Page 48 - Studio International - November 1969

9
No. 105 1969
Liquitex on canvas
94 x 94 in.
10
Untitled no. 91 1968
Liquitex on canvas
74 x 74 in.

by proximity, and recently a singularly radiant
establishment of remote control in which
shapes of warm or cold, thin or opaque black
against a light lime-yellow ground are de-
ployed in diagonal movement, changing
perspective and shifting from flat shapes to
solid forms, by contour, as they progress up-
ward. They refer back also to our level of
vision if directed at the centre of the canvas.
Their potential identities in colour are camou-
flaged by black, and implied by a sepa-
rated area in which bands of solid colour
are stacked like a colour chart of differing
widths, finely calculated to correspond pris-
matically with the 'weight' and scale of the
uncoloured shapes. Sometimes a clue is pro-
vided, in Untitled no. 91 of 1968 for example,
by means of flickering colour accents, barely
visible, along the contour of the relevant but
otherwise neutrally black shapes. This pain-
ting exemplifies both the optical gambits and
the detached orchestration of colour: the
`subliminal' action referred to earlier in this
text. In more recent work, the colour key has
contour fractured by a ragged brushmark on of his audience by changing the perspective gained access to the composition as a whole by
the right; warm brownish black as a con- of shapes from top to base of a painting; but a grouping of forms integral to the entire com-
trolled 'slash' mark with something of the floor and ceiling are non-existent: the optical position but separated and fixed in more
resolution of a hieroglyph opened or pierced manoeuvres are thrown back to the spectator cohesive, less transient, positions.
to show the plum colour of the supporting as a stricture on his optical habits in angles of The awareness of perspective and illusion is
diamond shape beneath; and intense blue- perception, to stress the centre of the painting always apparent in Huxley's work. A climactic
black, merging into graded and vivid blues, and what converges or diverges from it. point was reached when a slowly moving, ver-
as an abruptly aggressive and more loaded Whenever, rarely, light areas are set against tical serpentine shape implied a non-existent
brushmark. There is a deliberate change of dark, our retinal responses are similarly horizon line, in an otherwise unbroken ground
speed between the three sloping horizontal challenged. of pure colour, by bending and appearing to
brush strokes, as well as variation in shape and What is remarkable about Shades, and true of recede at a certain point like a river undula-
modulation of colour and density. The paint- all Huxley's work, is the way in which auto- ting back into space. There is invariably a
ing also embodies Huxley's typical use of cratic control and self-consciousness evaporate connection between the colour of a shape and
dark against light. In other respects, the under the impact of what is finally disclosed. its enveloping space. Human beings move
painting is a symposium of light: passing In this respect, and in others, he shares in air, fish in water: Huxley's colour is
through veiled, dull brown to incandescent common ground only with Bridget Riley: determinate and conditional. The dominant
red, with passively cold and warm blacks, both in the sense of something unforeseen colour of the ground or space has always the
offset by a flashing blue-black applied more taking over from what would appear to be exact pitch required to provide the appro-
raspingly from the exterior of the canvas. wholly predictable elements, and in the way priate milieu, disposition, or substance for the
The square format is used by Huxley because in which simple elements are made to yield form. This colour is unrelated to mood, which
of its neutrality. A canvas with a horizontal complex results which radically extend the we provide later by our own reactions.
axis is more related to the influence of gravity; painting's dimensions. In Riley's case, for For if the differences between sign and symbol,
a vertical canvas can deny this gravitational example, cloud-like patches of soft yellow form and mark, must be observed in Huxley's
conformity. In addition, a horizontal canvas light will be generated within our retina by the work, his use of colour has equivalent signifi-
evokes the idea of landscape, the earth, and a conjunction of cold or warm near-primary cance. The colour is totally artificial and
recumbent body; whilst a vertical canvas, in bands of colour separated on the canvas by abstract but, if devoid of mood, it is quite
defying gravity, can instantly become a white strips of space. With Huxley, we are in without the rawness or emptiness of what
spiritual vehicle implying elevation, por- the disquieting area of transmutation and might be termed 'uninhabited' colour: plain
traiture, and religious subjects: the mind potentiality, edgier alternatives to transfor- colour in which nothing has happened. The
and the spirit as against gravity and the mation. paradox here is that Huxley's colour, whether
earth. Huxley's paintings have nothing to do These transmutations of shape, light, and pale or deep turquoise, cerulean blue, mauve
with these subjects or restrictions. He often atmospheric density, are achieved by direc- or magenta, cool lime-yellow or warm saffron,
plays, however, with the visual conditioning tional stress, by alignment and abutment, is reminiscent of substances, solutions, stuffs,