Page 55 - Studio International - July August 1968

London commentaries

Early works by Ben Nicholson at like, say, Seurat's frames in importance; it is
Crane Kalman until July 31. simpler, homelier, and less theoretical—more like
a fatherly pat on the head before sending the
picture out into the world.
Happily, these earlier paintings by Ben Nicholson The superbly refined geometrical compositions
do not depend for their interest on a false teleology. which start in the thirties are found here in a
While a massing of early landscapes by Mondrian number of examples; they are so much to our
(whom he knew from 1934), for example, would liking today that they need no defence here.' For
almost invite us to read back heavily, looking for me it is a pity that we do not find any of the
rectilinearity (and finding it), here the situation is wonderful early drawings (like Girl in a Mirror,
quite different. We do observe the earlier stages of 1932) which testify to his skill with the lyrical but
Nicholson's work, but at any point we find con- unmannered line—an important element in so
sistency and mastery. The consistency is perhaps not many of his paintings, particularly those of a more
immediately apparent, because he can use paint Picassoid or Braquean cast.
like water-colour, like stucco or masonry, or like One or two pieces ought to be singled out as
the industrial enamelling which we favour today, worthy oddities. There is a small gouache portrait
and there is no easy linear chronology of when he of the family dog, Slinky (1930) ; while not with-
does which; what is really consistent is the out historical interest as an exercise in construc-
expressionistic correspondence between means tivism, its (expressively?) playful sloppiness makes
and end—a particular picture gets the technique it more of a Tinguely toy. Finally, there is a
it seems to desire. The mastery is more obvious: this wooden box with hinged lid, painted inside and
Ben Nicholson Slinky 1930, Gouache, 6⅝ x 6⅝ in.
is not the pre-history of the late works which do, as out (c. 1929). On the outside of the lid are two of
Crane Kalman Gallery, London.
in the case of Matisse's cut-outs, show expansive- the Staffordshire jugs which Ben Nicholson loved
ness of scale, a relaxed virtuosity, and the in- almost to he point of tedium to paint ;2 inside
gratiating ease which is the prerogative of great old there is another one on the underside of the lid,
men; of course it develops, as we say, but it is always while the inside bottom of the box is divided into
there, and always in the service of the same four rectangles of colour, with the sides of the box
sensibility. These works are not infantilia. and deep cast shadow playing exaggerated versions
Two landscapes, Frostbound—Cumberland (1927) of the roles of the void surrounds in the paintings
and Kingwater Valley (1929) suffice to demonstrate and the fine, shallow shadows of the reliefs. If
that even then he set and solved the same 'pro- there is ever a show of 'Box Art' (Duchamp,
blems' which, in the geometrical reliefs, are but Nevilson, Cornell, Samaras, . . . even Alfred
equations of a higher order. In the first the lines Wallis!) this piece should have a prominent place.
which define snow-covered hills weld into a For the time being, though—promising you what
unitary, planar grid. It is hardly the most stunning at first glance seems a pretty obvious still-life, but
piece, partly because of a tinge of quaintness which turning out to be a boxful of light and shade,
is not helped by the too 'designed' placement of a colour and geometry—it makes a nice emblem for
tree, and partly because of the suspiciously pro- this show of welcome chamber music in a very
grammatic theme which as it were relies too much orchestral age.
on the snow-coveredness of the landscape in order Joseph Masheck
to get what he wants, a flat painting. Yet this, once
said, seems not entirely fair: many advances begin
with just such a programmatic rationale (Symphonie For twenty years or more the most respectable
fantastique, Cubist paintings of African sculptures), English critics have evaded any direct encounter
as if ideas had to wait for some initially concrete with these neo-plastic reliefs, diverting attention
embodiment before they could become abstract to the 'problem' of abstract or geometrical art.
principles. And even to be 'guilty' of this 'flaw' is There never was any such problem. First, Fry's
evidence of sophistication. (Whatever the virtues lectures were the title deed by which artists here
of Alfred Wallis's home-grown tabula rasa paint- inherited the whole history of art—not just Euro-
ings, now at the Tate, one never finds in such pean art—as abstract art. Someone has said that a
efforts the formal control which here uses the edge flat-earther has no right to demand equal time at
of a snow-covered hill to elicit a complementary the Royal Society. Secondly, since the appearance
abstract shape in the picture plane—a fluid grey of T. E. Hulme's Speculations (London and New
form floating in the middle ground, itself locked to York, 1924), containing an extensive paraphrase
the plane by an arc of yellow which fuses with the of Worringer's ideas on abstract-geometrical art,
Ben Nicholson Painted box c. 1929
edge of the hill.) Always the decorum of the surface. nobody—least of all Sir Herbert Read, who edited
Crane Kalman Gallery. London.
The other landscape I mentioned, `Kingwater the book—can pretend not to understand what it
Valley' shows the same impulses at work without is all about. The odd thing is that today, when we
the rationalizing armature which the snow motif inter-position between the motif and the environ- could state the 'case' if we chose to, we don't have
may have provided before. The flat sides of houses ment of the painting of a zone which is painted to any more.
rest on pure lines, the angle of a roof holds up an but void. 2 The painter's fixation with Staffordshire jugs
S-curve of brown. And the paint, together with the Interestingly, this attention to the edge led was the occasion of an amusing picture by his
very weave of the canvas, comprises the actual stuff Nicholson to make his own, sometimes carved but father, Sir William Nicholson, The hundred
of the thing. We also find that the painting extends unobtrusive, frames for some of the paintings (e.g. jugs (illus., Marguerite Steen, William Nicholson,
out beyond the motif proper, here mostly at the that for Flowers c. 1927, a still-life of astonish- London, 1943, pl. opp. p. 97). There they crowd
left—a Leitmotiv of Nicholson's whole career, the ing delicacy.) This modest woodwork is nothing like so many Buddhas.