Page 59 - Studio International - September 1965

London Commentary

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'pop' art as some have alleged, saw in the graphic temporaries' work, she brings the innocence of a
assault on our vision by the poster and the printed primitive to her canvases that leave with us an icon's
sales message a means of composing pictures that, message without its religious meaning.
using the same alphabet, read as poetic comment on Abraham Rattner, who recently exhibited in Paris,
our society and its media. Marsden Hartley who died where he lived for twenty years, has the grave modelling
in 1943 had studied in Paris in 1912-13 where he of weight in his figure paintings, which are obsessed
made contacts with the Cubists. This association is with the travels and the travails of man. Ben Shahn,
very evident in the painting Musical Theme I, Bach known here from his previous exhibitions at the
preludes dated 1910-12 with its abstract and formal Leicester Galleries, shows water-colours that contain
elements stressed in a fashion that rnflects the move­ the spaced drawing of motives based on witty observa­
ment of the time. John Marin was another of the tion or poignantly felt social comment. Max Weber,
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Marsden Hartley 1877-1943 senior American artists who travelled in Europe like Shahn, was born in Russia, and the range of his
Musical Theme 1. Bach preludes though he was never to lose his New England honesty art from 1907 to 1946 is based on human situations
1912-13
21 X 26 in. in facing the motive. In his water-colours and his oils like Bathers and Acrobats, preserving a continuity that
Leicester Galleries of the coast of Maine he lets the air into all he sees is strong and deliberate.
2 with a freshness that reflects the character of the Stanislaw Frenkiel, showing at the Grabowski
John Marin 1870-1953 landscape through the clear glass of his vision. Gallery, has a rare plastic sense of volume that trans­
Fantasy, Small Point. Maine 1914
Watercolour Georgia O'Keeffe, the real grand old lady of American forms his figure compositions into formal realities of
18½x15½in.
Leicester Galleries painting-she is getting on for eighty-has always impact. Without receding too deeply into the picture
extracted a symbol from man's history that, incorporated plane, his areas of colour by outline alone suggest
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Stanislaw Frenkiel in the body of a painting, makes its own particular space and movement; colours are soft and modulated
Jacob'.< Flight 1964 impact. Despite training and familiarity of her con- while preserving a fresh brightness. ■
Grabowski Gallery
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