Order 1177954: Morris Anti Form

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c n\ Ell; : !1~" ri·Edmond "011, Cjrd~n on ~ro". '" ole, 28' •• 36'1 ... . 1906.' (ChJrlfS lld,m.n, " COIOf Co.mony lh. Guu.nh~;m Mu.<!um I ~ u, 1.)

Pub lisher ....... ..... .. Charles Cowles [ d.lor ................... Philip Leider A,~ociate EdItor (L.A.) ... John Coplans (.mlrlbulin8 Editors ...... Jane H. Cone

Palmer O. french Michael Fried

Mall; Kozloff AnneUe M ichelson

James Monte Barbara Rose Sidney Tillim

Productio n •............ . . Eddie Russiil Offi ce Manage! ......... Tanya Neufeld Circulatio n . ......... Susan Ruth Davis hecut ive Secretary ... . Jean Frank!'nfield ARTFORUM, Vol . VI, number 8, April 1968. Published monthly except July and Au gust at 667 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. Subscriptions $10 per year, U2 foreign. Newsstand dis tr ib ut ion by Eas te rn News Distributors, 155 W. 15th Street, New York and liS DiSlribulors, 552 Me· Allis ter St., San Francisco.

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B38·6820 Volllm~ VI, No &, Apfli 196& Pubh'''ed Month.

~'CtPI luly ilnd "'USU'I 5e(ond.,I.,. potl.' ,ltI PiI'P ill New Votk, N V Conltnll m.oy

f e rfproductd 0.1'( ",jlh I"e Publ'I"e" , ""hlen i'JO!lml,,;on.

APRil 1968

Poetry of Vision by Clement Gree n berg ............ . .... . ..........•.•.•................. . ..•. • ..... 18

Cubism , Abstract Expre5Sionism, David Smith by Darby Bannard ......• .................... .....•...•. 22

Anti Form by Robert Morris ............................. .•. , . • . •• . •. ....................•.•. • ..... 33

Adolph Gottlieb by Jane Harrison Cone ... ........... ........... ..•....•• • • • ••...••..• •••• • . • . ...... 36

Neo-impre5sionism and the Dream 01 Analysis by Max Koz loff .......•.•.•.•.•.•. •... •.... ............. 40

Rosenquist at the Metropolitan by Sidney Tillim .. .. ............................ . ................. 46

lack Krueger by Edwin Ruda .......... .................... . 50

Freud and Duchamp : The Mona Lisa "Exposed" by Jack Spector ..... • •••• • .•. •. ... • . • • ............... 54

New York ............................................................................•. . . . ...... 57

Chicago .... .... .... • . • . • .•.................. • ... . .............•. . .•.•.•.•.•...•............ _ .... 66

Sa n Francisco ............. • .•.....................•.............................•... .. • •• • • •..... 68

Film by Manny Farbe r .......... _ .. . .....•.•. •.•.•............... . ••.•.•.•.• . ••••.• . • .•.•.....•.... 70

Photography ........... . . ...................... . .... .. ..... . ... . ........... .... .......... ..... 72

Museum Calendar .... .. ....... , ..• .......•.•...•.•.........• .•...•...•.......... ........• .•...... 74

l etters ........................•.•.•.•.• • ••• •• • •••• .• • •• .. . • • . •• • . •. . . . . . . . • . ....... _ . • . • . • . . . . . . 4

RO BERT MO RR IS In recent object-type art Ihe invention of new

forms IS nOI an issue. A morphology of geometric, predominantly rectangular forms has been accept- ed as a given premise. The engagement of the work becomes focused on the parlicularizalion of Ihese generOlI forms by meOlns of varyi ng scale, material, proportion, placemenl. Because of the Hexibil,ty as well as the passive, unemphasized nOlture of obi co-type shape it is a useful means. The use of the rectangular has a long history. The righl angle has been in use since the fllst post

ANT I FORM

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1t~f1 M\I'''I, \lnHlled, 2~ PIf'Cf'i \If ~,tr f~lI, 1, " , II;ck , 1~1 Ilea C.SleHl C.II,,<y.)

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and Imtel constructions. Its eHiciency is unparal- leled in building with rigid materials, stretching a piece of canvas, etc. This generalized usefulness has moved the rectangle throu gh architecture. painting, sculpture, objects. But only in the case of object-type art have the forms of the cubic and the rectangular been brought so far forward into the final definition of the work . That is, it stands as a self-sufficient whole shape rather than as a relational element. To achieve a cubIC or rec- tangu lar form is to build in the simplest. most reasonable way, but it is also to bUild well.

This imperative for the well-built th ing solved cer tain problems. It got rid of asymmetrical plaCing and composition. for one thing. The solution also threw out all non -rigid materials. This is not the whole story of so- called Minimal or Object art. ObViously it does not account for the use of purely deco rat ive schemes of repetitille and p ro- greSSive or de ring of multiple unit work. But the broad rationality of such schemes is related to the reasona bleness of the well-built. What re-

Bill 8otHnge,. no ",t ... Slul wi, ... 10 . 30' . 1%3. IBvken G.tlety I

mains problematic about these schemes is the fact that any order for multi p le units is an im- posed one which has no inherent relation to the physicality of the existing units. Permuted , pro- gressive, symmetrical organizatiOns have a dual - istic character i n relation to the mailer they d is- tflbute. This is not to imply that these simple or- derings do not work. They simply separate. more or less. from what is physical by making re l ation- ships themselves another order of facts. The rela - tionships such schemes establish are not cr i tical from point to pomt as in European art. The dual - ity is established by the fact that an order, any order, is opera ting beyond the physical things . Probably no art can complet ely resolve th is. Some art, such as Pollock's, comes close.

