Page 36 - Studio International - July 1965

David Partridge's nail mosaics

by Charles S. Spencer

David Partridge frankly admits the influence and
inspiration of Kemeny. He was in Paris. studying etching
under Hayter, when he first saw an exhibition of Zoltan
Kemeny's remarkable reliefs. At that time he was what
might be called a traditional painter and print-maker­
which he has continued to be-and had no thought of
turning sculptor or experimenting with three­
dimensional constructions.
Born in Ohio. U.S.A., in 1919, Partridge spent most of
his childhood in England before going to Canada at the
age of 16. There he studied at Toronto University and
served in the Canadian Army during the war before
becoming a Canadian citizen in 1944. He spent a year
in England in 1950-51 at the Slade School, under a
British Council scholarship, and then again between
1956 and 1958. He finally settled here in 1962.
The nail 'Configurations' started in about 1958. Before
that he painted and did graphic work. As I looked at
some of his latest compositions in his basement studio
in Gloucester Road, in preparation for his large one-man
show at the Commonwealth Institute, I commented on
their rhythmic forms. 'I suppose I'm really a frustrated
landscape painter,' he remarked.
His paintings and prints, which he still does as
relaxation from the more exhausting hammering of the
reliefs. are confrontations of solid, rock-like shapes,
somewhat reminiscent of paintings by Max Ernst. The
colour is heavy and flat, and the forms have the
monumental ruggedness best suited to prints. What is
interesting, in relation to the reliefs. is that the gaunt,
geological patterns in these works are almost identical
with the shapes in the nail constructions. although in
the latter they are not in solid black or colour but
composed in the pointilliste, illusionist heads of
differently shaped nails. Once one has recognised this
fact Partridge's reference to landscape makes sense.
He told me the fascinating story that some eighteen
months after having seen the Kemeny show in Paris he
was rebuilding a little house in Ottawa where he and
his family were to live. Pulling down a wooden wall he
became aware of the effect of a group of nails on a
loose plank, and the long subconscious impression of
the Kemeny panels released a desire to experiment with
these materials. In that year he made six small panels
and when one of them won him a Purchase Prize in
the Montreal Spring Show, he began to concentrate on
the new technique.
Photo: Tony Evans 'I've never considered myself a sculptor' he says. The
nail constructions are, in effect, drawings or designs in
three-dimensional materials, although at one period
he did attempt to incorporate them in free-standing,
totem-like figures. 'Mosaics· is the term which he
himself favours to define his method, and the more one
studies the panels the more exact this description
seems.
The tentative, relatively small and simple con­
structions of six years ago, Partridge has developed
into more ambitious and elaborate compositions. He
has, however, never deviated from the restriction of
ready-made components. For the most part these have
been nails, purchased in large quantities. in various
lengths. with an enormous variety of head sizes, and in
many different materials. In more recent years he has
begun to incorporate other manufactured, engineering
parts, mostly in aluminium-angles, brackets, piping,
rods. But whilst this multiplication of shapes adds to
the richness of the interior cross-patterning, and
increases the tension of linear relationships, Partridge
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