Page 58 - Studio International - July August 1968

the present one with just that anticipation and any standards. It was the largest painting in that The conclusion I am led to by these paintings is
anxiety which the painter had hoped to avoid. We exhibition, and it is the largest work in the present that colour can never be independent in the sense
have no perspective on his activity. Our mood is show Trans echo (30 ft long), that dominates in that its independence has been canvassed by some
thus already out of consort with that of the works, terms of quality. I think that size really matters painters and writers. The independence of colour
and disappointment at the least successful of them for the nature of the experience that Noland has to is a concept that can only be realized in terms of
may be the readiest response, as it was mine. Many offer. It is a remarkable feature of the stripe paint- specific shape. The independence of colour, that is
English painters seem delighted when they are able ings at Kasmin's, when seen together, that the to say, is purely relative as we experience it. It
to feel that an exhibition of American paintings is proportion of content to size (or at least to largest depends upon our intuition of the way in which
not as good as they had expected it would be. dimension) is the opposite of what one would colour is composed taking precedence over our per-
But it is the painter who sets a high standard who expect. The experience seems to become un- ception of the ground it is composed upon. In
disappoints when he falls below it. We are dis- manageable, that is to say, when it is constricted saying he is not interested in shape Noland is
appointed to be deprived of the singular pleasure by an easily perceptible format. In the smaller drawing a red herring across the issue. It would not
we had come to expect. With the shorter paintings elongated paintings the extension of colour hori- be the first time a painter has tried to cover his
in the present show one becomes acutely conscious zontally builds up a certain impetus that partially tracks. His work on shaped canvases was surely
of the vertical edges where the flow of colour undermines their status as objects. In the large essential for him in investigating the interdepen-
appears to have been prematurely suppressed by painting the sensation of extension of colour is dence of colour and overall shape and in freeing
the imposition of a conventional shape. Expecta- overwhelming. Standing at the centre of the paint- him from this problem at one level. In the recent
tion thus blunted one is thrown back upon an ing one forgets the edges. Standing at one edge works he gets as far away as he can from the specific
internal reading of colour which, because it has one's experience of extended colour totally over- nature of shape by extending the horizontal move-
become secondary to the reading of shape, offers rides one's perception of the opposite edge. At no ment of colour beyond the point where vertical
little to extend previous experience of what a point is one made conscious of the whole as shape measurement can be easily related to horizontal
painting can be. When colour in painting loses the (outline) ; only as size in relation to activity of measurement as a proportion of overall shape. The
element of surprise and of revelation it loses every- colour. This is not, I think, merely to do with the overall shape is still specific, but in a different way:
thing that elevates art above taste. These recent comparatively small space in which the painting it needs to be a certain size. The balance is no
paintings are certainly more evidently composed is shown. At a certain distance away from the longer, it seems to me, between overall shape and
than earlier works. The colour lies on, not in the painting, and before one could assimilate the whole depicted shape (forms within the outline), but
canvas; edges between bands of colour and canvas as an outline, the surface would blur because of between overall shape as form and overall shape as
are sharp; the paint is brushed on to form a the narrowness of the stripes and the narrowness scale, with depicted shape (the painted stripes)
superbly immaculate surface ; relationships between of the tonal range within which they are differen- acting as the fulcrum.
colour and colour, and colour and canvas are tiated. The inclination would then be to move Noland has said that he wishes to paint still
precisely controlled. There is less emphasis than closer again. It is a condition of the experience larger—forty feet or more, 'so long as the concep-
before on spontaneity in the composition, and there offered that we should move close, both literally tion is there'. This leads me into an absorbing fan-
is in some cases a corresponding loss of immediacy and metaphorically. I would dearly like to be able tasy; one which accords, I feel, with the passionately
in the experience offered. to compare the impact of this painting with that of unheroic nature of Noland's art: I imagine a
But the best works should in the end preserve us some of the higher-keyed large paintings which painting a mile long in which is embodied for all
from disappointment. My most compelling mem- were shown in Noland's show at the Emmerich to see the intuition of an entirely intimate conscious-
ory of the last Noland show is of the quality of Gallery in New York. The need to see more ness.
Grave light, a serious and beautiful painting by American painting in London is really acute. Charles Harrison

8 young sculptors at the Stockwell thinking and already these young artists are having Statements by the sculptors from Stockwell Depot
Depot unit June 17. to ask themselves questions about how their work will be published in a future issue, together with
can fit into a social context. The encouraging thing photographs of their work.
is that these questions seem to be inherent in the
The Stockwell Depot is a derelict warehouse con- work they are producing, and not merely by-
siderately leased by the Lambeth Borough Council products of a marketing problem.
to a group of young sculptors: Roland Brener, Alan Gordon Richardson
Barkley, David Evison, John Fowler, Peter Hide,
Gerard Hemsworth, Roelof Louw, Roger Fagin.
Here during the last year they have worked in
Roelof Louw Circle
spacious conditions, and recently showed their work
in a group exhibition. All are former St Martins
students, some teach there now, but admit to no
aesthetic or ideological link-up, claiming their
physical proximity to be maintained only by eco-
nomic self-interest.
As their views are so disparate they were asked for
the following personal statements about their work
and attitudes.
It could be that these sculptors share more than
they have liked to think. Most seem committed to
the notion of communication through involvement,
either physical, or in terms of a strongly implied
time/event structure.This is a conscious rejection of
the 'shared experience through contemplation of ob-
ject' concept favoured by the 'New Generation'
sculptors. The objects here seem to be just starting-
off points for a complete experience. The experi-
ence is not that of 'seeing' the object, but of taking
part in a whole situation engendered by a forced
awareness of all the space/time extensions. It's an
important part of these sculptures to show signs of
manufacture, to indicate future alternatives, and
to suggest the possibility of change within them-
selves.
A movement towards a more integrative situation
is in line with modern trends in sociopolitical
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