The process of "making Itself" has hardly been exam ined. It has only receilled attention in terms of some kind of mythical, romanticized polarity: the so-called action of the Abstract Expressionists and the so-called conceptualizations of the Min- imalists. This does not locate any diHerences be-

tween the two types of w Ork. The actual wo rk • parti cularizes general assump tions about fo rm s in

both cases. There are some exceptions. Both ways of w orking continue the European tradition of estheticizing general forms that has gone on for half a century. European art since Cubism has been a his W ry of permuting relationships around the general premise that relationships should re- main critical. American art has developed by uncollering successive al ternatille premises for mJking itself.

O f the Abstract Express ionis ts only Pollock was able to recover process and hold on to it as p art of the end farm of the work. Pollock's recovery of process inlloilled a profound re-th i nking of the role of both material and tools in making. The stick which drips paint is a tool which acknow l- edges the nature of the fluidity of paint. Like any other tool it is still one that con trols and tra ns- forms matter. But unlike the brush it is jn far greater sympathy with matter because i t acknowl- edges the inherent tend encies and properties of

Alan Suet, unmted, painted 81\v~niLed wir e. 11 ~ IS'.

D~vid P~ul, unt i"ed. rubber matl ini, 24" wide , 1967.

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that matter. In some wa ys louis w as even closer to mailer in hiS use of the can tamer itself to pour the fluid.

To thin k thaI painting has some inherent op- tica l nature is ridiculous. It is equally silly to de- fine its "Ihingness" as acts of logic that acknowl- edge the edges of the support. The op tical and the physical are both there. Both Pollock and l ouis were aware of both. Both used directly the physical, fluid properties of pain I. Their "optical" forms resulled from dealing with the properties of flu idi ty and the conditions of a more or less absorptive ground. The forms and the order of the ir work were not a prio ri to t.he means.

The viSib i lity of process in art occurred with the saving of ske tches and un finished work in the High Rena issance. In the 19th century both Rod in and Rosso left traces of touch in finished w ork. Like th e Abstract Expressionis ts afle r them, they re gistered the plasticity of material in autobio - graphica l term s. It remained fo r Po llock and louis to go bey ond the personalism of the hand to the

more direct re ve lation of matter Itself. How Pol- lock bro ke the domina tion o f Cubist 101m is tied to his investigation of means: tools, methods of ma ki ng, nature o f matefial. Farm is nOI perpetu - ated by means but by preservation of separable ideali zed ends. This is an anti-entropic and con- servative enterprise. It accounts lor Greek archi- tecture changmg from wood to marble and look - Ing the same, or for the look of Cubist bronzes w ith their fragmented, faceted planes. The perpetu - ation of form is functioning Idealism.

In object-type art process is no t visible. M ate - rials o ften are. When they are, thei r reaso nable- ness is usually apparent. Rig id industrial materials go together at right angles with great ease. But it IS the a priori va l uation of the well -bud t that dic- tates the materials. The well -built form of objects preceded an y co nsideration of mea ns. Materials the mselves have been lim ited to those wh ich effi- ci ently ma ke th e general objec t form.

Re cent ly, mat erials other than rigid industrial ones have begun to show up . Oldenburg was one

of the first to use such maleriOl ls A direct in- vestigation of the properties of these materials is in progress . ThiS mvolves a reconsideration of the use of tools in relation to material. In some cases these investigat ions move from the making o f things to the makmg of matenal Itself. Some times a direct manipulation of a given IT)aterial wi thou t the use of any 1001 is made. In these cases con- siderations of gravily become as importan t as those of spa ce The focus on matter and gravity as means resu lts in forms wh ich were nOI proj ected in advance. Considerations of ord ering are necessarily cas ual and Imprecise and unem- phasized. Random piling, loose stacking, hanging, give pasSing form to the material. Chance is ac- cep ted and inde termillacy is implied since re- placmg Will resull m another configura tion. Dis- engagement w i th preconceived enduring forms and orders for thmgs is a po si tive asserlion. It is part of the work's refusal to con tin ue esth etidz- ing form by dealing with it as a prescribed end. _

Richard Sen •. Ullldle'; . fibe rSlitSl & rubbe,. ,,.7 IColdowlkr Cali f,), .)

Cti" Oldeftbu". C ... " SoIl F,n (GhOOI V""ion), mlm, 120 ~ 124 • 16". 1961. (S,dn<!r ).n'l C,Ufry 1

Robert Mo"; •. unlu led. 8'ey fell, "' .. ~ 72 ~ 1011", U plec:~ , '968. Ileo Callell, C;dlery.)