Page 66 - Studio International - June 1966

certain allusions in the drawings : diagrammatic refer- For Greene is a mature, skillful painter who knows the
ences to skulls, bones, mortality. Mechanism v. organic- value of modulated colour, laid on in various thick-
ism argue dialectically throughout his work. nesses and contrasted judiciously. In effecting a contrast,
If I use the difficult term 'symbol', I must make it clear or rather a change in pictorial space and atmosphere,
that the symbols are never read plainly, but always Greene knows exactly how to bring about the shift.
obliquely. Greene loads each organic shape (usually For example, in a small painting, One-One-Three, each
allusions to sexual or generative organs) with several zone of restrained colour takes its place at a different
meanings. His symbols are properly gauged only when level in space. Small forms work to assert differences not
followed from epoch to epoch, and painting to painting. only in scale and placement, but in the quality of sen-
What is admirable in Greene's endeavour is his courage suous experience. The unobtrusive charcoal line at the
in trying to conserve symbolic values while yet acknow- bottom not only divides the canvas into two distinct
ledging the self-expressive qualities of sensuous, intuitive regions, but sets the motif of interchange between differ-
painting. ing forms, spaces, and experiences.