Page 50 - Studio International - November 1969

London
commentary

WILLIAM ROBERTS R.A. —DRAWINGS AND
WATERCOLOURS, 1915-68.
D'OFFAY COUPER GALLERY, 9 DERING STREET,
23 SEPTEMBER-10 OCTOBER;
SCULPTURE AT STOCKWELL DEPOT,
26 SEPTEMBER-25 OCTOBER;
WALTER DARBY BANNARD AT KASMIN,
17 SEPTEMBER-11 OCTOBER 1969.

`What has happened since the late nineteenth And yet the drawings and watercolours in this
century is that many English artists have been show, apart from their very real interest to
terribly short-winded. It is not that they are anyone concerned with drawing per se, pene-
not talented or intelligent; the trouble is that trate close to the very nature of the human
they are not tough enough to go it alone. The figure as an object. Even Roberts's most
typical pattern for an English artist is early abstract work, done between 1913 and 1915,
energy followed by prolonged and obscure which is not represented in this show, was
frustration or by sustained energy but at an always based on the human figure, but he has
idiosyncratic level.' Lawrence Alloway; Popu- managed, I suspect, to elude the plaudits of
lar Culture and Pop Art, Studio International, fashion because his interest in the figure was
July/August 1969. coupled with an interest in people. 'Every
The above comment was made in an expanded picture,' he asserts, 'tells a story'. That such a
and slightly less pondered form during view should be anathema to critics is strange
Alloway's Granada lecture and not un- at a time when every Hockney tells a story.
naturally aroused some resentment among 1913 was one of those curious vintage years
English artists. Yet few artists or critics today for English Art with a spate of brilliant young
would hesitate to regard it as applicable to painters and sculptors appearing unexpectedly
William Roberts. The neglect which has been before the public. There was another 'good
accorded this child prodigy—he was eighteen year' recently, when the Royal College
and one of the first English Cubists in 1913— released a surprising batch of talent, with
is only explained by the fairly general feeling Hockney as its leading figure. One is prompted
that his work mysteriously 'went off' and that to wonder whether these crus are coincidence,
he failed to fulfil the early promise he had or whether they are the direct result of a
shown. gifted teacher's influence. Certainly Tonks
This comprehensive retrospective show at the must have been important to the whole
D'OFFAY COUPER GALLERY provides a welcome attitude, not only of Roberts, but of all the
opportunity to reconsider this judgement in other ex-Slade painters of that period; his
the light of a broad selection of watercolours views on drawing 'Draw what it really looks
and drawings spanning all but the first two like to you—not what you think you know it
years of Roberts's working career. Until one looks like', are embodied in every work in
of the major public galleries sees fit to give us this show. And the later drawings (Self-
a fresh opportunity to re-examine the careers portrait, No. 42 in the catalogue) seem sur-
of artists like Roberts, it is likely to remain the prisingly modern to this writer.
only occasion we shall have to answer the Thus, while Alloway's rather flip remarks are,
questions about the evolution of an artist who in a way, apposite, Roberts surely demon-
in the hey-day of Vorticism was regarded at strates that they have no real relevance. Art
least as highly as Wyndham Lewis, and has is largely about 'sustained energy at an
since lapsed into a cenobitic obscurity, idiosyncratic level'.
punctuated in recent years only by annual RALPH RUMNEY
appearances at the Academy and a spate of 1
acerbic pamphlets protesting at the way William Roberts Self-portrait 1965
2
Rothenstein had tried to rewrite the history William Roberts The prodigal returns c. 1932
3
of English Cubism.
William Roberts Cover design for 'Wheels' 1921
Roberts would appear to be a victim of the
Roland Brener Floor piece 1969 sprayed steel sheets and
`Star System' which is so much a feature of the
rods 12 x 600 x 30 in.
English Art scene, and which pioneered 5
Roger Fagin Untitled sculpture 1968-9 wooden railways
`built-in obsolescence', long before Detroit. sleeper. 12 units, each 81 x 126 x 102 in.