Page 58 - Studio International - October1968

London Commentaries

New works: wash drawings in relief not only the printed ones, but also those which are I find Variations on a Theme-Scissors, No. 7 (1886)
and mixed media by Ben Nicholson added by hand, so that we can discuss them one of the best. I like the expressive way the
at Marlborough Fine Art Ltd generically. To my mind there is an internal con- pencil looks more tightly gripped and more
3 October-9 November tradiction between the severely crystalline, ab- heavily pressed in the handles, the part of the
stract angularity of the repoussoir form at the right shears where the hand's effort is applied. From
These new works by Ben Nicholson irritate me and the very 'hand-painted' moon. What I do there down the lines glide out increasingly freely,
somehow. For one thing, the idea that in the 1960s most intensely enjoy is the free doodling-in of the blooming (by extension of a line which is at the
a painter would go to Portugal, Lago Maggiore or pencil lines in blank spaces on the print—the same time an edge of the upper blade) expansively
Rhodes to deal with reality is strange. I am im- mountain ridges and the gently plopping harbour into the lightest lines of all, the almost weightless,
pressed by the fact that Nicholson made the great waves. They are like rich cadenzas. Yet a better balloon-like curves which enclose both shears and
1966-67 reliefs in such a locale, because that seems musical image comes to mind, one which is more the raised plate impression. Here, in these outer
more like a mathematician taking a room in a quiet Nicholsonian. Not long ago I heard two Irish
hotel to solve a problem in peace : in other words, street musicians playing violin and banjo together.
the reliefs evidence heavy-duty thinking of that They were playing Irish tunes, but so slowly that
order, best done, often, on restful days in some the fiddler had to fill in the lapses with wonderful
charming place. But these new graphic works are figures and graces. I find these pencilled passages
so initially understated, so already small-scale and alive (and as intimate as direct traces of neural
private, that they seem at first like tranquillity re- spasms) in the same way, in the spaces between the
collected in tranquillity. Part of the difficulty is that etched (`melodic?') lines.
my Occidental impatience might recede if the That the scissors series was inspired by a pair of
understatement of the works were not assaulted by hand-crafted scissors which the painter received as
the overstating terminology applied to them. To a gift, nearly returns me to my initial difficulty. I
call a drawing on the back of a plate impression a cannot share the mystique of the Handmade
`relief' and to refer to the combination of print ink Thing. And I wonder, once again, about termin-
and pencil as 'mixed media' - and this in 1968 - ology: why insist on calling this series (with
seems coy. It is not the non-profoundity of the strain, it is hard not to feel) 'Variations on a
subjects which bothers me; in fact, the scissors draw- Theme ...' ? They are decidedly unlike the theme-
ings are beautiful partly because of their Mini- and-variations form in music because they have no
malism of subject, just as much of Gertrude Stein's sequential or cumulative effect. No. 5, for example,
best writing is about next to nothing (the real does not depend for its subtleties on our having
interest being to write something, if possible, with- already known and experienced Nos. 1-4. Why give
out 'ideas'). refined, modest, pictures pseudo-intellectual titles?
Most of the works fall neatly into two groups, two But in Variations on a Theme-Scissors, No. 1 (1968)
sets of variants - landscapes, mostly variations on we come close to the true theme-and-varia-
the same etched design, and still-lifes, of which the tions situation, because this first piece comprises
best form a series of unique drawings of a pair of the most straightforward, literal presentation of the
scissors. motif. There is not yet any of the transparency and orbits (I seem drawn to imagery of the sky-
In the landscape variations the motif is a harbour overlap, the complication and ambiguity, found in balloons, clouds, even the arcs of jet vapour trails)
on Rhodes. In each case the actual print is cropped later versions. Ambiguity in No. 1 is at an absolute there is a formal play. At the right one curve ends
down to dimensions and proportions all its own, minimum, and is only in evidence in the fact that as it meets another, which in turn crosses over the
and then modified in some unique way: in each, the handles are fused together and do not really surface break quite oblivious to the shifted plane.
for example, part of the sea is painted in and the belong to either blade. More attention is directed Thus, the junction of the two curves suggests over-
mountain ridges behind are drawn in, modified to the introduction of the plate block intaglio im- lapping volumes generated by pure line, while the
discreetly from version to version. This makes for pression from underneath (kept, if altered, in all calm crossing of the relief break ignores the actual
a play between the idea of the graphic multiple the variants) than to the actual drawing: first, in plastic shape of the paper. Real mass is suppressed
and the single drawing. The kind of subtlety in- that the plate impression is cut off, almost as if in favour of evocative mass. On the left we find the
volved seems designed expressly for the fine-tuned suggesting that Nos. 2, 3, 4... follow sequentially exact converse. The same two curves cross, negat-
discrimination of the connoisseur. (It is easy to off to the right; secondly, the jolt in the encircling ing any suggestion of volume and stressing their
imagine a man who enjoys comparing two states line at the 'step' in the paper (in the lower right), utter linearity. But then one of them seems to dis-
of an old master engraving wanting to buy at least which is the meeting point of the end-point of one appear under the actual raised plane of the paper.
two of these, to savour their points of divergence.) line with the starting-point of a previously drawn In Variations on a Theme-Scissors, No. 8 (1968)
In the example shown here, Rhodos, No. 1 (1965) line (emphasizing even more the sense of beginning the formal activity consists of two diagonal
the print is cut down with deliberate, hand- here), stresses the actuality of the shifted plane, relationships overriding the horizontal, soixante-
made inaccuracy, to just about a square, and seeming to refract the line there, as if in subjection neuf symmetry of two pairs of scissors. Here the
is mounted on scratched masonite. Maurice de to the paper; thirdly, the darkening of the central scissors themselves are placed, one up, one down,
Sausmarez is quite right when he observes in his area leaves 'negative shadows' of white at the step in parallel places on the paper (ignoring the
catalogue notes, that in works of this type `the (cf. the also raised, but unaffected, paper trade- intaglio impression for the moment), with their
hardboard on which the picture is mounted has mark in the lower left-hand corner) ; fourthly, the centre bolts (like navels) resting just about parallel.
been given a thin film of gesso and vigorously points of the scissors just touch the crest of the But then we notice that the left-hand pair of
rubbed with an abrasive in circular movements intaglio slope (left point) and slide down it to the scissors has only a single circle for a bolt and its
that echo the movements of the rag-wiping of the lower lever (right point), while the encircling line right-hand handle has no hole, only an outline,
original etched plate'. In other cases the actual teases the lower left-hand corner of the block im- while the right-hand pair of shears has a double
print is mounted, instead, on cloth, perhaps-in pression with near-collision. All these factors stress circle bolt and double curves making holes in both
extension of the analogy-like the muslin with the initial set-up-the interplay between the shaped its handles. Thus, in a diagonal from upper left to
which the plate is actually rubbed. paper and the lines drawn upon it. This is what lower right we have the pairing of single circle and
Throughout the series the same elements recur- recurs, varied, in the later treatments. single handle edge with double circle and double
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