Page 34 - Studio International - January 1969

Isolating, for discussion, a single aspect of detail, with an illusory aim. material disposes inherently.
sculpture, implies special importance being (b) With the advent of the use of industrial The use of colour surfaces in sculpture is an
attached to that aspect; in the case of materials, it has served and serves the expression of the continuing awareness of
sculptural colour, I am not in accord with purpose of providing a skin envelope of a surface as texture, a tradition reaching
the idea that it alone serves as a unifying character. directly to us through Rodin and Brancusi.
distinguishing factor of importance. (c) It is the last category, the use of colour The fact of the actual textural variety of
Sculpture, if it is to advance in terms of as an extension of the expressive power of surface application of colour, both in the
innovation and exploration, must be judged shape and volume, that is of particular application of pigments and finishes, and in
to emphasize and delineate feature and concern; indeed, I feel it to be, with the the use of self coloured material furthers this.

to do so in comprehensive terms, and not in extension of the concept of sculptural space Surface as colour is an extension from the
the particular. to the ground surface, a principal area of confines of the 'natural' state of a material,
Very little of merit has been written that innovation. A dominant assumption of traditionally dominant, of the means by
does in fact distinguish satisfactorily what sculpture in the past has been that of volume which the density and mass of a volume may
are the principal factors governing the art as constant throughout its mass. That is to be altered. Surface is the vocabulary, the
and what is unique to the qualities it say of material as a complete expression of means by which sculpture is 'read', and
encompasses. constant section. With the exteriorization what takes place is a broadening, a
The following notes, therefore, relate to the of mass by surface expression through colour, reinvention of that vocabulary. The gamut
development of my own work and are not definition by section becomes immediately of colour used in relation to shape is
intended to be comprehensive. of an ambiguous nature; thus extending descriptive of ranges of mood and intensity,
Colour, in sculpture, can be categorized as: volumetric space INTO as well as AROUND and in this respect bears much resemblance
(a) descriptive; (b) enveloping; (c) expressive the work. It is also a means of effecting to the use of the term in musical definition.
(a) Historically, colour was used in order an organic and 'live' quality that natural

A bright, moving ghost between the back stripes look and feel. I wondered if Ken well try out people again. People were
axle and the road. We keep our distance at would make the foaming waves later. not so encouraging. Carefully assumed
sixty miles an hour. The sunflowers next Afterwards in the tube I felt heavy and emptyness. Don't let your feelings flicker.
to the woman sitting in a dark room, with alone. I looked at a ground corner where the My voice or theirs ?
flowers flaming quietly across the wall at sliding doors meet the floor and a green I like colour wherever I see it. It still looks
the Van Gogh exhibition. I also noticed a metal panel—it was glowing like the woman best to me in gardens and landscapes, and
painting of a rough sea with a fishing boat, in the dark room next to the sunflowers. paintings, but I wouldn't bother to
the horizon was like the way Ken Noland's If that corner looks that good, I might as discriminate: one place is not like another