Page 28 - Studio International - October 1966

Francis Morland
The kiss 1965
Resin bonded fibreglass
Standard Triumph olive orange
70 x 45 x 57 in.

Slit (1966) and Slant (1966) are processes in extension energy, as with Turnbull, has been increasingly impor-
that have a qualified symmetry—in short, an emphasis tant. It is a development that goes with the relatively
upon regular development. Unapparent symmetry is a weightless effect of so much current British sculpture.
factor in Tim Scott's new work (not yet to be seen). There (See, for instance, Kim Lim's Day, 1966, or David Hall's
are general evidences of an increasing interest in the Duo, 1966.)
plastic and expressive possibilities of regular or rhythmic A complex use of colour—colour as a structural principle
systems. Asymmetrical rhythm is a consistent interest in —is at the moment in decline. Tucker, who made to my
Caro's work (an exception is some of his recent sculpture mind the farthest advance in the use of colour as
that aims at the dissolution of form: see the specially sculptural substance (see Memphis, 1965-6), is using
fine Paris Green, 1966). It has served sculptors as diverse colour more neutrally in his latest work. Caro's mesh
as Brian Wall, Stephen Gilbert, and J. A. Jackson—who sculptures employ colour structurally in the dissolution of
might be thought to operate somewhat outside current structure—an important achievement. For the rest of it,
preoccupations. Symmetry in the sense of regular rhyth- colour is used as skin (to promote weightlessness or to
mic evolution is a powerful component in Bolus' work deny the material), as an adjunct to feeling, as a rein-
and certainly in the work of some of the younger sculp- forcement of form (Garth Evans), or as a denial of it
tors, d'Orey, for instance, and Hemsworth. (Woodham).
Sheer cussedness can dominate the imagination, offer- These concerns and practices are some of the raw materi-
ing the expressive tensions of sinuousness (see Francis als of a developing aesthetic that makes present-day
Morland's The Kiss, 1966). British sculpture a dialectical force in the international
Edge, whether used as a rhythm, as with Bolus, or as an avant-garde. q
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