ART CHRONICLE
121
and Chamberlain, which I much admire; this is a problem that
is
out
of their control.)
I am not suggesting that dada (or assemblage in so far as it par–
takes of the dada spirit) gradually loses its fire and reduces to pale
decoration.
It
would be easy to say that it is no more subject to such
historical attrition than any art for whose iconography we have lost
immediate understanding. But it is probably much more quickly sus–
ceptible because of its initial insistence upon a clash between its icono–
graphic materials and their meaningful arrangements. The shock once
gone, what is left, if not a fused and unified, and consequently anti–
dada, work of art? This character true dadas of course refuse to
countenance; the best of their work nevertheless possesses it, and so
disposes of the fond notion that this is anti-art. It is art which is against,
but against the momentarily accepted (or supposedly accepted) canons
of art, always within the context of art. Fortunately, the only wayan
artist can be against art is, like Rimbaud (but not like Duchamp ) , to
cease being an artist.
Fairfield Porter
to Jan. 30
Timothy Hennessy Jan. 30-Feb. 17
Robert Richenburg Feb. 20-Mar. 10
Robert Goodnough Mar. 13-Apr. 7
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