Page 47 - Studio International - January 1967

sions, fascinated by the courtly and the erotic, but still authentic Eskimo customs and culture. Next month
with an element of provincial crudity and vigour. Among Gimpels return to their more usual vein when they show
the nicest pictures are those of horses— a string of spirited, new work by William Scott.
improbable beasts from the royal stables at Udaipur, for Essentially English and far from primitive are the new
instance. And there are also pictures illustrating the paintings by Frank Auerbach at the MARLBOROUGH
moods and modes of Indian music—the Ragas and GALLERY. At first sight not so very different from the
Raginis which symbolize certain emotional situations. work he has done before, these seem to me to mark a
The pictures show an elaborate code of love, requited great step forward in Auerbach's career. The thick paint
and unrequited. is still there, and the characteristic colour, either muddy
The strange thing is that these highly traditional pictures or screeching. There is also the same rather limited
seem so much at home in a modern gallery—the colour- repertoire of themes—urban landscapes, figures in studio
sensibility comes astonishingly close to the kind of colour- interior, heads. What has come is a new control and
sensibility that we find in the characteristic painting of mastery. The forms are more daringly placed within the
the sixties. But perhaps that's why the artists themselves rectangle of the picture surface, and the relationship of
are so keen. one area to another within the picture is handled in
Another show devoted to the exotic was the Primitive Art masterly fashion. And my description of Auerbach's
exhibition which has just closed at GIMPEL'S. This gallery colour now seems to me unfair. The sombrest pictures
does us all a service by maintaining an interest in the have a new glow, and in the bright ones the colour is used
sculpture of ancient America, which doesn't very often with great force to define the shapes and to give to each
turn up on the London market. The best things in the its special character. It's good to see a British painter
show were a number of pieces of pottery—the large stand- developing and coming of age in this way.
ing female figures from Chancay, Peru, and a beautiful At the DRIAN GALLERIES there is a memorial exhibition
Classic Maya Seated Woman from Jaina in Mexico. to Cecil Stephenson, one of the earliest of the English
There was also some modern Eskimo work—but I've abstractionists, a pupil of Sickert's who became converted
never been able to share the taste for these slippery soap- to the new faith as early as 1935. The show consists
stone carvings, which seem to have so little to do with mostly of early works, and some drawings show just what
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