Page 58 - Studio International - July/August 1967

Left Roy Ascott Parameter III 1967
painted wood, 84 x 84 in.

Below Michael Kidner Red, Green, Pink and Yellow 1966
oil on canvas, 86 x 58 in.

shorter and less complex than Paolozzi's. But he nounced the curve. His paintings are based on the which it has is perhaps forgivable on that score
ranks as one of the pioneers of a trend which has right-angle and the principle of bilateral sym- alone. Ibbetson begins (and this is the phase I like
now triumphed with a vengeance—the kind of metry. The right half of a given picture matches best) as an artist very much in the manner of
hard-edge abstraction which comes close to Op the left, colour for colour and shape for shape. The David Jones — eccentric, literary, adapting tradi-
Art without depending on violent optical effects. basic design, whether intentionally or uninten- tion to his own ends—and progresses towards some-
Kidner has always had a characteristic and very tionally, reminds me of a solemn portal or doorway; thing more painterly, but also, alas, less personal.
restricted range of shapes, and an equally limited at the right moment, and at the sound of the magic The bold impasto and rich colour convey an appe-
range of colours—the shapes being mostly wavy word, each painting should swing open to reveal a tite for the act of painting, without convincing me
bands, sometimes in conjunction and sometimes in further room. This metaphor is not so wilful as one that the artist has something wholly original to say.
opposing rhythms, and the colours mainly pastel. might suppose. Denny does imply the idea of meta-
The change in hue in his current show is immedi- physical space. The tones to be found in his Roy Ascott, at the HAMILTON GALLERY, provides
ately striking: the whole colour gamut is now paintings are so close to one another that here me with something of a puzzle. These enigmatic
deeper and more resonant. But the change in again the eye refuses to focus. The surface one is works consist of painted boards, cut into intricate
rhythm is, I suspect, more important and signifi- looking at seems to be covered by a slight mist. shapes. I think of them as paintings, rather than
cant where future developments are concerned. Thus, though by a different route, Denny arrives sculpture, since their flatness is a leading and
The procession of curves is simpler, and the design at the same result as the one that Paolozzi seems important characteristic. A coloured plane is put
shows a tendency to tear apart in the middle — one to be after. This is a deliberately immaterial, in front of a white one (the wall), and at times the
half of the picture in conflict with the other. This quietist, contemplative art, and one very much in white one is permitted to show through. But then?
gives a jarring dynamism which wasn't there command of itself. All restrictions admitted, it The transforming imagination (vide the statement
before, and prompts a comparison with the Italian makes a distinguished show. I've quoted from the Manchester College of Art
Futurists, and notably Boccioni. catalogue) here seems to be pursuing a very
Peter Ibbetson, at the CIRCLE GALLERY in the hermetic path. q
Robyn Denny's work at the KASMIN GALLERY is in Fulham Road, could do with some of Denny's
some ways akin to Kidner's, and in others quite discipline. But then this exhibition is in the nature
unlike. He too is a hard-edge abstract artist who of a retrospective, and contains work covering a
relies on a subtle play of hues. But Denny has re- period of about twenty years, so the air of eclectism
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