Five Issues of Studio International

This publication is a rematerialised version of Studio International magazine, creating a 'special issue'. It opens with Peter Townsend’s last editorial, ‘Ave Atque’ (hail and farewell) where he reflects on the ups and downs of his ten-year period as editor (1965-1975). With characteristic humour he reminds the reader that his editorial voice has only twice been articulated in print, in his first and last issues; he uses this device to conjure the parameters of beginning and ending.

This essay navigates a selection of issues from Townsend’s time as editor that appear in this exhibition. The five issues are the source of the facsimiles included in the following pages and they provide the exhibition’s rationale. Townsend’s commitment to artist-led discussion and, in particular, his interest in the ways artists approached making sculpture during the 1960s and 1970s, has determined these choices. This was a time of rapid change in attitudes to making art, and the simultaneity of practices—from post-constructivism , kinetics and happenings to formalist abstraction, minimalism and conceptualism—gives the period a particular intensity. For Townsend, these developments had a threefold impact and each strand was equally important: the artists’ aims, where the sculpture was situated, and how the public encountered it. A lifelong socialist, the potential for the sculptural encounter to instigate a radically changed society underscored his interests and was core to his principles. This commitment informed his editorial policies and is first apparent in the issue dedicated to Naum Gabo and the Constructivists: April 1966.

• https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/...