print March 1974

Christo

In what seemed an attempt at asserting an absent quality, the Rosa Esman Gallery exhibited six collage and assemblage “drawings” of 1964–65 for the storefront projects by Christo. In a color range from lemon yellow and tangerine orange to lime green, the diagrammatic sketches for the storefronts presented calculations and designatory measurements for the storefront images. Using paper, cloth, and sometimes charcoal on paper to represent these, Christo draped and bandaged the storefront windows and doors, as is his habit, so as to prohibit our gaze into the potential general store and corner

print March 1974

Moshe Safdie

The Jewish Museum is presenting “For Everyone A Garden,” an exhibition of the work of architect Moshe Safdie. We are shown documentation of Safdie’s best-known work from Habitat ’67 and recent work by means of photographs, drawings, writings, and architectural models — among them Habitat ’67; Habitat, Puerto Rico; Habitat, New York; Western Wall Square, Jerusalem; The Paris Cultural Center; and Cold-spring, Baltimore. Also shown are three films on Safdie and his work, and a slide presentation in a five-eighths-size modular unit for the controversial San Francisco State College Union.

As an

print March 1974

Robert Ehrlich

In his first exhibition Robert Ehrlich presented The Pentagon Series, “conceptual color modular grid paintings, based on the pentagon’s inherent substructure of continuous proportion, asymptotic (approaching but never reaching) to zero and extending to or from infinity.”

The panel arrangements grew from a single panel (The Aether Series) to a 25-panel polyptych (Second Phase Thruster). The paintings’ structures are determined by the outward and inward generation of the pentagon as the module (being the stretcher support as well as the painted and delineated image) and the trapezoid as its subsidiary

print February 1974

Robert Irwin

Robert Irwin’s show consisted of a 55’-long (the length of the gallery) approximately 6’-high “barricade” or semi-wall if you will (3/5 the height of the gallery—all measurements are approximate) that divided the gallery space in half. It was painted white as is the gallery, and was devoid of any inherent trace or image of reality other than its entrenchment as wall-barricade in this space.

No title or forewarning was given that this was “it.” People walked in, people walked out—a shame because the piece and we were capable, through an extreme investment, of generating a great deal of interest.

print February 1974

Mario Merz

The light at the end of the tunnel in this “Odyssean” search for an almost lost presence and place of esthetic, intellectual, and emotional value was Mario Merz’ show that the artist has again based on the Fibonacci series.

Many, on seeing this show, were blind to or amused at the simplicity and clarity of such a presentation of Fibonacci’s mysterious discovery and Merz’ fiducial romance with it. I was visually comforted, mentally seduced, and emotionally informed by Merz’ presentation.

Merz did a series of drawings and the actual tables from the drawings that would accommodate a certain number

print February 1974

Helen Frankenthaler

She had a gorgeous, simply gorgeous, time.
And look at the lovely shell she brought.
In quintessential triviality for years in
this fleshcase a shesoul dwelt.
—James Joyce, Ulysses

Helen Frankenthaler’s new show was about an art—no, paintings—of visual opulence, of rich, extravagant, and beautiful color. It was about the fluidity of her solutions—no, emulsions—that stick to the eye like honey. By virtue of their viscosity they coat and bind themselves to the eye. They preserve and pervert our perception of the essential “shesoul” which still lies somewhere within the artist since they were not

José Matos