Page 53 - Studio International - November 1965

rather than described. From the erotic but apparently have on the spectator. From memory and knowledge
joyous paintings of a woman in a bath that were the and affinity with the sensual feeling for landscape in its
feature of Brett Whiteley's last exhibition to this docu­ tactile as well as visual qualities, these new paintings
mentation of a cause celebre, complete with rubber are the evidence of the two senses working together.
tubing similar to that used by the murderer, is to employ Texture and surface of the paint take on broken matt
the media of art in conflicting purposes. Yet we cannot appearance so that we feel almost suspended over the
complain if the artist can shock us; it is a measure of his plan of a prehistoric settlement, of buildings that are
skill that he can do so in a way that uses all the resources grouped in direct flat juxtapositions. There is nothing
of Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg geometric in the shapes which are rounded triangles,
and Larry Rivers to the desired end. curved and straight in a single object. Thus we come to
William Scott, showing recent paintings at the Hanover accept them as man-made images rather than abstrac­
Gallery, has moved a long way from the still life subjects tions from nature. By limitation of his colour schemes to
that occupied him for so long. Instead, there are basic the blues or the browns mentioned, the paintings are of a
out I ines that are fi lied in in various shades of blue against monumental austerity with now and then a conveyed
a white ground or having the earthy browns that reflect symbol of the human torso as in Figure divided, here
his long felt interest in old stone walls that have been reproduced. Still life is however the general impression
weatherbeaten and textured by the elements. Abstract they convey even if the objects are unidentifiably
though they seem in appearance, in arrangement and abstract. Upright and vertical as some of the composi­
3 form there is a primitive satisfaction in the effect they tions are. the perspective is no longer a necessity and the

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