Page 50 - Studio International - April 1967

LONDON
commentary by
Edward Lucie-Smith

William Nicholson at Marlborough;
Howard Hodgkin at Tooth's; Genoves at
Marlborough; Figurative Painters at the
I.C.A.; Richard Smith at Kasmin; Jack
Bush at Waddington; Norah Glover at
John Whibley.

There's been a lot of rather distinguished figura-
tive painting on view in London just recently.
Notable is the MARLBOROUGH GALLERY'S small
show of paintings by Sir William Nicholson.
Nicholson belonged to no school, and yet he's an
Howard Hodgkin Acacia Road 1966, 36 x 60 in.
infinitely stylish painter. Few people in this cen-
tury have painted still-life so beautifully, and his
handling of very high-key colours is masterly.
After looking at Nicholson's work, I've been
wondering where precisely the secret lies. There's
nothing particularly advanced or revolutionary
about it. In the thirties Nicholson was painting
much as Manet had done, sixty years before. Like
Manet, he shows the influence of Velasquez and
Goya, and also, perhaps, that of Chardin (an
influence to which the Frenchman was less sus-
ceptible). The very broad, liquid handling is very
sure, very certain of itself. The compositions are
impeccable. Nicholson's work is never disturbing,
but it gives unfailing pleasure. It is never slick,
never dead, never dull; but always tranquil and
self-assured. I much prefer him to many painters
who are considered more important—and who,
indeed, are more important from the historical
point of view. Nicholson managed to remain com-
pletely apart from the main currents of influence
of his time. Perhaps this would only have been
possible to an Englishman at that particular
moment in time. And yet, on the other hand, his
sensibility to colour is un-English. Our high-key
painters are usually shrill, like the pre-Raphae-
lites. Nicholson is good with whites and silvers,
spiced with a little red. In fact, one or two of the
pictures here would hang quite comfortably beside
Oudry's The White Duck, which is no small com-
pliment. Sir William Nicholson Scottish still-life oil on canvas, 25 x 32+ in.
Another accomplished colourist, this time a con- form, indeed, is something which has attracted too his perceptions into another realm. Hodgkin is a
temporary one, is Howard Hodgkin, who is little attention in Hodgkin's work. The pictures very slow worker, but his reputation seems likely
showing his work at TOOTH'S. Hodgkin is another are figurative in a very elusive and allusive way. to outlast that of a good many rivals.
isolated figure. He's a figurative painter of the It's almost as if everything that has been per-
pop generation (but not a pop artist) who draws ceived by the eye has been rethought, then coded It's interesting, for example, to contrast his kind
on very varied sources—Matisse chiefly, and Indian differently to suit the requirements of the painting— of figuration with that of the Spanish painter
miniatures. He's learnt from Indian art the secret the painting becomes a different order of seeing Genoves, who preceded Nicholson at the MARL-
of combining very brilliant colours without from the normal one. If one imagined a man who BOROUGH. Genoves seems to find his inspiration in
diminishing their intensity. He's learnt from them, had been blind suddenly having his sight restored film-imagery—Eisenstein, and newsreel shots of
too, how to use swarming pattern. The new show to him, the world might appear like this in his wars and massacres. In one painting, tiny figures
marks a great step forward in his work—the colour first dazzled instants of looking at it. The code of are fleeing away under the shadow of a plane, like
is more richly sonorous than ever, the handling touch, which he had previously employed, would people being machine-gunned on a beach. Re-
of the forms more confident. The handling of suddenly become distorted by the translation of peated images, in other paintings, seem to give a
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