Page 39 - Studio International - September 1968

cartoons. There is little obvious connection between them and the lateral expansion. This had several consequences. Firstly the physical
paintings, but they illustrate, as many of Walker's colours for example sensation of the canvas area itself became for the first time a major
still do, a completely fluid view of possible contributory sources. emotional component as well as one which sharply affected the
But as he said in 1966: 'I find it difficult to be specific about the perception of the images it contained. Colour saturation, lateral pull,
sources of my paintings as one is subjected to a continuous onslaught and the position of the contained shapes also combined to make the
of events which merge into a total sort of experience'2. (Although spectator call in question the shape of the canvas or its limits.
Walker draws continually and prolifically, these 1965 paintings were Secondly, the extent of the areas filled with colour but without shapes
the last to relate to drawings not recognizably preparatory, or to (which a yawning format encouraged) gave shapes where they did
particular figurative themes. Given hindsight both comic-strip and occur an even greater sense of autonomy, of self-contained existence.
earlier drawings suggest an instinct towards dispersal of incident). (In Walker's work since 1965 specific shapes have always seemed
unusually individual, each insisting on its separateness as a thing
before interacting with other elements). Thirdly, the stress on the
horizontal gave the lower edge of the canvas a disproportionate
emphasis : shapes seen in the middle of the canvas seemed from now
onwards subject to a downward gravitational pull.
In the last and largest paintings containing a folded page or enve-
lope image, a network of lines had been abandoned. The last
rectangular canvases before the introduction of rhomboids fore-
shadowed Walker's imminent concern with expanse as an active
constituent. These paintings' height exceeded their width, and all
depicted elements—at this time groups of deliberately basic capsule-
like shapes in hard, shiny colour, which almost or just touched one
another—were disposed near the lower edge. In early rhomboidal
paintings, large unidentifiable lettuce- or boulder-shaped objects
were disposed, three or four per canvas, against a stained ground
which gradated vertically through two or more shades. The sense
that the shapes were falling heavily through space was accentuated
by the sky-like infinity of the ground. But their bottom edges were
sharply cut horizontally, encouraging the alternative interpretation
that they were resting on or growing out of a flat horizontal surface
onto which the spectator was looking down. Hitherto Walker's colour
had been strange and effective but not a prominent element, but in
these 'boulder' paintings he deliberately introduced it in extremely
indulgent and sensuous form and in large areas; it now became a
major subject. The second phase in which it was used saw a re-
compartmentation of the painting area. The motif was now the
triangle, individual triangles being blocked in with solid, rich colour
contrasting with equally radiant grounds, and the images being
no longer collaged (collage has not since reappeared in Walker's
Anguish 1965 acrylic on canvas 107 x 72 in. coll : Walker Art Gallery painting, although shapes and edges often suggest otherwise at first
These paintings of 1965 incorporated remarkably many of the glance). As with the 'boulder' paintings, the images were concen-
elements that Walker has recombined on a more expansive scale trated towards one lower corner of the canvas, maximising the
from late 1966. A linear network, sprayed paint, insistence on the heavy looming presence of the rest of the painting.
literal identity of component images, elusive but disturbing atmos- Briefly abandoning varied colour, Walker then repeated the triangle
phere, the integration of ways of painting usually considered theme using line alone, thin and white, against a black background.
antithetical, and consciously contradictory roles given to single It had changed in two respects since 1965. It was from now on-
pictorial elements; this is only a partial list. From late 1965 to late wards always straight, and instead of being sprayed it was drawn, in
1966 various of these elements were examined more individually, pastel. It had gained, however, in vitality. It clearly retained the
and several new ones were introduced. nuances of personal touch, its substance varying in intensity along
Early in 1966, after having steadily increased the size of his can- its length while occasional small blockages within it served to aug-
vases, Walker departed for the first time from a rectangular format. ment an impression of speeding across the surface. Its application
His adoption of the rhomboid was an important step in what was to seemed both sensitive and confidently direct. Its relationship with
become a major preoccupation—the task of making impossible for the contrastingly coloured ground made it stand out with marked
the spectator the definite siting of any element in the picture, in freshness, and imparted the sensation of its being charged with
relation to any other element or within the picture as a whole. The energy, almost as if with a current. These features continue charac-
rhomboid shape in itself created an illusion, but it had the added teristic of drawn line in Walker's work through to the present time.
effect on relationships within the painting of attenuating the space He saw the ground in the white-on-black paintings as resembling a
at unexpected points and making each image be seen against a blackboard, calling works in the series Lesson. Sometimes with and
background with heightened yawning quality. The shape combined sometimes without a rectilinear grid, a single line is folded back on
with the dimensions of these paintings (average size 8 x 14 feet) to itself diagonally several times, converting space into solid blocks and
make more frequent a sideways sight of individual elements, thus repeating several times the triangle motif.
adding to deceptive context the uncertainty of actual distortion. The last motif to appear before Walker abandoned the rhomboid
Also central in Walker's work from now on was the idea of stretch format was the trapezium. Trapeziums were placed side by side
and pull. Even where the height of the rhomboid exceeded its width, rising from the bottom edge of the painting. Like the coloured
images were now sited within or against an insistent sensation of triangles that preceded them, they made particularly evident a