Page 46 - Studio International - October 1966

have been taken apart so that a complete facsimile can
be made. The first proofs which I have seen suggest that
this will be something worth possessing.
But to revert to Moore for a moment—the drawings
shown at the Marlborough are, of course, yet another
contribution to a long tradition, that of the English
watercolourists. When celebrating a heroic episode in
our national history, Moore becomes more clearly than
ever a man with a characteristically English sensibility.
It is also true to say that Graham Sutherland looks far
more English in his watercolours than in his full-scale
oil-paintings. Sutherland is not the darling of art-critics
of my generation. In the post-war years his art has too
often looked strained, affected, too much under the spell
of Picasso, sometimes (as in the Coventry Cathedral
tapestry) uninspired and academic. He still seems to me
a painter whose intelligence is at war with his true gifts—
who would like to work on a large scale, who has been
fortunate or unfortunate in receiving important com-
missions, and who has been diverted by these from his
true bent. The watercolours now on show make a kind
of critique of Sutherland's career. This is not, as the
gallery emphasizes, a full retrospective. It does not, for
example, include the very early drawings where Suther-
land directly imitates the Shoreham period work of
Samuel Palmer. But it does give some idea of how con-
Tom Wesselmann
Little nude sistently fine Sutherland has been as a watercolourist—
Painted vacuum-formed plexiglass how interesting his graphic inventions, how resonant and
8 x 8 x 1 1/2 in.
Edition of 75, plus 25 lettered copies reserved for the unexpected his colouring, how powerful the mood which
artist and his collaborators, issued by Tanglewood Press he conjures up. Even where there is no direct trace of

Below, Mark Boyle at one of his events. Top right, Beach (random study
for a larger work), 1966, Sand and shells in epikote 36 x 36 in. (Alan Power Two statements by Mark Boyle
collection). Bottom, Olaf Street study, 1966, mixed media in epikote,
84 x 84 in. (Arts Council collection).
On page 164 Jasia Reichardt describes certain aspects of the work of Mark
Boyle. Illustrated here are two of Mark Boyle's compositions and a photographic
sequence of one of his 'events'.
The following statement was written in 1965, and was intended for the catalogue
of an exhibition called Ventures, which was to take place at MARLBOROUGH
NEW LONDON GALLERY, and was subsequently cancelled:
'The most complete change an individual can affect in his environment, short of
destroying it, is to change his attitude to it. From the beginning we are taught to
choose, to select, to separate good from bad, best from better. Our entire upbringing
and education are directed towards planting the proper snobberies, the right pre-
ferences. Ultimately these studies are concerned with everything as it is. The fair
sample issues of new or old, used or unused materials hardly seem relevant, unless
we are trying to prove a thesis. Are dead leaves new or old? Do rockets have more
or less associations than tanks? In a context of thousands of years is it important
whether the material was made this year or last? In a context of everything any-
thing is a fair sample, or, to put it another way, nothing is a fair sample. Compare
the voyeur and the voyant. To study everything we may isolate anything. Perhaps
we may one day isolate everything as an object/experience/drama from which, as
participants, we can extract an impulse so brilliant and strong that the environment,
as it is, is transformed.'
The following statement was published on the occasion of his Presentation at
INDICA GALLERY, July 1966:
'And moreover concerning this presentation I feel that it is necessary to say, without
humility, that I am responsible only for its faults and inadequacies. The sites were
determined by random selection. Similar techniques were used on the sites to
determine the actual areas to be used. Shortage of cash caused me to concentrate
initially on those sites that were readily available but many others were photographed
and will be fixed and presented in due course. I do not feel that this limitation vitiates
the presentation because I am not trying to prove any thesis and when one is con-
cerned with everything, nothing (or for that matter anything) is a fair sample. I have
tried to cut out of my work any hint of originality, style, superimposed design, wit,
elegance or significance. If any of these are to be discovered in the show then the
credit belongs to the onlooker.'