Page 37 - Studio International - February 1969

En hommage a Webern no. 3 1963
i mpression in relief on laminated paper
Grey silences for green 1966
oil on canvas 50 x 100 in.
Coll: Canada Council
Yves Gaucher's work is being exhibited at Vancouver
Art Gallery from April 22 until May 18, and at Edmon-
ton in July.
evasive, that remain and flow at the same suggested a direction, but the artist felt a patterns which in fact are not there. Though
time without remaining or flowing'. necessity to work through symmetrical struc- the arrangements vary sharply from one work
Late in 1966 another major series of prints tures first. Further, some of the works of 1965 to the next, it is almost impossible to remember
began to take shape in his mind and after and most of those of 1966 used grey as the which is which and people even confuse paint-
working through a welter of elementary draw- elements or signals in the colour field, so that ings of different sizes with each other. In fact,
ings he got to work with a commercial printer the behaviour ofgrey against other colours had these works put the viewer on trial. These
to produce late in the following year eight of now been quite thoroughly studied. It re- works have ceased to be objects containing
the most challenging and subtle works I have mained to use grey as a field and the result is a something identifiable or describable and
seen in a long while. These were published as revelation of considerable magnitude. have become instead a kind of magic wall
a portfolio called Transitions in 1968. The grey paintings at the time of writing num- from which the viewer may extract only what
Transitions is again composed only of pencil- ber nearly 50. They vary in size from quite he puts in. The artist would agree, since for
thin horizontal lines in seven soft, carefully small (30 x 30 in.) to 9 x 15 ft. I prefer to him the colour grey 'contains all colours and
graduated tones ofgrey. It begins with eighteen discount the smaller ones and take the all emotional states'.
lines of three different lengths and five intensi- majority which range upwards from 7 x 7 ft. As in earlier works Gaucher had got rid of
ties arranged in perfect symmetry around They are all in subtly different accents of grey, texture because it was no longer needed, and
both the vertical and horizontal axes, with left from rose-grey, blue-grey and purple- then symmetry and then colour and then
mirroring right and the top the bottom. It grey, to green-grey, yellow-grey and chalk- verticality, so in these works he seems to be
recalls the Signals of 1966. The succeeding grey. The hue is often not recognizable except exorcizing the horizontal, or indeed the need
three prints play on reversals, inversions and by comparison. Each painting has from five to for any kind of orientation. The lines no
varying intervals. With the fifth work asym- nine short (6 x 24 in.) thin lines, in unmixed longer create conflict or illusion, but rather
metry is introduced though it is almost unper- grey which are placed in no discernible seem to be there only to remind you that they
ceived, and the number of lines is seen to be pattern. Indeed some, though undoubtedly don't really exist. The vast scale of these works
gradually decreasing. The sixth and seventh perceived, are not immediately seen, but leap makes scale almost unnecessary. The texture
prints are increasingly askew, though echoes out only as the eye passes over that particular is really a non-texture, the colour a non-
of balance and symmetry remain, and the part of the canvas. The lines sometimes estab- colour.
final work is totally without axis or centre lish and then seem to destroy the rhythms and Though each painting is now known by its
point. All that remains is a sense of structure patterns that one perceives. formula, Gaucher had begun to call each of
and a balance of forces rather than of pattern. It is slightly irrelevant but nonetheless interest- them Alap, after the initial, tentative section
We have arrived at the starting point of the ing to note the reactions people have to these of an Indian raga before the heavy rhythm
recent series of grey paintings. works. They report what isn't there and miss begins. The paintings are like that, full of
While Gaucher began the grey paintings in what is. They exaggerate the size of a small suspense and anticipation and eagerness, and
late 1967, he had really been preparing for line up to five and six times its actual size. awaiting only a viewer to come and find what
them for a long time. The Webern series had They believe they have detected colours and resolution he can.
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