MIXED MEDIA MOVING IMAGES
‘THERE IS NEVER A QUESTION OF WHAT TO PAINT, but
only how to paint’ (Art in Process, vol. 4). Robert Ryman’s
succinct aesthetic echoes Samuel Beckett’s conviction that Jean-Michel Alberola, Rien,
‘the assumption underlying all painting is that the domain of 1995, neon, 30 x 30 cm.Photo: Florian Kleinefenn/ADAGP.
the maker is the domain of the feasible’ (Proust and Three Private collection
Dialogues with Georges Duthuit, 1965). Ryman and other
international artists, such as Sean Scully, Sol LeWitt and Mona monochrome with stripped down sound. All that is heard
Hatoum, are part of an exploration of Beckett’s aesthetic at in Quadrat II are the shuffling steps of the figures and the
the Pompidou Centre, Paris, called, simply, Samuel Beckett. almost imperceptible beat of a metronome. The formalism
Divided into five elements, or stages, the exhibition of Beckett’s later performance work is perceptively explored
explores all aspects of Beckett’s work in the context of by counterpoint with the minimalism of Sol LeWitt, Richard
contemporary art and music. The exhibition begins by Serra and Robert Ryman. LeWitt’s Drawing Series 1968
juxtaposing work by Hatoum, Andrew Kötting and Bruce (Fours), with its detailed cubic drawings and instructions for
Nauman with Beckett’s fiction (including unpublished the permutations of each square, prefigure the diagrams and
documents and photographs). Strongest here are Nauman’s directions of Quadrat I + II, and raise similar questions about
1960s videoworks, particularly his Slow Angle Walk (Beckett gesture, repetition and performativity.
Walk) (1968), which enacts passages from Beckett’s novels Richard Serra’s monumental yet minimalist sculpture
Watt (1953) and Molloy (1951), described by Nauman evokes the closed spaces of Ghost Trio (1975) and the short
as ‘a tedious complicated process to gain even a yard’. prose piece ‘Closed Place’ (‘All needed to be known for say
Commissioned for the exhibition, Alain Fleischer’s installation is known. There is nothing but what is said. Beyond what is
reinterprets Beckett’s novels by reworking the form of the said there is nothing’). This piece is one of five short texts, or
book itself on a grand scale. Fizzles, contained in the 1976 collaboration between Beckett
Theatre, that form through which Beckett gained and Jasper Johns called Foirades/Fizzles. In this livre d’artiste,
greatest recognition, is represented by rare audio-visual Beckett’s texts are informed by 33 etchings by Jasper Johns
material, unpublished documents and photographs, and is that derive from his painting Untitled (1972). There is a
complemented by Jérôme Combier’s composition for strings, strong but seldom explored strand of Beckett’s collaboration
music inspired by Beckett’s Ohio Impromptu (1981) and (albeit at arm’s length) in the livre d’artiste which includes
written especially for the Pompidou. The legacy of Beckett’s Georg Baselitz, Max Ernst, Sorel Etrog, Stanley William
only foray into film – his 1965 almost-silent Film, directed Hayter, Louis le Brocquy and Robert Ryman. Ryman’s six
by Alan Schneider and starring Buster Keaton – is clearly etchings for the 1989 edition of Nohow On are exercises in
evident in Stan Douglas’s Video (2006), inspired by Film and restrained minimalism, with his almost imperceptible white-
Franz Kafka’s The Trial (1925). Douglas has long been a fan of on-white images relying more on the surface of the paper than
Beckett’s film and TV work, curating the important Samuel any mark.
Beckett: Teleplays exhibition for the Vancouver Art Gallery Beckett’s 1953 novel The Unnamable ends with
in 1988. We might think also of Berlin-based Iranian artist the insistent declaration that ‘I’ll recognise it, the story
Shahram Entekhabi’s short film I? (2004), recently screened of the silence that he never left, that I should have never
at Tate Modern as part of the Beckett and Company left, that I may never find again’. Throughout his writing,
centenary conference, which explores themes of alienation Beckett’s figures search for an impossible silence. Towards
and displacement through a reworking of Beckett’s Film. the close of the exhibition, Beckett’s silence is reworked
Silent film gives way to the ghostly restraint of Beckett’s by Claudio Parmiggiani’s spare drawings, recalling the
late theatre and television work with screenings of Quad monumental bronze bells of his sculptural meditations on
(1981), Nacht und Traüme (1982), …but the clouds… (1976), silence, melancholy and resistance with In Silenzio a Voce
Ghost Trio (1975) and What Where (1983). Working with Alta (2005) and L’Isola del Silenzio (2006). The Pompidou’s
Süddeutscher Rundfunk and the BBC, Beckett explored the centenary celebrations for Beckett recall those held there
possibilities, and limitations, of the small screen. After filming in his honour in 1981, during his seventy-fifth year. On that
Quad (broadcast as Quadrat I, in 1982) in colour, Beckett was occasion he wrote, ‘I dread the year now upon us and all the
taken by a black-and-white version glimpsed on the studio fuss in store for me here, as if it were my centenary. I’ll make
monitor. He decided to record another, slower version in myself scarce while it lasts, where I don’t know.’ Absent in life,
Beckett is here present in death: as we leave the exhibition,
a quiet recording of Beckett reading Lessness (story, 1970)
ushers us out.
Samuel Beckett is on show at the Pompidou Centre, Paris,
until 25 June 2007
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