On Art

...ON ART By James R. Mellow Those Wide Open Spaces Sheer size is an attribute of the country Perhaps for this reason scale seems to have assumed the role of an American imperative, the idea of the biggest, the best, the most, infects our thinking We produce the largest industrial plants, the tallest skyscrapers, we can still —apparently—be sold anything labeled Giant Economy Size So it is not surprising that similar ambitions have characterized our productions in art When the 19th-century painter Albert Bierstadt, for example, wanted to express the grandeur of the Rockies, he needed a panoramic expanse of canvas to do the job The same grandiosity infected most of our wilderness painters when it came to subjects like Niagara Falls and the upper reaches of the Mississippi Large-scale art, however, is hardly an Amencan invention Nineteenth-century European historical painting, from Delacroix to Meis-sonier, went in for wide-angle treatment where the subject (whether the death of Sardanapalus or Napoleon's retreat) required additional scope Among modern masters, Picasso's Guernica is an example of the big public statement The large-scale picture has generally been used whenever an artist felt he had something important to say The exhibition of "Large Scale American Paintings" now installed at the Jewish Museum does not address itself to the historical conventions of the big picture Indeed, it is silent on any motivation other than the intention of being democratic in its choice The exhibition consists of 23 mammoth canvases by American artists (mostly New Yorkers) and covers several current trends The selection includes second-generation Abstract Expressionists (now in low repute), a few representational artists (a school in even lower repute) as well as exponents of Hard-Edge and color-field art (now in the ascendancy) Directed by Kynaston McShine, who organized the Museum's controvei-sial "Primary Structures" show last summer, the exhibition ranges from a painting as awesomely scaled as Al Held's Greek Garden—a progression of circles, squares and truncated triangles that measures 12 feet high and 56 feet wide—to pictures as comparatively dwarfish as Fairfield Porter's Iced Coffee—a study of two people reading in a screened-in porch, measuring 79 by 79 inches—and James Bishop's geometric Stoiy, a mere 77-inch square In presenting the exhibition without commentary, McShine seems anxious to avoid the tendentious criticism of his "Primary Structures" show That aioused the usual criticisms of the sms of omission or commission, and, more to the point, the feeling that although McShine^s catalogue introduction was general enough to cover the 42 young structuialists he had selected, it did not clearly define the stylistic trend he was exhibiting The "Large Scale American Paintings" show has no catalogue—an announcement poster simply lists the 23 paintings by artist, tide, medium and size A press release distributed by the Museum's publicity department, a model of diplomatic tact, offers only the following disavowal "The exhibition is not intended to be inclusive or a historical survey of large-scale painting, but rather a selection to demonstrate some of the vitality, painterly grandeur and accomplished diversity of many of the mature and well-established artists who came into prominence after the major Abstract Expressionists No one is likely to come to grief over an announcement like that With so many exhibitions trying to enlarge upon their importance through catalogue introductions that claim a good deal more than the exhibitions themselves supply, one can even admire the restraint of this approach Yet the reticence is misleading McShine is clearly demonstrating something even though he is not telling us what The first clue is that the show does not include any shaped canvases A recent painting by Frank Stella, one of the principal advocates of this mode, would certainly qualify in terms of size but, significantly, it is installed in one of the upstairs galleries showing recent works The exhibition, then, is restricted to paintings in the traditional rectangular format Approaching the exhibition from another angle, we see a further restriction Pollock painted large, Barnett Newman paints large, Robert Motherwell paints large None of these first-generation international stars are mcluded, though a fairly large Motherwell painting, Chi Ama Crede, hangs m the secondary exhibition with Stella Scale is a principal factor in the works of these artists and it has obviously influenced the younger painters who followed them The imposing scale of the "New American Painting" which came into prominence after World War II was seen, especially by European artists and critics, as a symbol of America's assault upon the citadels of European tradition It was considered a mark of ambition and audacity that contrasted sharply with the failing energies of European painting By excluding the forerunners and concentrating on the next generation, McShine seems to be asking us to evaluate what later painters have done with the broad territories the first generation opened up Straight off, the exhibition informs us that scale is not solely the domain of a rigorous Abstract Expressionist like Joan Mitchell, or Knox Martin, who seems to have converted to Hard-Edge, combining squared-off forms with a few penitential drips Size has equally infected Alex Katz, a representational painter whose Lawn Party is nearly as big as the side of the yellow-shingled house that forms the chief backdrop for his life-sized party-goers It also provides great amounts of breathing space for Paul Georges' three improbable Graces dancing nude on a vast expanse of greensward Back in the precmcts of abstraction, size accommodates all types of diversity A painter like Held belts out a succession of Hard-Edge, heavily painted forms Jules Ohtski, in Magic Number, angles his large plot of barely-inflected goldenrod yellow against small corner wedges with sparse growths of green and blue brushwork Milton Resnick, in Swan, builds neither a climactic form nor brassy outbursts of primary color The 273 inch stretch of his canvas is given over to hurried notations in gray-blue or soft mists of purplish-gray—a well-modulated span of French music made in America Cy Twombly's middhng-sized canvas (74 by 98 inches) looks like a painted white wall from which penciled latrine messages have been partially expunged Thus scale has proved useful for several modes of painting At the least, it can sustain faltering styles or confer importance upon otherwise meager statements, at the most, it opens up a realm of possibilities I suspect that m this jumbo exhibition McShine is telling us that God (two-dimensional, squarish, hand-painted painting) is not dead Acurator nowadays must have the abilities of a military strategist If he is interested m maintaining a safe career in a sedate institution, he can remmisce over old campaigns, presenting theme shows of past movements, retrospectives of modern masters, exhibitions of forgotten periods in American art If he wishes to engage the issues of the moment, though, he will find the battle hues between contendmg movements badly drawn, the terrain uneven, and the salients well obscured by thickets of publicity Furthermore, the artists upon whom he must depend for his support are notorious for crossing lines, for mixing their media and their movements Readers of the art press will be aware that the newest battle hnes in this cold war on the cultural front are being drawn between advocates of the traditions of abstract painting and sculptuie and the new host of primary stiucturahsts for whom neithei of these forms, in their conventional guise, are any longer viable In a recent issue of Art-jot um, for example, the influential young critic Michael Fried devoted a lengthy essay to scouting the structuralist encampment, locating it on high ground away from the mam-stream developments of abstraction in contemporary painting It seems likely that the critical engagements for the coming season will be joined on the distinctions between the forms of art and non-art, between works of art made for esthetic contemplation and those whose principal interest may he in theater and staging The skirmishes may be waged in the critical establishment, but the victories are secured in the museums As a tactical exercise Mc-Shine's exhibition offers a nice bit of timing His show marshals the forces of traditional painting at a moment when they need to take the offensive His mistake may be generalizing his choices to include several varieties of abstractions and the representational camp While this leaves him a good deal of room to maneuver in, the selection is not likely to please those factions in painting that believe figurative art of any kind is dead He has formed one of those coalitions that are apt to prove troublesome Also, since McShine can be credited with having put the Primary Structures forces into the field in the first place, his current show of "Large Scale American Paintings," laises some critical issues about the direction of his campaign On one pomt, however, he is safe from criticism The one feature that applies to nearly all current forms of art—Hard-Edge painting, the shaped-canvas, Primary Structures and environmentalist art—is a decisive commitment to working on the grand scale...