Page 69 - Studio International - June 1966

and her self-multiplication with its sinister undertones of after all, and he can see the pitfalls in paradaisical nostal-
potential social criticism is well worth seeing. gia. So his women are slightly vampirish—and they still
Other works prove the elasticity of Marisol's imagina- bear strong resemblance to both Gauguin's spirits and
tion. I particularly liked an invention depicting her as Munch's succubae — and his paradise full of lurking
sheltered beneath a giant parasol which casts its reflec- dangers. Tropical animals and strange fish navigate
tion on the figured mass below. There are also a number dense spaces in these fables. Beauchamp's painting tech-
of her strangely anachronistic drawings, so reminiscent nique has become heavier, with large areas of thick
of Klimt and Schiele, even when fragments of plaster impasto dominating the picture plane, and his colours
are attached. Her drawings, I find, are among her most are deeper. The whole theatrical effect in Beauchamp's
imaginative works, and establish the authenticity of her ongoing fable is seductive.
daydreams. As I heard an onlooker say, 'That girl has As a post-script to last month's report of Artists and
some imagination !' Writers' Committee activities, which included sending
Marisol's buoyancy is not so noticeable this time around. many paintings from New York to Los Angeles for the
In fact, in one group of six figures, there is a decidedly Peace Tower: a fund-raising party held by the com-
funereal sobriety expressed in the dark supporting boxes mittee to help California's committee was raided by
and the stained wood heads, one of which supports an various city departments suddenly concerned with
enormous and lethally-pointed proboscis. avant-garde activities. One agent was heard to say he came
And . . . is there a note of direct social commentary along for the 'fun of raiding an artist's peace party',
in Three Women with Umbrella, in which the hooded which bears out the theory that most people think artists
central figure carries what are unmistakably Vietnamese lead charmed lives and have more fun than anybody. In
babies ? general, the city has stepped up its harrassment of theatres,
Products of a high-pitched imagination are also on cabarets, and in this case, private studios, since the
view at the GRAHAM GALLERY where Robert Beau- spectre of peace campaigns has entered the picture. In
champ exhibits recent paintings. Beauchamp is an in- retaliation, a group led by Allen Ginsberg has been
corrigible fabulist whose new paintings emphasize more formed, calling itself 'New York Eternal Committee for
than ever his obsession with lost paradises. Of course, Conservation of Freedom in the Arts'. A realistic title
Beauchamp's paradise is tainted. He is a modern painter, if ever there was one. q
Two panels, each size 2 ft square, from
the Artists' Peace Tower in Los Angeles,
Robert Beauchamp Untitled 1965 now dismantled.
Oil on canvas 70+ x 71+ in. Graham Gallery Top by Jason Seley Bottom by Philip Guston