Avoiding Group-Think

...I am sorry to see it fall into this hypocritical trap...

...in order to guarantee themselves a place in history...

...Wiliam S. Rubin, the new curator and organizer of the show in collaboration with William Agee, a recently appointed associate curator who chose the sculpture, answered cautiously for the museum...

...The announcement noted that the exhibit "is ostensibly an historical survey of the heroic years of Abstract Expressionism...

...In all cases the discussion was based upon my choices —made, of course, in consultation with Mr...

...After all, such moral superiority can only be understood as career-ism...

...Last, there are the early glimpses—in the works of Newman, Liberman, Rothko, and Louis —of the hard-edge, color-field, and reductive tendencies now dominant in painting...

...The Coalition's oversimplification, I think, raises some questions about the quality of the voice it wants to bring to bear upon the Modern's future policies...

...I would hate to see the reign of Group-Think, which has its own forms of coercion, begin with the arts...

...But it should at least be noted that the museum did promote this oeuvre in an important way...

...As for the more fundamental questions raised by this show, it seems to me that an exhibition of real value can be staged only if the curators responsible enjoy freedom from interference...

...One might well ask if the Coalitionists would be willing to grant curators a voice in the production of their painting and sculpture...

...That provoked a furor in Continental art circles—notably those of Paris and London—and in its way was one of the landmarks on the road to the now universal recognition of our country's contemporary art, decisively influencing many of the younger Europeans...

...This is being done at the expense of artists who, in most cases, have been asked to donate major work...

...One cites the case because the Modern's past deficiencies have become an issue in the present controversy over its new show...

...For reasons of space, I won't detail what I consider to be the sins of omission and commission...

...More importantly, it is intended to build for the Museum of 'Modern' Art the world's major collection of that period...

...This Abstract Expressionist show/collection will provide the prime source of information for students and historians in this field (a fact specifically mentioned in correspondence from the Museum to participating artists...

...Most have come from Trustees and friends of the Museum...

...But certain artists are over-represented while others are not adequately represented...

...I had expected (the Coalition apparently did, too) the exhibition to be a tribute to the "heroic years of Abstract Expressionism," but it puts the art of that era into a much broader and more interesting perspective...

...They must operate from the outside...

...Agee and other curators on the staff—and was based upon determinations of an esthetic and historical order...

...Is this the real purpose of the Coalition...

...But in grasping for an issue to consolidate its case the Coalition's most recent statement, involving the "blackmail" charge, seems to me inopportune, or, perhaps, too opportunistic...

...The immediate controversy is only part of a broader problem...

...A number of first-generation members connected with the exhibition were quick to respond...

...The title derives from an earlier show, "The New American Painting" (with works by Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and others), circulated by the museum in Europe during the mid-'50s...

...A few days before this opened, a group called the "Art Workers' Coalition" —made up of younger artists, writers and film-makers—issued an unsigned broadside accusing the institution of blackmailing artists into donating their works...

...This protest is being made by the Art Workers' Coalition, [a] group concerned with the rights and morality of artists, as a preventative as well as a corrective measure...

...They maintained that their contributions were made without the alleged coercion...

...Personally, 1 feel that committees of critics—whatever useful purpose they may otherwise serve— have little business running museums...

...A group of nine—including Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and Philip Guston—issued a joint declaration supporting the museum but added that they do not always "agree with everything the Museum of Modern Art (or any other institution) does...

...Thus the request for donations from artists constitutes a subtle form of blackmail...

...Furthermore, "None of the undersigned were consulted before the issuance of a statement that pretends to be on our behalf...

...The announcement concluded: "In the future other artists will be confronted by similar abuses...

...The presentation is one of a recent series celebrating the Modern's 40th anniversary designed to show off the variety of its collection, bringing out of storage holdings that cannot ordinarily be displayed...

...Since the Modern receives no city, state or Federal allotments for its maintenance, it has always relied heavily upon donations and the solicitation of gifts...

...Several months ago, the Coalition presented a list of demands to the Modern, asking for, among other things, a free admission policy, the establishment of a gallery for black artists, and a voice in the museum's policies...

...Bar-nett Newman, who did not donate anything, quite rightly objected to having unknown persons act as his guardians: "This is truly offensive...

...It would have to do the same to establish a special black gallery...

...Even with the limited examples available, it is made quite clear that Abstract Expressionism was not the matrix of the "New American" art, but only a singular (and much-publicized) phase of a development that still remains to be explored in depth...

...If this encourages blackmail, it is employed more frequently against well-heeled collectors than against artists but, no doubt, the entire practice should be discontinued —the museum could then relax into a state of peaceful stagnation...

...The charges brought against the building program seem to me a suspiciously large red herring...

...That may seem far-fetched, but it is relevant to the exhibition under review, which seems spotty and underdeveloped—largely, I think, because the acquisitions format doesn't really work well for an historical survey...

...Gifts from artists represent only a minority of additions to the collection in connection with this project...

...My discussions with them related to specific works of special importance which I knew they had retained for themselves and which I thought they might wish to have pass into the collection of the Museum eventually...

...The New American Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation," have little to do with the exhibition itself—a survey of the painters and sculptors practicing in the decade following World War II who pushed modern American art to a position of international prominence...

...These . . . could have been but were not purchased by the Museum when they were relatively desirable and inexpensive...

...The first room, with its paintings by Gorky, Rothko, and Baziotes and its early sculptures by David Smith and David Hare, demonstrates in a concise and incontrovertible way the decisive influence of Surrealism—especially as practiced by Miro and Picasso—upon American art in the mid-'40s...

...After observing that the limited purchase funds available were used to buy major works by deceased artists or by those not yet represented in the collection, he explained: "Only a few artists, all of whom were already represented in the Museum collection, were solicited for gifts...

...Furthermore, the Coalition contended: "A larger collection under the Museum's present organization necessitates a larger building program, which continues to divert money from acquisitions of contemporary art...

...The acknowledged fact that a new team of curators is attempting to build the collection in a significant area might have tempered the charges brought against the previous administration...

...Obviously, art institutions—like artists' organizations—are subject to a hardening of the arteries and bear watching and public criticism...

...It is made up entirely of material from the permanent collection and of recent acquisitions and gifts promised to the museum either by their creators or by private donors...

...Since these questions are still unresolved, with the museum drafting a reply and setting up committees to deal with the issues, it seems best to wait until the entire matter is aired before making specific comments...

...But there is so little respect for professional competence these days, and, in the interest of political expediency, so little good faith in the arguments for and against change, one fears something important is being lost in the necessary process of overhauling...

...Despite these criticisms, however, "The New American Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation" opens up the subject in a way that no previous show has ever done...

...The Modern has often been accused—with some justice—of failing to sponsor the first-generation artists by purchasing their productions in sufficient numbers when it could more readily have afforded them...

...There are startling correspondences between the oeuvre of different artists— Smith's sculptures, for example, and the large black and white abstractions of Pollock's post-drip period— that suggest a much more complicated interrelationship of formal elements than one had previously supposed...

...The museum will have to expand its facilities to exhibit whatever it goes about acquiring—whether the work of Abstract Expressionists or of members of the Coalition...

...One also notes the resurgence of interest in Monet's late Waterlilly series, signaled in the looped and skeined color of paintings by Gus-ton and Milton Resnick...