Wieneke Archive Book 4i : Art - General Presscuttings

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Tile artist his vork - 4 %se/dm/ire- - it act of plynse It is sometimes said that contem- porary art is too impersonal; is lack- ing in warmth. It is also accused of being insincere. But to me abstract art is the most passionate and affirm- ative form of art there has been for centuries. In any movement there is always an academic group who are insincere because they are not quite at grips with the meaning of art. But surely this cannot be said of the men and women who have been prepared to be without money or status to ful- fill what to them is an expansion of human experience? Many of us had to wait a long time to achieve recog- nition or what the world calls success. However, during the past thirty years there has been an extraordi- nary development in t he underst a nd of contemp.irary art. This is Ili( re tilt, mri ly of our own perF .i.it of our own faith, partly of the faith of others which enabled us to con- tinue, More and more the mum in the street has the chance to see contem- porary art. In such places as Batter- sea Park in London, in the Tate Gal- lery and in International Exhibitions, he has been able to enjoy sculpture in the open. He has begun to realize that sculpture can be a thing of joy, not just a memorial on a plinth, or a memorial to the dead. A A A In the main I find my own inspira- tion comes from man's recognition of the universe. I have watched peo- ple a great deal. We all use phrases such as "being in touch," or "out of touch." When people come into my studio in Cornwall-those, that is. who are not so steeped in tradition that they can no longer "look"-it delights me to hear such people say: "May I touch?" and having touched: don't understand it, but it does make me think of so and so." They are always right. We are in touch because they have picked up the evocation of an idea Iliad wanted to communicate. In the sculpture entitled "Wave." for instance, people have recognized the curve of the Cornish breakers, the music of the wind passing through the strings. "Curved Stone with Yellow" conjures up the sense or tiring curled up in the shelter of sunlit cliffs. To many the bronze sculpture "Meridian," which stands outside the State House in Holborn. London, expresses the impetus of growth. This sculpture stands fifteen feet high. Much has been done in recent years through radio to bring modern music to the people. The many groups who have built up collections . rom Ii subscriber iii Soli t 1 i \Vales: "...REALLY UNIQUE PAPER..." . t. -arm th,ink to e%ci MP. e erneil eitt the \haulm Inc giving tar \111.111 fill. 1,allv tirtiqm. .1.01, paper ... a murce of limn% and The 'Monitor i. truh 11111rtile 1111 international Tani -- paper. \ nil there are num?, odic, things atom! it that Jr, s. rt nun h out of the \\ 1" tint nut foe tottrelr? oh.. n.tooi i The Home Forum "Gaoue I All pictures by courtesy of the artist (CoNcounsE)": Marble soulpture by Barbara Hepworth of painting and sculpture and ate taking them round the schools. are promoting the most lively interest among children, are drawing pene- trating comments. There is a world of difference between seeing an orig- inal and seeing a color reproduction. A A A I always wanted to be a sculptor. As a child I motored with my father all over the West Riding of York- shire. To my eyes every landscape became a sculpture. I had to be a sculptor because I had to use my hands to make an image. I rather think that seeing an image mentally before one begins is a special faculty. As a musician conceives his compo- sition from end to end in space and time. so a sculptor sees in his mind the finished work, all the way round, before he begins it. My Yorkshire background was tremendously vital. The paradox of the rather grim industrial towns springing out of the matounceni beauty of the \Vest Riding. made one think philosophically about the re- lationship of man to his environ- ment, of the dignity and beauty of the human spirit which can trans- cend a drab environment and harsh economic conditions. To me a basic purpose of sculpture is to express the importance of man and his fun- damental unity with nature. Gesture, movement, rhythm. whether in hu- man behavior or in nature, are of vital importance. When at seventeen I was fortu- nate enough to win a scholarship to the Leeds School of Art I did not find myself in harmony with the school's traditional methods of tui- tion. but I did accept discipline be - I had to keep my scholarship. was the year spent there wasted. 