Page 37 - Studio International - December1996

Seventeen Lines 1958-63 does is to do with the act of looking. His obsession with
Oil on hardboard lines is related to this : with him a line is both space and
60 x 36 in.
Reproduced by courtesy of movement. The Lines in Space sculptures are in fact sub-
The Tate Gallery stantial drawings. The process they are based on deals
with triangles. These triangles are born out of the move-
ment of a line. A square-section bronze rod is projected
along a path which explores every possible articulation
of a triangle. It zig-zags, joins up with itself, doubles its
tracks, shooting outwards on a new tack only when a
triangle has been completed. In the course of the journey
every possible articulation is explored— triangles are
joined along one side, or apex to apex or along an axis,
spreading like fans. Long before one has grasped the
structural process, one's eye has tumbled to another aspect
of them, as tracks which it can follow from start to finish.
However complex it may be, this path is definitive. As
one rehearses the journey, the space contained and
facetted by the brass becomes more and more individual-
ized and specific. It is like a maze which, once one has
found one's way through is suddenly no longer confusing,

Endless Configuration 1964
Oil on board
63 x 48 in.
Collection: Arts Council

Top far right
Blue Tangle
Oil on canvas
48 x 48 in.
Collection: Peter Stuyvesant
Bottom far right
Second Tangle 1965
Oil on canvas
48 x 48 in.
Collection: Nigel Moores