Page 52 - Studio International - January 1969

paradox of man and nature, man as part of factory in themselves, do seem to be where
London and yet separate from his environment, man Vaughan works on certain techniques before

commentary as joined and yet isolated from his fellow men. embarking on the more ambitious larger
paintings. The scale of the bigger paintings
It is the exploration of this paradox in con-
temporary visual terms that is Keith Vaughan's makes for a completely different sort of chal-
Keith Vaughan at the Marlborough;
contribution. The exhibition is best approach- lenge which in several works has been success-
Jean Tinguely at the Hanover;
ed by recognizing this background and noting fully met. Two, in particular, epitomize what
Steve Dwoskin: Films and Paintings at
the continuity of his interests. is best.
Redmark; Robyn Denny's Colour Box
There are nine small paintings and fourteen The Horizontal figure, 1968, is painted in sub-
at Alecto Gallery.
larger paintings. The smaller paintings show dued greys and white. The background is
the full range of Vaughan's interests. They are given form and life by a slight change in the
The exhibition of recent oil paintings by Keith mainly landscapes with occasionally a figure shade of grey. The horizontal figure is white,
Vaughan at the MARLBOROUGH GALLERY is in the landscape. Both landscape and figure except where the torso dissolves into a more
most welcome and presents a challenge. have been used as a starting point from which broken area of warm ambiguous forms. It is a
Vaughan's retrospective exhibition at the to build a series of forms and colour relation- compelling painting where the parts appear
Whitechapel Gallery in 1962 established the ships so that in the final image it is difficult unimportant in a sudden access of unity and
range and consistency of the visual problems and needless to try and identify the origin of acceptance. The second is the Group of figures,
with which he has been preoccupied. His any particular form. These abstracted images 1967. In this, the dual relationship with the
work then could be seen as a series of attempts are achieved in several distinct ways. Some environment is repeated, the figures being
to find a resolution between the discoveries of consist of a series of loose tesserae, others are either distinct from or dissolving into the
Matisse with line and colour and Cezanne's built from short narrow brush strokes pattern- landscape. There is variation of pace and
analysis of form. Sometimes figure/ground ing the whole of the painting. Both groups rhythm from the large light forms of the
problems seemed to predominate, sometimes show an overall treatment of the surface bodies to the smaller deeply coloured forms
fields of sensuous colour flooded the paintings, deriving from Cezanne and Cubism. Another of the heads merging into the landscape, being
and occasionally all preoccupations were group shows Vaughan's sensuous delight and partially delineated with strokes of vivid
successfully articulated in the same work with mastery in handling oil paint in much looser colour such as aquamarine.
a vigour that quelled any doubts in a complete compositions of irregular forms which still The most realistic paintings in the exhibition
visual experience. Vaughan has made it clear remain reminiscent of a landscape. These are two beach scenes. These recall a recurrent
that his work has been motivated by the small paintings, while complete and satis- theme in the painter's work and in this
exhibition provide an indication of how
natural forms are used to build up the other
more complex and abstract works.
The challenge of this exhibition arises from
the consistent preoccupation of attempting to
find an ideal resolution in visual terms of
man's relationship to nature. At the end of
the war, when Vaughan began to exhibit
regularly, hopes for ideal solutions were current
and acceptable. Younger generations re-
belled against both the idealism and the
seemingly limited range of visual explorations
in which solutions were being sought. Now
that acceptance of extreme stylistic variation
is routine and the artist's involvement with
society insisted upon, the time is opportune to
consider again the intention and achievements
of those artists who have continued to develop
within these limits, taking from the general
ferment only what seemed necessary for their
work. For example, Vaughan has been sensi-
tive to much of the exploration in painting
methods in the last twenty years and in parti-
cular has adapted the technique of Philip
Guston's paintings to his own purposes. The
images are now very different from those of
ten to fifteen years ago. Does the stylistic
change reflect change in the painter's attitude ?
The desolate anguish of some of the earlier
painting has been replaced by what seems to
be a carefully considered optimism.
However one may react to Vaughan's para-
doxically detached yet deeply-felt humanism
as it emerges from his present paintings, one
can only admire and enjoy these works for the
success with which they present his reaction
to our world in moving visual terms.