "read" through the aspiration-images on offer in the magazines.
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