Page 52 - Studio International - June 1967

chiefly in wood, and his witty assemblages are
meant to suggest various ideas which partly derive
from what is in front of us, and partly from what
we know it has been made of. I find this an essen-
tially lightweight art, at its best when most capri-
cious. There's a large chess-set in the show which
is, in its own way, a magical object, though one
wouldn't perhaps make large claims for it as sculp-
ture.
At the ROWAN GALLERY there is an austere,
Morandi-like show by the Californian artist Joe
Goode. Or perhaps it would be better described as
Morandi married to Duchamp. A four-part picture
in tones of grey shows on one canvas a tumbler, on
another canvas a spoon, and on the other two
canvases nothing at all—just the streaky grey of
the background which appears in the other two.
A series of drawings shows the same glass and the
same spoon in various positions. The effect is that
of hearing the Paganini caprices played by a brilliant
violinist. These works walk a tightrope, but they do
so with great virtuosity. They are the work of a
real painter, a man with a feeling for the medium.
Goode will be followed at the Rowan by Mark
Lancaster, one of the successes of the most recent
`New Generation' show at the Whitechapel.
Always an extremely austere artist, Lancaster re-
mains so now. The rigour doesn't preclude imagina-
tion and inventiveness however, and within their
convention the pictures have valid and interesting
things to say about intervals and plastic relation-
ships.

The GRABOWSKI GALLERY have been showing a
husband-and-wife team with a good deal of
promise—Oliver Bevan and Lois Matcham. Lois
Matcham's pictures are figurative. There was a
large, impressive one, with some affinity to Patrick
Caulfield's work, showing bathers in and around a
swimming pool. Miss Matcham states that her
paintings are 'about the strangeness of ordinary
experience'. She confesses to a weakness for Mag-
ritte. There's also, I think, more than a touch of
late Léger about her work. Oliver Bevan is ab-
stract, and is interested in exploring given series of
visual relationships. His ambition is to 'design for
particular architectural situations', and indeed his
work, which is very inventive within its chosen
terms, would serve to enliven a good deal of the
recent building that has gone up in London.
Another promising show is at the WOODSTOCK
GALLERY—paintings, drawing and constructions by
Sheila Oliner. Miss Oliner is a powerful draughts-
man of the figure, but has as yet some trouble in
making her drawings work on the larger scale
required by painting. Her small constructions, a
good deal more abstract than the drawings or
paintings, are more successful. I look forward to
her next exhibition. q

Top Sheila Oliner
Pencil drawing 1967
20 x 13 in.
Lois Matcham Windows
Plastic emulsion on canvas 41 x 33 in,