Galería Colibrí catalogue #14, December 1965

ERNESTO RUIZ DE LA MATA

November, 1965

This present show of prints, which under the title "L'AVANT GARDE" is sponsored by Galería Colibrí, takes on the problematic question of offering a vision of the development of modern art from a very singular perspective.  Covering the production of representative artists from different nationalities, mainly France, Italy and the United States, the show groups styles as diverse as they are symptomatic of the vertiginous formal change that has been taking place in the art of the drawing from the beginning of the century to the present.  An interesting trajectory which from futurism, cubism, surrealism, abstractionism, informal art  to pop-art shakes up the last six decades cyclically, leaving still perceptible vibrations and still visible traces in contemporary production.  This exhibit is of special interest due to the fact that it presents, solely through the art of the print, a translation into one medium of so many different formal expressions, allowing the spectator to appreciate from one technical perspective the particular will of form of each one of these tendencies.

It might seem inadmissible to represent, under the title of "L'AVANT GARDE" , now defunct styles in terms of shock movements:  futurism, cubism, surrealism.  However, this is precisely the significant dominant factor of the show, since it presents exclusively works created in our lifetime, and furthermore, all of the prints reflect almost identical proportions.  Thus, the opportunity to appreciate such a fluctuating stylistic phenomenon that is the art of the XX Century in a regular format is truly unique.

The inclusion of figures like JOSEPH ALBERS (1888), GINO SEVERINI (1883), SONIA DELAUNAY, NEE TERK (1886), JEAN (HANS) ARP (1887), LUCIO FONTANA (1899), GUISEPPE CAPOGROSSI (1900), together with the younger representatives of the present generation, such as JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL (who together with ALLAN KAPROW, also represented, has been one of the creators/participators of the Happenings) and the group of North American pop-artists presents a very interesting contrast that illustrates the strange phenomenon of artistic co-existence in one same moment of generational groups which are very distant one from another.

We should make special mention at this juncture of the case of JOSEPH ALBERS, who played a prominent role in the German Bauhaus and, despite his years, is even more contemporary than Picasso, as the most noted figure in the rise of optical art (the Pop of Op, as it has been called).

The sweep of surrealism is clearly evident in the works presented, perhaps the most amply respresented stylistic group in the show.

Even when certain key artists in the development of modern art do not appear in the present show, the echo of their styles can be heard in various of the works exhibited:  MAGRITTE and ERNST in YOSO HAMAGUCHI, Japanese (1909) and MIMI PARENT, Canadian (1924);  MIRO, curiously, in the North American sculptor RICHARD STANKEIWICZ (1922);  KLEE and LAM in GIANNI DOVA, Italian, (1925) and LUCIO FONTANA, Italian (1899);  HARTUNG in GIULIO TURCATO, Italian (1912); the texturalism of TAPIES in PAUP ANSOROV (1896);  abstract impressionism in JEAN FOUTRIER, French (1896) and CLAUDE VISEAUX, French (1927);  JACKSON POLLOCK in MIMO ROTELLA, Italian (1918); DUBUFFET in YASSE TABUCHI, Japanese (1921), HOST-EGON KALINOWSKI, German (1924), BORIS LURIE, Russian (1924) and MARIE CARLIER, Belgian (1920); MATHIEU and HARTUNG in HISAO DOMOTO, Japanese, (1928); MARCEL DUCHAMP in M. JANCO and futurism in RETH and STANTON MCDONALD WRIGHT.

Cases like that of RICHARD STANKIEWCZ and the Italian GIO POMODORO, first prize for sculpture in the 1959 Paris Biennial, are of special interest since they are sculptors working within the framework of the print.

The interest in letters and calligraphy, more for their plastic worth than the conceptual significance of the word integrated into the design, is manifest in the signature of the Viennese artist FRITZ HUNDERTWASSER (which is plastically more interesting than his print),  and, more relevantly, in BERNARD QUENTIN, LEON FERRARI, BRUNO MUNARI, GUY HARLOFF, E.L.T. MESEN, JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL and ALLAN KAPROW.

