Page 48 - Studio International - October 1966

The new 'hang' in the Tate's
No. III Gallery
Photo courtesy the
Tate Gallery
trained on these, and the strings dance and judder in and one by Sergio Camargo. Soundings Three, however,
currents of convected air. This in turn sends light spots was a survey of British kineticists and constructivists. The
quavering and flickering over the white background and two most distinguished artists present were probably also
even over the adjacent walls. One suddenly becomes the two best known—Kenneth and Mary Martin.
aware that these are the work of art—that the rest is only Kenneth Martin's screw mobiles have lost none of their
a fairly simple, though ingenious, machine for producing tense and elegant subtlety—his is one of the quietest, but
them. Art has been aetherialized, reduced to a series of one of the most intelligent, voices in British art.
events and actions. And this somehow seems peculiarly Many of the other contributors were new to me—they
suited to an art which is no longer private—you can't gave an overall impression of fine craftsmanship and
possess a collection of light spots, you can only look at seriousness of purpose. They avoid gimmicks, but are
them. perhaps a little short on excitement. This last criticism,
Kinetic art could also be inspected recently at the Sound- however, can't be levelled at a small display of work by
ings Three show which has just ended at SIGNALS. This Michael Granger, who is also connected with the enter-
gallery used to direct most of its energy towards in- prising MIDLAND GROUP GALLERY. Granger showed some
troducing new foreign artists to the British art scene. rather Vasarely-like compositions — on these a spotlight was
It is largely thanks to such advocacy that one can now trained, with in front of it a rotating series of gelatins.
see two works by Soto in the kinetic room at the Tate, The result was to put the paintings through a regular series

Left, Scottie Wilson (b. 189o), who has a retrospective
at the BROOK STREET GALLERY from October 14 through
November.
Born seventy-five years ago in Glasgow, Scottie Wilson
is both painter and decorator of ceramics, and in 1965,
through Robert Baker, formerly professor of ceramics at
the Royal College of Art, he was commissioned to design
services for the Royal Worcester Porcelain Co.
A selection of his paintings, which place him among the
important British 'primitives' and in which he uses
faces, flowers, fish, birds, fountains and totemic forms as
motifs, will be illustrated in the November issue of Studio
International.