Page 18 - Studio International - July 1966

Mario Dubsky
Situazione Laocoonese 1965
Oil on canvas
79 x 79 in.

But these are not abstract paintings. Lurking beneath influence on English painters, once a generation ago per-
the motley impasto, somewhere are images : stocky vasive and of questionable benefit.
figures in an ambiguous landscape, stricken, leaning To me the surface of these paintings appears as a
against each other for mutual support, or arms held high. decorative screen behind which their true personality is
They are short-arsed primitive runty actors in an un- waiting to be let out. 'Here' indicates the artist, 'it's like
named opera. the Victory of Samothrace' , and raises his own arms in
One apprehends the images partially, through explana- imitation. Faintly but surely enough two directions can
tion from the artist and the pervading sense that there be discerned working through the skeins of colour.
must be something going on. Through leaded lights darkly Momentarily I am convinced, but later not. Optimistic,
. . . The images are not there on the surface. On the I am reminded of the opening of John Huston's film
surface are loosely-brushed patterns of richest oil, the of 'The Bible' (once featured in a colour supplement) in
forms mostly ovoid or squarish polygonal, snaked with which a pile of mud is slowly and magically transformed
occasional longer sausage shapes. Curiously the style into the new-created Adam. It's a movie which hasn't
evokes de Stael —it must be the last manifestation of his been released yet.