Page 48 - Studio International - July-August 1969

friend and collaborator, the architect Mart this expressed itself in a series of prismatic 5
Freedom 1933
Stam, recently wrote in praise of these paint- paintings in which the edges of objects project Oil on canvas
ings in a poetic essay on Lissitzky (quoted in the cool or warm range of the spectrum. Close 6
the recently-published Lissitzky monograph, perception of observed fact is essential here. Still-life with landscape 1922,
reworked 1932
but here too, in spite of Kunstismen, the index In other forms this attention shows also in his Oil on canvas, with painted frame
credits all reference to Segal as belonging to `visual point' paintings and relief sculptures of 301 x 384 in.
`Lasar Segal') . The Swedish collector Gabriel- around 1926. The paintings exploit the differ- 7
The Abortion Law 1928
son bought several of them, and asked Segal ence between central and peripheral vision, Oil on canvas
to buy modern paintings for him; the result of noted intuitively by Manet and others, while
the commission was a brilliant survey of the sculptures aim at the maximum relief
constructive tendencies in Germany in 1922- effect by adding tone to actual light and shade,
1923. and then also by being modelled only in
What separates Segal's 'equivalents' from terms of light effect, those portions being streng-
other post-Cubism is their preservation of the thened that are to catch the light, and those
subject in a context of apparent dislocation. that are to show shadow being hollowed out.
Even Delaunay's Cubism, far from aggressive, Through these investigations Segal returned
diminished its subjects into palely perceptible to naturalism. I have already suggested that
signs. Gris asserted the subject of his pictorial this tendency was characteristic of his time
constructions, but for him the subject was an and place. It was also his growing conviction
element introduced into a construction, not that the chaos around him was best countered
the source of the construction, and least of all by a calm contemplation ofvisual appearances.
the source of the impetus to construct. Some There follows a long series of old-master like
of Segal's paintings are entirely abstract, but paintings, delicately painted, coolly observed,
when he based a picture on a subject—often that continues through Segal's remaining
in this period they were landscapes or town- years. In 1933 he was forbidden to work in
scapes— he gave it full value. Even though the Germany and emigrated with his family to afternoon and his London flat was cosily
surface of his paintings appears fragmented Spain. When war broke out there he came to underlit. But his hair shone, and so did his
by the interaction of the contrasting areas, London. Here, and in Oxford under the Army animated face. And behind him, behind the
the motif comes through as necessary and real. Education Scheme, he taught and painted sofa, there hung a large 'equivalents' painting,
During the same period Segal painted occa- until his death in 1944. an urban subject. I recall being puzzled and
sional narrative pictures, using the grid to I met him once. I was perhaps ten years old. fascinated by the in-out shifts ofits planes, by its
support a comic strip sequence; their subjects He was a small man (not that he struck me as mysterious clarity. The adults around me
related to social issues. He also embarked on a small at the time), with something of the age- became almost invisible, shrouded in their
theoretical and practical exploration of ing Rembrandt about his face and a Ben- chit-chat. It was the first modern painting I
colour, stimulated by Goethe's writings, and Gurion halo of white hair. It was a winter ever looked at.
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