Page 46 - Studio International - October 1967

device but avoids its isolation. It is an event only as part
of a set of circumstances, though it remains the formal
equivalent of the dens ex machina. A comparison between
the tall, rearing-up, stork-like steel shape of Pivot I (or
II) of 1963 which gives the illusion of holding or protect-
ing something (a lump of slate) and the new sculpture
called Galera of 1967 in which a sharply rectangular
construction of aluminium and perspex rods suggests a
similarly protective action, though otherwise less person-
age-like, well illustrates the point I want to make. At
other times, Kneale's interest in locks and keys and other
mechanisms has produced this implication of a device or
active agency, expressed in fully dramatic terms, though
its derivation cannot be easily traced in any single
sculpture.
Another new work, Marina of 1967, in aluminium plate
with castings, is a further instance of the device, as well as
the enclosed or protected object—or concealed, withheld,
secret. The sculpture rests boat-like on the floor and
consists of four square aluminium plates from which a
large circular area has been removed after the perimeter
of the circle has been moved slightly to one side: that is,
the centre of the circle, before it is cut out, would not be
at the centre of the square. The subsequent 'frame' is then
left squared at the top, base, and sides and these are also
left equal to each other in length; but the corners are also
removed, at equal lengths facing each other, so that we
have finally a set of octagonal frames containing empty
circular spaces. Because the circular space was moved off
centre of the initial squares, the sides of the containing
octagons are uneven in width. The asymmetry is empha-
sized by the way in which the pierced octagons are stacked
one behind each other in very slight non-alignment. Two
bars traversing the two middle and parallel vertical sides
support a third bar which cuts across the interior space
like the bar in a bird cage. On this bar a solid ball is
Given the conformist pressures, then, it is agreeable to placed centrally, in turn divided by a flat disc which
find in Bryan Kneale's work the complete freedom with turns the ball into two hemispheres. Two flat shapes not
which he handles, and coincidentally exploits, a broad unlike squarish dumb-bells or bow ties are also pierced by
range of materials; shifts from one substance to another; the horizontal bar and are placed each side of the
or combines them in a single work with easy intransigence. central hemispheres and disc. Such a prosaic description
He uses wood, stone, metal, plastics, colour, and solids can suggest little or nothing of the extraordinary beauty
offset by transparency, with the same instinctive direct- of this object which is one of the best sculptures I have
ness and authority that Calder brings to bear upon his seen anywhere in recent years. Marina is a good example
own handling of colour alone. of a genre on the increase in recent years, and greatly
Kneale uses the intrinsic colour of basic materials, enjoyed by myself, in which a supposedly geometrical
though in the past five years he has also employed, situation with a logical rationale is enriched, and delight-
sparingly, manufactured colour, from the spectrum, of fully undermined, by quite illogical components. It is not
a slightly off-primary nature. The material-as-colour unlike the correspondence between music and mathe-
follows an established convention; but Kneale moves matics, or something forseeable, and circumscribed by
through an unusually wide range of substances, matt or calculation, disrupted by the irrational ( or inspiration).
polished, which includes copper, bronze, brass, iron, Other new sculptures by Kneale support these factors
steel, gunmetal, Oroglass, perspex, aluminium, slate and in varying degrees. This artist gains steadily in stature
wood. His evolution in sculpture has left a short chain of and invention: what used to be a more expressionist
dramatic events, with a clearly recognizable and constant disturbance in his work has given place to a less agitated
sympathy for recurring formal motifs. There is also an but equally expressive, and unexpected, series of disloca-
overriding interest in the device as a formal idea which tions. As a whole, the recent work appears to me to be
becomes a lynch pin in its own right. strikingly original and authoritative and as consistent as
The device idea is not new: Duchamp pointed the way ever with the highly idiosyncratic, sometimes sharply
for Rauschenberg and Johns; Picasso and Gonzales for eccentric, imagination of this artist. The integration,
David Smith. And like Smith in this one respect only, metaphorically speaking, of Mondrian with Monet, or
Kneale tends to project an image which incorporates the Malevich and Magritte, continues. We have recently seen