Page 61 - Studio International - April 1969

read from left to right, a limitation (compared
with the earlier centralization) which is con-
trolled by the 'hanging down' and by a com-
positional system which turns out to be only a
slight modification of that in the Ys, but much
less conspicuous than before: the new paint-
ings combine ranks of 120° angles (the only
angles within theY paintings) drifting diagon-
ally toward the lower right, with ranks of 45°
angles drifting toward the upper left. These
more acute angles also help to check a too
quick, too easy, movement from left to right.
Turning from parallel colour bands (in the Ys)
to coloured grids with coloured interstices
complicates what I mean by the 'local form'
of colour, because unless a colour stripe is wide
enough to be a body in itself, wide enough so
that our attention can be absorbed into its
dense area rather than its particular outside
limits — unless this can happen, adjoining
colour bands remain simply stripes, which
means lines. (Example: a big Kenneth Noland
hums with colour, while a small reproduction
looks like a club sandwich.)
Centralized composition is pleasantly reassur-
ing, even optimistic, and Jung explained how
it is even a sign of health—of a spirit actually
succeeding in re-integrating its components.
The problem for us is that it has aesthetic lim- 5
itations. Mainly, it distributes significance Peter Joseph
Dark green painting 11 ft long
unevenly over the surface of a picture, whereas Photo: Alan Palmer
the whole tradition of modernism in painting
(with Matisse's 'Notes of a Painter' as its focal
point) has been to effect a surface of uniform Another 1968 painting in the show is a large Peter Joseph's best-known earlier work was
formal significance. Besides, centralization can oblong with two rectilinear grid patterns col- the enormous thirty-foot long Colour Conti-
threaten uncalled-for space (without their liding at an absolute diagonal; it is a kind of nuum which was first shown at Signals in 1966
truncations the 'Y' paintings could snap into experiment in what a single diagonal can do to and later at the Greenwich Theatre Gallery
illusionistic pyramids) ; it does this partly by a whole 'society' of rectangles (like Broadway and at the Camden Arts Centre in 1967. It
induction from the conventional spatial cone on the map of Manhattan). Our colour plate was one of the most exhilarating and exciting
or pyramid of earlier painting and partly by shows the most recent work, from 1969. It works produced by a British artist in the last
direct optical effect. In one group of 1968 pushes the experience of 1968 further because few years.
paintings the problem of uniform significance the modified trapezoid, or even more exagger- In his new exhibition at the LISSON GALLERY
rears its head : in those paintings in which atedly isosceles triangle, is less like a square Joseph is showing works done since. The first
the bands of the grid are the same width (interestingly, the 1968 paintings not only of these are paintings in which medium-sized
as the squares which they isolate the three have exactly square dimensions, but could be canvases are halved horizontally and then
blocks where pairs of squares intersect stand cut and fitted into a square, like a puzzle) and one, or both, of these halves quartered verti-
out from the squares proper and echo the over- more like an oblong; similarly, the internal cally so that the picture consists of either three
all shape of the canvas; that they thus gain rectangles are oblongs of different sizes, in- or four rectangular areas of flat colour. The
more importance than the squares (like chess stead of uniform squares. Once again, a former colours are sweeter and more lyrical than
pieces with more moves in their power) is an concept raised to a higher power. either those of Joseph's stripe paintings or
obvious technical problem. I have seen three The reason why I have found myself enmeshed those of subsequent works. They seem to me
versions which solve it different ways. In one in a detailed comparison of the recent paint- to sit rather awkwardly together, each one
the three forms receive identical treatment ings with those of a year or two ago, despite my asserting itself too strongly without the subtle
with the squares, with the result that they opening statement, is that Moon's paintings cancelling out of individual voices against
merge into the general rhythm, the two outside now fascinate me with their 'development' each other of the stripe paintings. But it would
ones 'falling in' and marching around the rim just because, taken one at a time, they seem not obviously have been pointless for Joseph to
with the outside squares, leaving the one in the yet wholly definitive. The Y paintings are, in go on repeating himself, and from the later,
centre in an even more privileged position; in a way, easier; these, only slightly different, larger divided canvases in which the colours
another work the two corner forms are split much more ambitious. Not quite happy at the are simpler and stronger, it is clear that his
into two colours each, which keeps them from present moment, it is no wonder that I find decision was right. Subsequently Joseph has
slipping away, as before, but still leaves the myself sketching a curve; the hope now is that used horizontal stripes. The way the inter-
centre one definitely on the throne; in the before long Jeremy Moon can finish surveying national art scene works it is difficult for an
third all the three elements remain solidly the vaster territory he has just mapped out, so artist like Joseph to show paintings like these
coloured, but they are each bisected by a that we can more confidently approach one without seeming to be under the shadow of
narrow line, making for the greatest control of Jeremy Moon on its own, adequate, unique, Kenneth Noland. This is a pity, because the
the three solutions, but at the expense of the and sovereign. one painting of Joseph's like this that I have
simplicity of the original system. seen was better than those works of Noland