ART CHR O NICLE
303
I wonder whether
this
show might have remained the same if all
the titles were changed and if the questionnaire had been about the self
and the unconscious. It seems to me that the selection might not have
had to be changed at all! That is, I think that only a few of the works
exhibited show in
a plastic way
the new sense for space, and further–
more there is some question how far this is related to nature. A painter
like Gorky, whose
Waterfall
is in the show, was always very responsive
to nature, but until the end of his life he continued to work primarily
in
the older kind of space. Mr. Baur suggests that the inspiration from
the self, which seemed to characterize earlier phases of abstract ex,–
pressionism, has been succeeded by an inspiration from nature, which
shows itself
in
the greater sense for space. Yet
if
Pollock's
Ocean Grey–
ness
had been called
The Grey Unconscious,
would it have less move–
ment
in
it, even of the elemental sort? Does Paul Jenkins's
Black Dahlia
really suggest nature, or seem to derive from nature
more
than from a
state of the inner self? De Kooning's
February
and Kline's
Laureline
are among the best pictures in the show, and they do, as Mr. Baur in–
dicates, exhibit great space, but less because of any relation to nature
and elemental forces than because they both use the surface to create
space. A glance at de Kooning's
Woman,
which was hanging in the
lobby, shows the difference. On the other hand, Angelo I ppolito's
Storm
which should show it, doesn't; perhaps because the picture is
very colorful, bright orange and yellow, but is not built with color, and
is
all thick painted turgid surface-this, in spite of the fact that Mr.
Baur attributes the term "landscape space" to Ippolito.
We can assume that artists respond visually to nature all the time;
it is the coping trait, as it were, of the visual imagination. Equally pos–
sible is the assumption that art has a life of its own, is an independent
process of changed and changing forms and encounters between sensi–
bilities and created forms. The art of any period will show certain
BACK ISSUES
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PR
1955
1956
1957
60¢ each; 4 for $2.00
PARTISAN REVIEW
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FAIRFIELD PORTER
April 29 -
May
31
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