Page 50 - Studio International - March 1969

MARCH 7 TO APRIL 3 VICTOR PASMORE AT
`SPACE WITHIN'-MARLBOROUGH NEW LONDON
GALLERY

A number of painters in this century have
stated that their intentions are to start with
the simplest possible means of expression and
to find out what happens in developing them.
Paul Klee called it 'taking a line for a walk'.
Perhaps this preoccupation with the very bare
and simple is a general response to the com-
plexity of the times and a sense that our en-
vironment is becoming uncontrollable. The
painter using one or two lines or patches of
colour is saying, 'here at least I feel safe; these
I can control.' There has been a reaction as
well to the inadequacies of vast, out-dated,
intellectual systems. Recent philosophers who
looked at the moral and metaphysical judge-
ments of the nineteenth century said 'we will
go back to the beginning and start with bare
facts and look for propositions which are in-
dubitably known to be true'. In the same
spirit the painter has felt that, confronted
with the great compilations of the late
nineteenth century, pictures which attempted
to represent nature, its flora and fauna, its
physical geography, and its atmosphere, or a
panorama of human history, it was necessary
to make the simplest possible mark on a
rectangle and to contemplate that as a sign of
what the act of painting itself stood for. In
fact it became necessary to question the
rectangle itself. Why should the line be placed
in relationship to a rectangular plane ? If it
was to be left free to wander at will it would
be better to take the rectangle away.
Victor Pasmore has pursued this line of
reasoning to its ultimate logical conclusion
Linear construction in two movements 1969, 60 x 60 in.
perhaps more than any other twentieth- 2 line between two more planes, or it is a thread
Freestanding painting 1968, 46 X 21 x 9 in.
century painter. In freeing the line from the 3 extending in a wavering course into the space
rectangle he has produced a much more Blue development in two movements 1969, 48 x 20 in. behind the planes; it can also exist am-
simple reduction, for example, than Male- biguously between the two identities. The
vitch with his white rectangle on a white Blackheath), there was a 'coolness' about point can be disintegrated, either by multi-
rectangle. The point at which Pasmore has them, a kind of diffidence. It was as if the plication into a number of smaller points, or
arrived in his pursuit of the simplest means, pursuit of the simplest meant no more than by explosion into a nebulous cloud. However
(for over twenty years now), is to be seen in an attempt not to say too much, (although it is certainly not the mere procedure which
this new exhibition. Although the rectangles this in itself was a valuable experience). It is important. In fact it is part of Pasmore's
of the frames are still there, they play a would be easy to say that it was the vibrant own development that the procedure has
completely passive role. The lines and the bareness of the Maltese landscape which was become less and less important. Pasmore is
planes must exist on a surface and the surface reflected in the new intensity of Pasmore's not just exploring what lines, planes and
has to have boundaries. If the boundaries work, (he has been living in Malta since June, points will do. He is using them to reconstitute
were carved or cut into arbitrary shapes they 1966), but this would in fact be extremely his experiences of the world. The titles do not
would be intrusive and become a new com- misleading. It is only by looking at Pasmore's tell us what experiences are relived in the
ponent in the development. As it is the past progress in the pursuit of the simplest works themselves, (e.g. Linear composition in
verticals and horizontals of the rectangular that it it is possible to recognize this intensity three developments, Blue development in two move-
structure of the surfaces on which Pasmore as the most recent end product. The sharp, ments), and our own attempts to name the
works merely parallel the stable co-ordinates hard line or the concentrated point are the experiences are merely conjectural; but in
of our everyday existence and therefore exist midway stages in a range of developments the sensations we experience of slipping and
there without taking part. extending in opposite directions and in sliding to the edge of crumbling precipices
In this exhibition Pasmore's concentration on several dimensions The line is the section of where heavy, dark clouds transform them-
developing the simplest means seems to have a plane and when the plane is rotated we see selves miraculously into platforms to stand on,
reached an almost passionate intensity. His its surface, but the surface can be hard and or in pushing our way between the soft walls
forms now have a startling and powerful brittle or soft and impalpable. The line con- of sheets stretched over granular contours we
impact. Two years ago, when his works were sidered in the other direction on this range of are aware of feeling and walking in Pasmore's
last seen in London, (in an exhibition at possibilities is either the hard, sharp dividing world.
DENNIS DUERDEN