Page 26 - Studio International - September 1966

Peter Stroud's relief paintings

by Dore Ashton

I have heard Peter Stroud cite Eliot's 'the still point of shapes aimed directly at the viewer.'
the turning world'—a phrase which seems to cover pre- Prof. Moholy-Nagy remarks that Lissitsky failed to
cisely the psychological territory he aspires to occupy in push on since he rejected any other art form than easel
his painting. painting, but that he had given constructivist painting
In his quiescent new relief paintings, Stroud suggests one of its unique concepts when he replaced the vanishing
hidden ambiguities and poetic irregularities, but there is point with a foreground point of optical departure.
a deep and still point from which the image issues. It is at this point that Stroud begins. His paintings on
The close harmonies and subtle metrics in his paintings masonite are scored by delicate relief patterns produced
do not fit any category, although they clearly emerge by applying thin, linear strips to the surface. The strips
from the constructivist tradition. However, he does not are painted and cast slender shadows, but they function
see himself as a constructivist. For him, their aesthetic is equivocally: they are the foreground optical departure
inevitably associated with social purpose and environ- acted out literally on the one hand, and metaphorically
mental effects and he rejects both. The constructivist, he on the other. They imply a forward plane but do not
maintains, is interested in the articulation of forms, and insist. The literal aspect only emerges now and then. If
in several viewpoints, while he is interested primarily in we gaze at the paintings for any length of time, they are
the creation of a total single image. seen first as surfaces divided off into stately rhythms by
If we consider the experiments with materials, kinetics, painted lines, only later the actual relief becomes mani-
and three-dimensional effects traditionally undertaken fest, and then as a secondary characteristic.
by the constructivists as the main burden of their re- He holds that in relief painting, 'the sense of distance is
search, then Stroud, who is 'not at all concerned with reduced and a common space is established where the
the inherent qualities of materials' and who cherishes a viewer's life-space and the aesthetic space of the work of
frontal image, is not a pure constructivist. art become one.' In actuality, I believe his paintings do
But if we remember the basic tenets and familial simi- little to intrude into the viewer's `life-space'. On the
larity of forms, then he may certainly be seen as an contrary, they remain self-contained, in serene equili-
extenuator of the tradition. I think particularly of El brium, demanding contemplation before they fully reveal
Lissitsky. His Proun paintings were conceived with the themselves. The raised forms give only emphasis.
definite purpose of pressing his image forward from the (Stroud insists that a relief painting is not a painted
picture plane, rather than back in traditional vanishing relief and he is right, just as Gertrude Stein was right
point perspective. when she insisted that a house in the country was not a
Or, as stated more technically by Prof. Sibyl Moholy- country house.)
Nagy: 'Lissitsky followed the space theories of his com- In these paintings, the beautiful quietness, the inner-
Born London 1921 ; studied at patriot Lubachevsky. His aim was the liquidation of the ness, seeps through the image slowly, underneath the
London University, Teacher Euclidian space parallax with its illusionistic object dis- lattice of strips. Everything is calculated to maintain the
Training College, and various placement on the pictorial horizon. In its place, Lissitsky
art schools 1947-51; visiting calm. The paintings are plotted in rectangular divisions
instructor, Middlesex and put parabolically bent space defined by interaction of usually symmetrically deployed along a centred axis.
London County Councils; But the rectangularity is softened by four diagonal edges
taught at Maidstone College which mildly insist on the other potential form, the oval.
of Art 1962-3; teaching at
The schematic tendency of straight lines is further
Bennington College, U.S.,
mitigated, or as he says, rendered unstable, by his unique
1963—; one-man exhibitions
include I.C.A. London (1961), use of colour. It is a matter of inflection. If there are
Bennington College, Vermont areas of misty rose lying within their rectangular boun-
(1964), Marlborough-Gerson daries, there are adjacent areas of slightly altered rose—
Gallery; N.Y. (1966); partici- either darkened or made more orange in hue— that seem
pated in numerous mixed
exhibitions, including not to sink as deeply into the heart of the painting; that
Situation, R.B.A. Galleries, seem to pull away from the centre to the sides; that also
London (1960), Carnegie seem, at moments, to slip beneath the strips to join their
International, Pittsburgh (1961 sister shapes.
and 1964), Guggenheim Since he wishes for his image to be apprehended wholly
International, N.Y. (1963),
The Responsive Eye, The at once, these variations in hue, so closely keyed, do not
Museum of Modern Art, N.Y. spur a reading impulse. The entire field remains a plane
(1965). which either expands—if the horizontals are inflected
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