Page 49 - Studio International - June 1965

New York Commentary

elements to their flanks, producing strange counter­ Two younger men, Larry Bell, born in 1939 and Tony
movements. Sometimes, these curving shapes are de Lap born in 1927, represent the constructivist
thick, gnarled, thrusting their way through the massive tradition in their way, but with radical departures.
cleavages like hoary trees. The elemental themes Goto The concept of an art untouched by human hands was
deals with are never as specific or literary as Lipton's never so much realized as in these pure, cold con­
yet they read through his work unmistakeably. structions. Larry Bell offers constructed cubes made of
Stemming from the constructivist tradition, but not mirrored, engraved, painted glass. Clearly the artist's
tradition-bound are the works of Jose de Rivera and hand had little part in the industrial processes by which
Roy Gussow exhibited at the Grace Borgenicht these glass sheets are fashioned. What is at stake is
Gallery. De Rivera was one of the first American an idea successfully realized by technological aptitude.
sculptors to utilize the gleaming metals favoured by The exquisite craftsmanship of Tony de Lap's con­
industry in an esthetic way. He forges rods of steel, structions in which plexiglass layers are dove­
bronze, aluminium into delicate, dilating shapes which tailed into perfect patterns and in which tidiness is
depend on a slight rotary movement to produce shifting all-important also illustrate the trend toward the
light effects. A bronze, curving open shape slowing immaculate in both sculpture and painting.
moving on its axis, throwing off rays of light and gently Beside a spate of sculpture exhibitions-a rare con­
grading itself off into infinity is a lyrical abstraction of currence-there were several graphic exhibitions of
the highest order. note. Richard Lindner offered an enchanting show of
Roy Gussow is more interested in solids, contrasting drawings, ranging from small crayon fantasies that are
horizontal and vertical movements. He makes use of far from the aggressive images in his paintings to
exceedingly high polish on his surfaces to indicate a larger, more finished drawings very close in tenor to
host of surface movements that in turn lighten the recent paintings. A trip to California fired Lindner's
presence of his bulky forms. Both Gussow and de already fantastic imagination to new extremes of cruel,
Rivera are classical in that they make use of light on sociological commentary. Of course, commentary is
polished surface to animate their forms, and experi­ not the primary attraction in his work, for Lindner is
mental in their attitude toward materials and space. first and foremost a plastic inventor. Still, the acerbic
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notes he makes on American life are interesting reading
on several levels.
Iqbal Geoffrey showed drawings and paintings on
paper at the Greenross Gallery. Geoffrey is an accom­
plished draftsman and an inventive artist whose visual
garrulity sometimes obscures an authentic talent. Many
of these fluid improvisations are inscribed in both
English and Pakistani with gratuitous cluttering effect.
But other drawings are strong essays into an abstract
space which Geoffrey can make extremely tangible. II

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