In the case of the last artist, we would say that his print has a very special iconography, since it describes a Happening written directly on the plate by KAPROW, who together with CLAES OLDENBURG, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG and JAMES DINE, has distinguished himself through his experiments in this revolutionary form which escapes the limits not only of modern traditional theater but also the theater of the absurd.

Together with the group of letterists already mentioned, a new motif, the CROSSWORD PUZZLE, in which the plastic is fused with the playful, is manifest in the prints of GASTONE NOVELLI, LETTE EISENHAUER and BILL COPLEY.

From the crossword we move to the interest in the daily and the trivial in this neo-realist form that is pop-art.  Perhaps the contemporary movement most homogenously represented in the show, since most of its most distinguished representatives are visible here: ANDY WARHOL, JAMES DINE, ROBERT INDIANA, JAMES ROSENQUIST, GEORGE SEGAL, WAYNE THEIRBAUD, ALLAN D'ARCANGELO, CLAES OLDENBRUG, ROY LICHTENSTEIN, GEORGE BRECHT and ROBERT WATTS.

WATTS uses a theme which has become an iconogaphic motif preferred by some of the pop artists, the North American bank bill, which has been mockingly used by PHILIP HEFFERTON and ROBERT DOWDS in several of their works.

The use of offset printing, an unorthodox technique (except for the field of illustration and commercial art) and possibly for some alarmingly heretical, seems to us validly employed in the works of ANDY WARHOL, JAMES ROSENQUIST, ROBERT INDIANA and STEPHEN DURKEE. 

From the above, the singular character manifested in the present show is clear, as we alluded to it before.  It's an interesting show both from the perspective of the collector and that of the art historian:  a select grouping of works which, through the framework of the print, allows us to feel the heartbeat of art in the last decades.

CATALOGUE

Luigi Marrozzini

The" International Anthology of the Contemporary Print" of 130 etchings was selected by Tristan Sauvage (in collaboration with Billy Kluver for the American artists). All the etchings, which measure approximately 7” x 6”, were printed in Paris in the Atelier of Georges Leblanc on hand made paper from Papeteries de Rives. The edition was limited to sixty prints, numbered from 1 to 60 and signed by the artists, in addition to 25 hors commerce reserved for the collaborators, numbered from I to XXV and fifteen artist proofs. The plates were destroyed after the printing.

