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ART The Artist as Reinhardt WITHIN the past month Ad Reinhardt visited Los Angeles to open his one-man exhibition of paintings at the Dwan Gallery. Mr. Reinhardt, a prominent figure in American abstract painting, spoke at the Pasadena Art Museum and to the students of Chouinard Art Institute. He also sampled a bite of the art life of Southern California and provoked a covey of swiftly moving thoughts and questions. "Artist as Artist" was the given title of the painter's comments at the Pasadena Art Museum. Very shortly after accepting his introduction, Reinhardt clarified his purpose by saying that he was not talking about the artist as a man, husband or good fellow. His concern was for the artist as creator of esthetic objects and primarily as painter. In both of his speeches and in casual conversation, Reinhardt worked deliberately to ridicule the many common concepts of the artist: the artist as naive genius or as visionary, the artist as a madman or as an ultimately healthy member of the society, the artist as a bohemian or a moral or political activist, the artist as an integrator of the arts or as an amateur. Continually bringing the listener back to his major point, Reinhardt insisted upon the artist as an esthetic actor who can only concern himself with esthetic questions if he is to maintain his integrity. Widely known as an abstract painter since the middle '30s, Ad Reinhardt is also celebrated as a merciless critic of the pretensions, dishonesties and corruptions of the art world. Long famous for his paste-up cartoons concerning the business of art, he has moved steadily toward an extreme position as conscience of the New York art milieu. While everyone enjoys his pungent wit when directed toward another camp, it is a different thing when pointed toward one's own position. Balloons, myths, false values, hypocrisy, inflated reputations are the natural targets of this often ambiguous but highly verbal intellectual. He questions the integrity of men who painted as social genreists in the '30s, as abstract naturalists in the '50s and are moving toward mystical or existential forms un the '60s. He ridicules the literary images of the artist as naif, saint or social servant. He emphasizes that the man who is a businessman cannot be an artist. Reinhardt is a gifted phrase-maker with a high regard for the mission of the artist. He says that "art is too serious to be take seriously," and he feels that art has to be "fine" art to be worthy. He would define art negatively, saying that it is impossible to do otherwise. Art is not concerned with dollars. Art is pure. "Purity" means free from corruption and non-art concerns; "free" requires something to be free from. When challenged as having adopted a theoretical position, Reinhardt sidesteps by saying that he has been forced into it by the non-free, impure, business-art of the period. In discussing his negative position, the painter rejects the irrational, the unconscious, the existential, as issues which avoid the problems of painting, which he feels are connected with tradition, control and awareness. He is also critical of collage, assemblage, junk art and the grand generic "anti-art." These forms are, he feels, too concerned with self expression, spontaneity and subject matter and are therefore impute and anti-esthetic. "Nothing shocks the art world today," Reinhardt claims. He criticizes our time as overly tolerant of experiment and novelty in art. "There is no ethic for the artist"- no pure food and drug act of professional practice. He argues persuasively for tradition, claiming that traditional forms come through other artists and that one becomes effective only after achieving discipline. He refers to the art of the orient, as a serious student, pointing to an academic discipline as the key to the Eastern heritages. When forced to choose between the market place and the academy, Reinhardt has no difficulty in choosing the academy. Feeling strongly that art is derived from convention and tradition and agreeing with Malraux that there are no sudden revelations in the creation of timeless art, Reinhardt cannot but disapprove of action painting, personal handwriting in art and form which draw the viewer into their stage. At the same time that Mr. Reinhardt attacks excesses he defends the idea of abstract art in most vigorous terms. [[image]] Dwan Gallery K, 1960, a diptych by Ad Reinhardt He denies that abstract art is just another art, another "ism" of out century. He broadly asserts that abstraction is the characteristic art of the 20th century. He cannot accept mere tolerance for the movement. He insists that abstraction is a fact that is the most influential and pervasive form in the world art that it cannot be ignored with reason. The Reinhardt show of fifteen to twenty paintings at the Dwan Gallery in Westwood is a very complex visual experience. As one enters the show-window entry of the gallery one perceives a number of totally black and un-shiny canvases hanging in the small window stages. ON first viewing one cannot discern even the slightest textural variation in these monochrome works. Inside the gallery one finds a series of nine-foot paintings, another series of six-foot ones and a scattering of smaller works. These too are black, or at least vey dark. In our fast paced day it is not unusual for "art lovers" 23 March 1962 FRONTIER
