Page 56 - Studio International - April 1967

The paintings of the approach of Abstract Expressionism and to Expressionism-the nostalgia for geometry, the
Other answers to the challenge of Abstract
Turnbull was one of the first in Britain to modify
William Turnbull redirect it. Successively influenced by Giacometti, many attempts to revive figuration-have proved,
or are quickly proving, to be dead ends. They show
Pollock, and to a lesser extent Kline, he early
appreciated and thoroughly understood the impli- their years as certainly as an old copy of Vogue.
Sculpture and paintings by William
cations of Abstract Expressionism, particularly as And even many of the others who, like Turnbull,
Turnbull are being exhibited at the
Waddington Gallery, London, April 4-29 it was developing in the work of Still, Rothko and emphasized the importance of content while paring
Newman. This was at a time when the climate for down their means, have quickly run out of wind.
vanguard painting was so inclement that influen- Something of the background to the situation in
tial critics in this country were finding it difficult the mid 'fifties can be discerned in Turnbull's
to recognize what most Americans were doing as relationship with the Independent Group which,
painting at all. as is by now well known, discussed among other
To talk, as writers often do, of the diverse styles things the idea of 'Pop culture'. Turnbull was
Frank Whitford which came after Abstract Expressionism in never interested in the actual imagery of Pop
terms of 'classicist reaction', is to let outdated art culture. He was much more concerned with its
historical terms run away with themselves. In deeper implications and how these could be
Turnbull's case it was an extension and modifica- applied to abstract painting. For him Pop culture
tion, not a reaction. Although from 1958 his is synonymous with imagery and he is unhappy
William Turnbull has been recognized internation-
paintings appear to have become more considered, when this imagery is directly applied to 'fine art'.
ally as a sculptor but not as a painter. Last seen in
more disciplined and formally tougher (which in The original comic strips are more satisfactory than
London in a group show in 1962, his paintings are
many ways they are) their appearance can be mis- formalized versions of single frames because the
virtually unknown here. People think that a blanket
leading. The Abstract Expressionist approach was originals have content, and there is a direct
coverage of the arts means that all artists, good, bad
as important for the developments it gave rise to relationship between this and their form. Talking
and not at all different, are recognized at all levels.
as for what it achieved itself. It liberated the about the movies he said that what fascinated him
Turnbull's paintings, hidden from view, prove
artist from all the traditional kinds of formalism: was the blank screen before the pictures came up;
otherwise. Those who do know them are for the
from neo-platonic geometry, from Cubism and it was always the blank billboard that had magic,
most part other painters, and the more generous of
from all its derivatives. The problem for the artists not the one with posters plastered toit.
these admit his stature as a key-figure in the
who came after was to retain the emotional con- In Turnbull's recent painting the problem is the
development of British painting in the last ten
tent, the quality of deeply felt and directly com- same : to charge the canvas with the maximum
years. Turnbull is the great unknown factor, the
municated experience, while shifting the emphasis meaning through the minimum means, to find the
undiscovered catalyst, whose past work is in danger
away from the importance of the artist's 'signature' simplest expression of the most complex thought.
of being obscured by those it influenced who, both
and towards a condition in which the painting His search for bed-rock simplicity has been so un-
here and in America, have subsequently gained
itself could gain greater autonomous power. remitting that he has not only said that he would
greater recognition. Consequently his exhibition
Content had to be retained without a return to the `like to be able to make one saturated field of
this April at the WADDINGTON, which will do the
`image'. To liberate painting from the tyranny of colour, so that you wouldn't feel you were short of
right thing and show painting and sculpture to-
the image would be an achievement as huge as the all the others', but has gone ahead and done it.
gether, is a major event and may do something to
liberation of painting from the tyranny of the To charge the canvas with that much meaning, to
earn for Turnbull the place he deserves-as a
object itself. It was, and continues to be, the most find the simplest expression for the most complex
painter, as well as a sculptor, of international
formidable problem to confront painters in recent thought is a task of heroic proportions, and when
standing.
years. it succeeds it does so in an inexplicable way.
The paintings in this exhibition are some of the
For all their radical simplicity and restraint, Turnbull wants to create a situation in which the
most advanced, and certainly among the most
Turnbull's paintings from 1958 are not 'composed' spectator is directly confronted with an experience
difficult, to be seen in London for several years,
in the traditional sense of the resolution of im- unmodified by interposing factors. He therefore
and they are the results of a development which
balance. What happens is still more or less that uses colour not to make 'colourful paintings' (to
needs to be comprehended if they are to be under-
which Turnbull, speaking of earlier work, described call it 'colour painting' is to say not what it is, but
stood: each painting is something more than the
as 'a dialogue between the artist and his material; what it is not) but to create experiences. With
sum total of all the paintings which have gone
it stops when one of the parties has nothing more colour he can eliminate shapes, images and all
before it. It is an astonishingly consistent develop-
to say to the other. It is impossible to preplan. It formal ambiguity. He wants at all costs to avoid
ment and no one has had the chance to chart it on
is a live performance'. In other words it is still a that sort of image which is interesting for its own
the walls of galleries in this country.
close relative of Abstract Expressionism: his paint- sake, or any hint of figure-field play, because this
ings still grow from the actual process of painting, superficial tension creates forms of purely percep-
from the process of addition, modification and tual interest which get in the way of the direct
intuitive progression. They are the empirical solu- communication of experience. In his polychrome
William Turnbull: born Dundee 1922. War service in
the RAF in India and Canada. 1947-8 Slade School of tions for emotional rather than formal problems. sculpture he is trying to break down the 'object
Art. From 1948 until 1950 lived in Paris. 1957 first The paintings from 1958 stand the test of time. quality' of sculpture, to make sculpture which can
visit to the USA. In 1962 travelled in Japan, Cambodia, There is a gradual but inevitable development be perceived-although not comprehended-at a
Malaysia, etc. Since 1950 has lived in London, towards bed-rock simplicity, towards an absolute glance, and in his painting he is trying to do the
where he teaches at the Central School of Art. Is minimum of means: from the 'target' paintings, same sort of thing: to destroy the painting as an
representing Britain this year at the Sao Paulo Bienale. from those in which a warped band splits a single `object' so that it can live and breathe as an
Articles and statements by the artist appeared in
colour field, through a diptych in which the real experience.
Uppercase 4 (edited by Theo Crosby), London 1960,
division between two canvases is set off against an Colour is direct emotion and the spectator can
which also reproduces many of his paintings, sculptures
illusory division between two closely related colour approach it in an atmosphere of freedom. This
and drawings from 1949 onwards. An essay, Images
fields, to paintings in which the single colour field freedom is expansive, but has limits. The colour
Without Temples, appeared in Living Arts, London,
No 1,1963. on an enormous scale dominates more and more field defines an area of ambiguity, sets up condi-
Lawrence Alloway's appreciation, The Sculpture and (one of the paintings in the exhibition is simply a tions in terms of which the spectator will react. By
Painting of William Turnbull, was published in Art large raw canvas with two horizontal yellow lines, contemplation each individual will react indi-
International, February 1961. one near the top, one near the bottom). vidually-like Zen contemplation it will tell him
202