Page 58 - Studio International - September 1965

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!'Homme have life. They are the images of all life. only
the hands of the creator are Giacometti's.
To visit, after Giacometti. the exciting little show '30
centuries of Iranian art' at the Hamilton Galleries was
not to be overly impressed by the content of Amlash
terra-cotta vessels in the form of animals or the
Luristan bronze whetstone in the shape of a goat. The
absence of self-consciousness gives these objects a
charm we feel in the drawings of children; their
designs are in many cases playful and. in the ceramics.
highly decorative.
Menashe Kidishman. a young Israeli sculptor. at
present working in this country, exhibited some of his
stone carvings in a mixed show at the Grosvenor
Gallery. Crudely dressed masses are cut in shapes that
become interesting only in relation to their neighbours
and the total image they arrive at. But monolithic
obelisks are not the ends aimed for; in a work such as
Winged Form the separation of the elements by space
endows the weight with lightness and movement.
Douglas Partway. whom I regard as one of the most
important of British artists now in their forties. held a
one-man exhibition of recent works in oils and gouache
at the Drian Galleries. Several of his larger canvases are
titled Coniunctio and in this it would seem there is a
clue to his motives. On a light-coloured ground he
paints more or less straight-edged forms but thinly so
that the priming shines through and gives a transparent
effect to dark browns bars. for example. that lighten to
tan in halation profiles. Pink and rose soakings will
shine around a drawn circle in the graffito that traces
its design across the canvas. An ambiguity and elegant
handling of material gives to Portway·s painting that
delicacy that is against the aggressive picture-making
trends of the day. Yet there is no lack of presence in
these paintings that measures up to 51 by 76 inches
in size.
Living in Spain and Ibiza as he does. Partway reflects
the atmosphere of his surroundings in an aerial
convention. The hardness of rock. the dryness of the
stony valleys-for Partway, the message is to be
conveyed visually through the way of the sky and the
earth. seen through a haze of heat. Warmth and
distance are felt in Portway·s paintings in a manner
not easy to define but palpable in its sensuous and
insidious enchantment.
Official organisations such as the British Council
have. greatly to their credit, promoted art abroad and
the similar bodies in the United States have done
likewise and perhaps more thoroughly, given more
generous funds. So that in London we have come in
recent years to regard American art. as it has been seen
in travelling exhibitions at the Tate and the White­
chapel. almost as beginning with Jackson Pollock or.
if our memories are better, with Ben Shahn. But official
organisations in the U.S.A.. as here. always begin with
the works that have been shown in smaller institutions
like the Downtown Gallery, New York. This gallery
and its director. Mrs. Edith Halpert, since 1926 have
fostered the talents and fed the aspirations of American
artists in the thin days of the Depression and the
neglect of the big collectors who. as in Britain. believed
that all the great artists were foreign and most of them
were dead. anyway. A selection of works by these
artists were assembled and shown by courtesy
of the Downtown Gallery at the Leicester Galleries.
One of the earliest individual image-makers was
Stuart Davis who. far from concocting a premature
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