Page 28 - Studio International - October 1965

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Haig, towards the end of 1959, began a series of essays
in pure abstraction. He had come, he thought, to a
dead end, a climacteric. There was, however, another
and more immediate reason for this exercise: his desire
to free himself from the hegemony of the visual motif.
This had always been a bugbear to him. 'It is very
important to avoid being dominated by the landscape.
One must work away from it, letting the forms evolve
freely in the studio. Here, the subconscious plays a vital
part in re-shaping the raw material to conform with the
archetypal images residing below conscious experience'.
The transition from a poetic to a deliberative attitude
was not easily accomplished. All his previous work had
been directly inspired by nature; to reverse the order of
things, so to speak, now proved a difficult and disturb­
ing experience. Haig believes with Jung that there
resides in the subconscious mind a vast reservoir of
formal images which have universal relevance to the
fundamental processes of art and being. These forms
constitute the basis of all art values. It is the task of the
artist to discover them through the processes of painting.
Forms, however, must have structure; they must cohere
and integrate if they are to have any significance for the
creative mind. Therefore, his first essays in abstraction
were intuitive colour constructions, derived ostensibly,
if not wholly, from subjective sources.
Haig himself would be the first to admit that in the
productive sense this phase was comparatively barren.
He wanted a firmer basis for his art, even a more
intellectual approach to the problems of pictorial con­
struction. In the end, this proved to be wholly foreign
to his temperament. By submitting himself, however,
to a rigorous discipline and self-analysis, he was to
achieve a surer sense of direction and purpose. He still
had to battle against his own enthusiasms and impulsive
ways. All his work has the slightly casual look of much
avant-garde painting. This is no more a fault than are
the 'sacred weaknesses' of the primitives noted by
Marita in. It is due rather to the fact that neat shapes and
precise technical procedures are inimical to modern
forms of expression. The ragged edge and discontinuous
line are modes of expression as well as negative
elements of construction. 'Canvas-netting collage, and
haphazard brush strokes and palette knife, give expres­
psychologically; most of it is allowed to sink into the sion to impulses which derive from the collective
unconscious matrix against eventual release and rein­ unconscious·. They allow space to 'flow', to enclose
carnation in a pictorial form. the constituent formal elements of painting, imparting
His method is deliberate and consistent. Once he to the whole something of the vitality of a growing and
has found a sketching ground, he proceeds to make a dynamic organism.
series of notes, changing his point of view each time, The lyric response, to which he is naturally prone, is a
so that he may abstract from the place something of its limiting condition of art. It is capricious. It is often
genius loci. 'Interesting rhythms and relationships of superficial. But through his practice of making rapid
form' (he declares) 'are suddenly revealed after one shorthand sketches on the spot-raids, as it were,
has looked at a landscape for a while. These-the behind the lines-Haig has accumulated a store of
secrets of nature-I try to put down in a series of essential images which enable him to develop his
drawings and notes in a sort of rough shorthand. They themes critically by successive revisions and trans­
are about movements and give the necessary material mutations. Side-stepping instead of confronting reality
for a picture. Only the gist from them will be taken, as he can, he believes, transcend its brute qualities of
1 each drawing can only give the essence of one aspect weight, mass and solidity-the very qualities appre­
Dead Pheasants 1964 of a landscape . The direction of one's vision may ciated by the senses-and enter into communion with
36 X 28 in.
Collection: Lady A. Trevor-Roper change from drawing to drawing, so that in the final its metaphysical essence. Exposing himself to the
version two or more focal points may be used ... I try ambience of the literal subject, the pictorial subject
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Red Ear1h 1964 to keep Cezanne's doctrine about the geometry of 'arrives' from subconscious sources, transformed to the
28 X 36 in. nature at the back of my mind as this helps one to keep point of abstraction. Teviot Valley is a symbol of a
Collection: The Artist
in touch with the bones of things'. particular emotional enclave, part of his near-by
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Tweed Valley from Clintmains Increasingly aware of the dangers of his inborn spiritual territory. It is a celebration of spring, a forth­
1964-65 romanticism, and no less aware of the limitations which right affirmation of life. In its mode of address there is
36 X 48 In.
Collection: Arts Council his strong classical predilections imposed on him, the sharp accent of truth and conviction. It has, in
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