Page 52 - Studio International - March 1968

Both of these basic illusions are rendered interesting interruptions of the diamond shapes on the other phoses, as she calls these works, is an integral factor
by means of chiaroscuro. Vasarely has an uncanny side. in their success.
instinct when it comes to judging the effect of Colour plays a vital role. Zox uses various plastic The homely point of departure is a head of
minute graduations of light. It is in the diminu- paints, some with shiny, enamel-like surfaces, lettuce. Absorbing herself in its structure, the
tions of light in rhythmic sequences that his others died deep and soft into the canvas. The artist moves from the minute to the infinite,
greatest ingenuity resides. By interrupting pattern sequences are not predictable. Odd occurrences, finding in the involutions of leaf shapes a universe
with subtle asymmetries, and by inserting grace such as the abrupt leap forward of a midnight blue of analogies.
notes in unexpected places, he lifts his composi- in a predominantly red-to-yellow painting, give In a certain sense, her approach is the conven-
tions out of the realm of schemata, and into the Zox's paintings an air of bold improvisation. tional approach of the lyrical artist. It extends the
long-lived realm of painting, where mystery pre- There are many younger artists working with tradition of Goethe, who mined the riches of
vails in the shadows, and light is the honoured these simple geometric shapes, and many who natural science for poetic imagery, and the
climax. use the flat, bright colour in a similar manner tradition of Paul Klee, who studied plant forma-
An example is the complex painting called to Zox. What distinguishes his work, I think, is his tion, and more particularly, the seed, as a starting
Proton MC, in which light is the pre-eminent force, willingness to follow an inspiration so that the place in the complicated universe (`Every seed is a
dodging among the cubic forms in order to create schematic character of his drawing is never left in- cosmos').
illusions of recess in one place, and protrusion in tact in the paintings. He has used his colour with a Yet, these variations on a theme easily take their
another. Vasarely here combines both two- and freedom that transforms his simple paintings into place in our own time. I think that when Miss
three-dimensional thinking of his diamond shapes expressive vehicles. Sterne paints a huge, shimmering cavity, around
within the cubes so that they appear now flat, now which transforming shapes swirl and eddy, she is
like shutters partly ajar. For all its irregular path, In quite another vein are the paintings and just as much involved with the homologue of wave
the light tends to centre itself, allowing the drawings exhibited by Hedda Sterne at the BETTY mechanics as Vasarely. Those are no longer
forms at the edges to melt away in ambiguous PARSONS GALLERY. Miss Sterne, having been botanically inspired studies of process. They are
terms. washed in many waters, including the powerful spatial descriptions peculiar to us. Some of them are
Here, Vasarely's alphabet spells out a depth of currents of Abstract Expressionism in its early years, so grand in scale, and so infinite in spatial sugges-
meaning. The form-colours are not meant to be has arrived at a point of assurance that permits her tion that it would be hard not to take into account
read in purely formal terms. The show of tempera- to follow her fancy without inhibition. The im- our new familiarity with the moon.
ment and emotion in Vasarely's work possibly provisatory nature of Metaphors and Metamor- Still, the intimate is not neglected either. Certain
springs from his dealing with a subject, the subject
being, as he once said in a note on wave mechanics,
`an ambiguous world, enigmatic even, expressed
in equation by some, in plastic equivalents by
others.'
Basically, Vasarely is after that same homologue
of the cosmos that lured such artists as Kandinsky,
Klee and Mondrian.

Abe Ajay, at the ROSE FRIED GALLERY, shares with
Vasarely a concern with modular form invention.
His carefully organized boxed sculptures belong to
what he calls 'a private family of three-dimensional,
modular forms each of which is marriageable to
and compatible with any or all of the others.'
The number of combinations is seemingly un-
limited in these cast rnoulds. Ajay aligns the white
castings on a vertical axis, usually, accenting their
bosses and concavities by means of sheets ofcoloured
plexiglass. The effect ranges from a cold precision
to a soft equivocation. While it is conceivable that
he could manufacture these components for urban
use, the loss of the intimacy imposed by small scale
would be enormous. The technique is only
important as the means toward a statement that
Ajay rightly calls private.

Another artist, exhibiting at the KORNBLEE
GALLERY, Larry Zox, consciously reduces his
means in order to work out as many alternatives as
possible with a limited vocabulary. In this instance,
he exhibits two main motifs: the one is based on the
intersection of diamond shapes, the other based on
the effect of a warped square when it is merely a
line close to the boundaries of the stretcher, Above Right Marsden Hartley Bavarian Alps 1933-4
establishing an inner field.
Marsden Hartley Mushrooms on blue background 1929 Oil on canvas, 18 x 30 in.
The diamond series consists of rather blunt Oil on masonite, 18 x 15 in. M. Knoedler & Co, New York
juxtapositions of a few forms. Zox defines them by M. Knoedler & Co, New York
establishing paths of unpainted, unprimed canvas.
Far right Alfred Maurer Two Heads 1930
Often, the angular shapes are pushed to one side, Gouache on paper, 21¼ x 18 in.
leaving a field of colour that balances out the Babcock Galleries, New York
144