1 learned a tremendous amount about movement, anatomy and structure, even though I did not put the knowl- edge to traditional use. At the Royal School of Art in Lon- don, to which my next scholarship took me just after the war. there was a tremendously vital movement. In addition to people like myself. almost straight from school, there were fully formed students back from the war on army grants. Sev- eral of these proved to be major art- ists. among them Henry Moore. We made quite a group who really helped and sustained one another. We had a clear idea of out' goal. But I do not think we were in any way aggressive. A A A A Traveling Scholarship to Italy was enormously important. Neither in Yorkshire nor in London had I really appreciated the relationship of light, of moon or sun, to forms. In the strong Italian light the subtleties of form, color and contour were in;.. tensified. I spent my entire year looking at and studying painting, architecture and sculpture in rela- tion to light. I also studied' the tra- ditional ways of carving marble, a stone not native to England. Once more I was in disgrace. Instead of coming back with traditional works; I did not produce a single piece. But that yeast of looking -that making has remained a constant inspiration. Much later, in 1959. I went to Greece. There was 110 money to go earlier. Greece more than fulfilled my greatest hopes. There I found the extraordinary light which I had dis- covered in Cornwall. I also found the philosophical relationship be- tween man and his landscape, an un- derstanding and harmony, a main- tenance of the spirit which gives power to form. Form as an affirma- tive image is really the tactile as well as the visual, concrete, embodi- ment of man's poise in relation to the universe. In 1930 i turned away from real- ism because I wits a carver and be- lieved in "direct" carving, that is in working straight into the block. When I found that I could thus carve freely, make forms which expressed my feelings. but which bore no re= lation to anything but my own ideas about life itself. I realized that the whole conception and 11711*M0 y of the idea was of paramount it tame. When in 1931 I pierced my first piece. I remember the great joy it gave me to find the depth and re- sulting expansion of the form and of the light entering it. I had achieved a complete sense of freedom for my own calligraphy. In a foreword to the catalog for an exhibition of my work in 1937, Professor J. D. Bernal likened some of my sculptures to the ancient stones arid cromlechs of Cornwall. But at that time I had not been to Cornwall. When, just before the war, I came here to live, the Cornish landscape linked up so many of my earlier convictions that it fused for me my childhood in Yorkshire with the inspiration of the light and philosophies of Italy and Greece. In the sculpture "Three Forms (Winter Rocks)," the stones are reminiscent of the groups of stone scattered about the moors, or a group of figures on the beaches. "Group I. Concourse," carved in marble, imagines the movement of a group of people com- municating with one another in a state of stability and understanding. A A A r 11, me one or the :limo exciting thaw., about present-etiv sculpture is the expansion of the sculptural idea in tile entirely visionary con- ceptions. in the use of many different materials. In addition to stone, bronze and wood, sculptors now tvork in cement, slate. copper, steel, glass and even plastics. Just as the Italian Primitives. by their percep- tive use of the very colors one now experiences on a jet flight, expressed their ideas of heavenly beauty, so I feel that contemporary sculptors are unconsciously realizing the affirma- tive images which our present so- ciety needs if it is to come to grips with the extraordinary developments in science and in space: if it is to meet the uneasy sense that we may not be able to hold our own. It seems to me that the post-war difficulties which architects have had to meet (the current sense of dan- ger) have produced in them, and in some artists, a trend toward a short- term policy, a pessimistic outlook. But I do feel that this can be over- come, indeed is now being overcome. The issue may well depend on the attitudes we adopt. Are we going to be rich, rich that is in ideas, or are we going to be obsessed by the fear of being poor materially? In the ex- pression of ideas there is no limita- tion. I believe most strongly that any sculpture made now should be valid in its form and ideas a thousand years hence. A sculpture should he an act of praise. an enduring expres- Arai of the divine spirit. HMIRAIIA ii/ The three pre r art rely, to tls Nerirs appeared on April 13, May 25. (1.1 June 22. The neat nrlicle. bll de Nu will appear in Flom the 4 edge of a gre., nn an isolated ,.f nomadic art'' vied apartments. might be made i i "Where dwellest This question Christ Jesus by John the Baptist left to follow to asked Jesus (Juii dwellest thou?" 'I and shown his an mained to becoml The simple al, rene was not as i profound spiritu.t holy query. It ccfria in substance, `I thoughts find re live in conscious, tin you make you, household have peace which wi which we ask to Jesus knew w Christ, which hi had drawn these it recognized the hale ing their spiritua I habitation of ci, matter, but Mind must meet their PI Where God dw His beloved son ;i1 world cannot cor One and only, All, can and does i which are impart known to Him. 1. comprehend the I one with God as I I for him to see `tit 100. was a ports household. ) Christian &let Baker Eddy disco is in complete . Bible. This staten occurs in her bi-, Health with Key I (p. 254): "Pilgri. "Cunvi3) i The In the field of were particularly 1, ii sculpture. The I tended to be a bstr. istic. Their tort: great imotional !.itr hiller then , This came gradu. the later sculptor - superior, althougl