Page 20 - Studio International - July 1966

ing object, a stuffed colour. It's like a surreal interior
Mark Lancaster Teller 1965
Acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 in.
Victor Newsome Spotted flower unfolding 1966
Wood, acrylic sheet, metal and lacquer 22 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.
decoration, the serious and polite descendant of Bacon's
white leather settee of thirty years ago.
Mark Lancaster, though he has had only half the
exhibitions of his gallery stable-partner Cook (i.e. one),
shares with him the dubious advantage in this company
of being not altogether new to the public. Lancaster's is
the only quiet note in the show, subtle and introspective,
the Giorgio Morandi of simple pattern. By comparison
with his Second spread, Cook's Brazen is brazen indeed.
Both artists tread a razor's edge between the subtle and
the dull.
Paradoxically Lancaster's pictures are not anaemic. As
a colourist his originality lies in his ability to use weak,
even sweet, colour and still make a strong un-sickly
impression on the spectator. In other hands this would
be pure Bircher Muesli, that strange cream fruit and
oats confection prescribable on diet for sufferers from a
heart condition. With Lancaster however it is a recipe
that can be delectable for all.
To the question: where is the essential difference
between the artists whose subject is Nothing, or minimism
as in Reinhardt, and the great many more who simply
have nothing to say? The reply on Lancaster's meta-
phorical postcard reads 'Colour. Colour is the Life-force.
Colour is enough'.
Later a.m.
GRABOWSKI GALLERY Victor Newsome and his colleagues,
originally grouped in Leicester but now dispersed, are in
a class of their own. When they showed together first here
in London in 1964 the effect was baffling and uneven,
baffling especially to the section of the public which in-
cludes critics and official sponsors who could not fit their
work into any of the existing slots. Newsome's mysterious
objects, part fetishistic images of women, part abstract,
carried out in mixed materials, are inexplicable in terms
of style and inaccessible to reason. These are private
symbols enjoyable primarily to amateurs of the cryptic.
The very good thing is the way in which they challenge
metropolitan conceptions of style, too often tyrannous.
In much of new painting and sculpture, and this New
Generation has its share, the question of what happens to
the paintings, who the sculptures are for, conjures up the
disquieting mental image of a public consisting largely of
(what D. A. N. Jones termed Noel Coward theatre
audiences) 'Knightsbridge normals'. The sculptural ele-
ments in Newsome's work however are miles away from,
for example, le style Battersea. You can imagine children
exploring and climbing over the sculptures in Battersea
Park, indeed they have been photographed so doing, but
the only person who would actually play with one of
Newsome's objects would have to be weird indeed.
Respectfully I prefer to leave the question open.
May 28
BLACKHEATH John Carter's three paintings and one
painted box each have their own style but they do not
have a corporate style. It's a bit of a group show of his
own work. Lever painting is the simplest of his paintings and
the clearest illustration of his theme: the poise of weight.
It's an idea most immediately associated in one's mind