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The pattern will not be far from the Coke, the Car, the Hamburger, the Jukebox. It is the American Myth. For this is the best of all possible worlds. Ellsworth Kelly continued from page 35 simple diligence. Abstract-Expressionist "handwriting" demanded talent of a kind that Kelly may or may not have, but which he has, in any case, decided to suppress. For him this becomes a positive virtue insofar as the elimination of brushmarks, texture and value modulations force the expressiveness of the image to turn all the more on shape and scale, the most inventive areas of his art. Morphologically, the differences between Arp and Kelly are subtle but crucial. Kelly's sense of form does not emerge, as does Arp's, from Surrealist biomorphism. Arp works improvisationally, his pencil or brush multiplying organic forms that only subsequently, by way of poetic association, suggest subjects. Kelly's motifs, at least in their inception, derive from things seen. Though they lose their specific character in the process of abstraction, they lead to a greater variety of shapes than in Arp, whose limited biomorphic vocabulary exists, so to speak, before its associations to things seen. The playfulness of Surrealist automatism is apparent in the casual way in which Arp's metamorphic forms seem to expand, multiply and divide. By comparison, Kelly's are inelastic and severe, and consequently his world is more static. Arp's relaxed silhouettes are easily assimilated by the eye; Kelly's shapes are taut, with many minute inflections of the edges which the eye does not catch immediately: what at first appears to be a continuous curve turns out to have splinters of straight edges in its contours. Arp rarely presents his biomorphic shapes in anything but their entirety. While Kelly will sometimes do the same with his free forms, as, for example, in Black Ripe [p. 35], he more frequently cuts them off by the frame. This practice opens up a whole series of possibilities for dissolving the traditional distinction between figure and ground still obtaining in Arp. In the latter's reliefs and collages, the ground is not an entity in itself, but a residual foil for the biomorphic figures. It is inevitable-as the Gestalt psychologists have established-that a shape or figure given whole will take precedence in the reading of even an abstract image. Through his fragmentation of the figure Kelly reduces it to the status of the ground, for both become incomplete abstract shapes, and from there it is but another step to designing the figure-if it can still be called that-so that the profile of the ground is equally engaging. The result is a kind of jigsaw-puzzle ambiguity that gives the entire surface of the canvas equal weight and importance, as in a picture like Forty-Second [p. 34], where the light and dark areas may be read interchangeably as figure and ground. One of the most exhilarating aspects of Kelly's art is the illusion of breadth and largeness imparted by works that remain no more than ample easel pictures in size. This is strikingly demonstrated when a Kelly and an Abstract-Expressionist painting of like size are juxtaposed. This majestic scale, in part the result of the simplicity and boldness of Kelly's imagery, is very much enhanced by the particular segmentation of the motifs. Henry Geldzahler hinted at this when he wrote that the image is cut off in such a way that we must finish it in our minds.... Whether we finish it or not, we do sense that the given segment of the abstract shape is only a fraction of its entirety. Since the dimensions of the canvas containing the given fragment average between 4 and 8 feet, we are forced-whether aware of it or not-to imagine the whole motif as immense, hence the feeling of scale. We can test this by studying Kelly's smaller pictures. Where the given portion of the motif is slight, the sense of large scale prevails; where the greater part of the motif is in evidence, the pictures seem too small. In addition to some early architectural commissions, Kelly has exhibited several sculptures and is now finishing others for his exhibition this month at Betty Parsons. The remarkable success of those already shown has seemed to confirm what almost every writer on Kelly has referred to as the inherently or incipiently sculptural character of his painting. I am unable to accept this view of Kelly's art, as I find that much of his best painting exploits precisely those ambiguities of figure and ground, those framing devices, which are the province of painting alone. Indeed, I would say that his sculptures are more inherently pictorial than his painting is sculptural. That Arp should have progressed to monolithic sculpture in the round was more to have been expected, for his two-dimensional work had never AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARTISTS' MATERIALS [[image]] ARTISTS' MATERIALS DRAFTING SUPPLIES [[/image]] Write for your free copy of this 208-page catalog that makes available everywhere the huge stock and variety of America's largest art supply distributor. ARTHUR BROWN & BRO., INC. 2 W. 46th st. New York 36, N.Y. Statement of ownership, management, and circulation required by the act of October 23, 1962: section 4369, Title 39. United States Code of ARTNEWS, published monthly, except July and August at New York, N.Y. for October 1, 1963. 1. The names and addresses of the Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor are James McC. Truitt, Publisher, 4 East 53rd Street, New York 22, N.Y. Alfred M. Frankfurter, Editor, 4 East 53rd Street, New York 22, N.Y.; Thomas B. Hess, Managing Editor, 4 East 53rd Street, New York 22, N.Y. 2. 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Free distribution by mail, carrier delivery or by other means. | 513 | 531 | | D. Total No. of copies distributed | 25,047 | 28,258 | (Signed) James McC. Truit: Publisher Sworn to and subscribed before me this 25th day of September 1963. (Signed) Francis X. Marley (My commission expires March 30, 1964) ART NEWS
