V. -
Kelly : "Apples"
Photographs Courtesy
The
Guggenheim Museum
Lichtenstein: "Temple of Apollo"
At the Museum of Art:
Youngerman: "Untitled"
Pollock: "Gouache"
American Drawings Exhibit: Insight into Modern
SArt
By JOAN 1DIYFII]OUT
THE AMERICAN DRAWINGS exhibi-
tion, currently on display at the
Museum of Art through December 13, is
a credit to its collector, Lawrence Allo-
way, curator of the Guggenheim Museum
in New York. The comment made by John
Canaday, art critic for the New York
Times, at the New York opening of the
exhibit last September, is applicable: The
works are "as attractive a group of draw-
ings as you could assemble in this country
at this moment."
The present exhibition consists of some
of the works of the "greats" and "not-so-
greats" in modern art. It includes repre-
sentative work from the Pop Art, abstract
expressionism, formalism and hard edge
movements. Because of this, the show is
both interesting and challenging. Its
freshness and immediacy enables the mu-
few. Commenting on drawing as a med-
seum visitor to both visualize what is
current in American art and to decide
which of the popular trends has particu-
lar appeal for him.
However, the observer may have some
difficulty in interpreting and appreciat-
ing all the items in the show. Mr. Allo-
way's introduction to the catalogue
which accompanies the exhibit does little
to clear up the confusion. Using such
descriptive phrases as "a kind of grapho-
logical disclosure," "the least conventional
and most authentic act of the artist," "a
form of direct notation," and "compilia-
tions of legible and illegible forms," Mr.
Alloway's article seems to imply that a
full appreciation and understanding of
the drawings is possible only to a select
ium, Mr. Alloway writes, "There is no rea-
son why an act cannot be prolonged from
a piece of paper to a canvas, or repeated
on another scale, with more control."
Perhaps it would be helpful to add that
the modern painter can, and frequently
does, use drawing as an end in itself.
PARTICULAR NOTE in the exhibit
are the works of Ellsworth Kelly,
Norman Bluhm, Willem de Kooning, John
Altoon and Pop Artists Rauschenberg,
Lichtenstein, Dine and Forakis.
Kelly, associated with the "hard edge"
group, uses varied motifs-foliage, apples,
architectural fragments, flattened tin
cans, iron gates and reflections on a
river-in precise linear patterns.
Two drawings by abstract expressionist
Bluhm are included in the exhibition:
"The Potato Picker" and "Sweet Sue."
Both, rendered in liquitex and watercolor,
are more finished products, or paintings,
than is characteristic of action painting
as a whole.
The work of de Kooning, a celebrated
and now 'middle-aged abstract expres-
sionist, is represented by four drawings.
"Untitled" (1947), a product of his earlier
period, is a study of lines-fluid, lyrical
and poetic. In his collage "Study of Mar-
ilyn Monroe" (1951), the lines are more
garbled-as is the collage technique. His
1963 "Study of a Reclining Woman" is
best described by de Kooning's own in-
scription: "No fear but a lot of trembl-
ing." Viewed chronologically, the draw-
ings seem to illustrate a steady progres-
sion from lyric abstract lines to erratic
and nervous pencilings.
Altoon's work is somewhat more re-
freshing. His birds, flowers, animals and
human creatures are all done in vibrant
c-olors which emerge from the white
ground. They have the characteristic ap-
pearance of doodling or the scribbling of
a young child. The November, 1963, issue"
of Arts Magazine went further in their
analysis: "Altoon is an authentic. There
is no pretension here; he simply creates
a cosmos of personae and their actions
or dramas. His is an art of the inner
world and involves a unique Surrealism
that no automatism and no program
could stimulate."
Selected works by Rauschenberg, Lich-
tenstein, Dine and Forakis represent the
Pop Art movement in contemporary
American drawing. The four present pop-
ular imagery in their drawings through
the use of many minutia from American
culture. Often the objects themselves are
pasted onto the canvas mixed with other
media, such as paint and newsprint.
Lichtenstein, for example, has taken a
colored post card of the Temple of Apollo
and translated it into a lithographic study
in black and white. Forakis has accom-
plished a similarly compelling translation
with a page of comic strips; Rauschen-
berg, with the Mona Lisa. Don't miss
Lichtenstein's "Sneakers;" they may be
the best looking-or in the best shape-
of any on campus.
VIEWED AS A whole, the show is quite
dynamic in its totality and-immed-
iacy. The drawings chosen for the exhibit
are representative of what is happening
in contemporary American art circles.
The problem, as mentioned before, is
that of evaluation.
There has always been a lag between
the taste of the public and the work of
the artist-a cultural lag which must
"catch up" before the'disciples of the new
schools are fully accepted. The Museum,
in presenting the works in an uninvolved
atmosphere for free interpretation, allows
the visitor to "enter-in" - to entangle
himself with the works, to argue, to be-
come involved with the terminology and
the forms. By allowing the visitor to en-
hance his understanding, the Museum is
performing the role of both patron and
pedagogue.
*R-
Altoon: "Untitled"
Forakis:"Four-Page Spread for &
Gottlieb: "Yellow Ground"