1.     NOBUYA ABE - Japan

2.     JOSEF ALBERS -Germany

3.     PIERRE ALECHINSKY - Belgium

4.     ALEXANDRE ARCHIPENKO -Russia

5.     HANS ARP (JEAN) - France

6.     ENRICO BAJ - Italy

7.     MIRIAM BAT-YOSEF - Germany

8.     HANS BELLMER

9.     GIANNI BERTINI - Italy

10.   GUIDO BIASI

11.   BONA - Italy

12.   GEORGE BRECHT - U.S.A.

13.   VICTOR BRAUNER

14.   CAMILLE BRYEN - France

15.   TADEUSZ BRZOZOWSKI - Poland

16.   CARL BUCHHEISTER - Germany

17.   MARCELLE CAHN - France

18.   GIUSEPPE CAPOGROSSI - Italy

19.   MARIE CARLIER - Belgium

20.   AGUSTIN CARDENAS - Cuba

21.   SERGE CHARCHOUNE - France

22.   CHINN YUEN-YUEI -China

23.   BILL COPLEY - U.S.A.

24.   CORNIELLE - Belgium

25.   ROBERTO CRIPPA - Italy

26.   SERGIO DANGELO - Italy

27.   ALLAN D'ARCANGELO - U.S.A.

28.   SONIA DELAUNAY - Russia

29.   LUCIO DEL PEZZO - Italy

30.   PAUL DELVAUX

31.   JIM DINE - U.S.A.

32.   JUN DOBASHI - Japan

33.   CESAR DOMELA - Holland

34.   HISAO DOMOTO - Japan

35.   GIANNA DOVA - Italy

36.   MARCEL DUCHAMP

37.   STEPHEN DURKEE - U.S.A.

38.   LETTE EISENHAUER - U.S.A.

39.   MAX ERNST

40.   OEYVIIND FAHLSTROEM - Brazil

41.   FARFA - Italy

42.   JEAN FAUTRIER - France

43.   FERRO - Iceland

44.   LEON FERRARI - Argentina

45.   STANLEY FISHER - U.S.A.

46.   LUCIO FONTANA - Italy

47.   WILHELM FREDDIE

48.   JOHNNY FRIEDLANDER - Germany

49.   ROLAND GIGUERE - Canada

50.   HENRY GINET - France

51.   ALBERTO GIRONELLA - Mexico

52.   NATHALIE GONTCHAROVA

53.   SAM GOODMAN - Canada

54.   RED GROOMS - U.S.A.

55.   YOZO HAMAGUCHI - Japan

56.   STANLEY WILLIAM HAYTER- England

57.   GUY HARLOFF - France

58.   RAOUL HAUSMANN - Austria

59.   JACQUES HEROLD -

60.   PHILIPPE HIQUILY - France

61.   FRITZ HUNDERTWASSER - Austria

62.   TOSHIMITSU IMAI - Japan

63.   ROBERT INDIANA - U.S.A.

64.   MARCEL JANCO - Romania

65.   HORST-EGON KALINOWSKI - Germany

66.   ALLAN KAPROW - U.S.A.

67.   JOSEPH LACASSE - Germany

68.   JACQUES LACOMBLEZ - Belgium

69.   WILFREDO LAM - Cuba

70.   JUAN LANGLOIS - Argentina

71.   MICHEL LARIONOV - Russia

72.   JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL - France

73.   ROY LICHTENSTEIN - U.S.A.

74.   BORIS LURIE - Russia

75.   STANTON MACDONALD-WRIGHT  - U.S.A.

76.   JOSAKU MAEDA - Japan

77.   ALBERTO MAGNELLI - Italy

78.   RENE MAGRITTE - Belgium

79.   PAUL MAUSOUROV - Russia

80.   PHILIP MARTIN - England

81.   ANDRE MASON - France

82.   ECHAURREN R. MATTA - Chile

83.   HANS MEYER-PETERSEN - Denmark

84.   E. L. T. MESENS - Belgium

85.   BRUNO MUNARI - Italy

86.   RODOLFO NIETO - Mexico

87.   GASTONE NOVELLI - Austria

88.   CLAES OLDENBURG - Sweden

89.   EDOARDO PAOLOZZI - Scotland

90.   MIMI PARENT - Canada

91.   ACHILLE PERILLI - Italy

92.   MARIO PERSICO - Italy

93.   EMILIO PETTORUTI - Argentina

94.   CESARE PEVERELLI - Italy

95.   ARNALDO POMODORO - Italy

96.   GIO POMODORO - Italy

97.   BERNARD QUENTIN - France

98.   MAN RAY - U.S.A.

99.   KRISHNA N. REDDY - India

100. ALFRED RETH - Hungary

101. CARL FREDRICK REUTERSWAERD - Sweden

102. PAUL REVEL - France

103. HANS RICHTER - Germany

104. JAMES ROSENQUIST - U.S.A.

105. MIMMO ROTELLA - Italy

106. KEY SATO - Japan

107. EMILIO SCANAVINO - Italy

108. GEORGE SEGAL - U.S.A.

109. VICTOR SERVRANCHX

110. GINO SEVERINI - Italy

111. LEOPOLD SURVAGE - Russia

112. RICHARD STANKIEWICZ - U.S.A.

113. MAX-WALTER SWANBERG - Sweden

114. YASSE TABUCHI - Japan

115. TAKIS - Greece

116. TANCREDI - Italy

117. TERZY TCHORZEWSKI - Poland

118. WAYNE THIEBAUD - U.S.A.

119. JEAN TINGUELY - Switzerland

120. TOYEN - Checkoslovakia

121. GIULIO TURCATO - Italy

122. GEORGES VANTONGERLOO - Belgium

123. ANDRE VERLON - Switzerland

124. JEAN-PIERRE VIELFAURE - Algeria

125. CLAUDE VISEUX - France

126. ANDY WARHOL - U.S.A.

127. ROBERT WATTS - U.S.A.

128. ROBERT WITMAN - U.S.A.

129. ENRIQUE ZANARTU - France

130. JACQUES ZIMMERMANN - Belgium