Page 53 - Studio International - November 1969

Someday soon somebody may very well adorn contradict there. It is as if a poem written in naivete, is unavoidably apparent in Viola
London with its latest hip graffitti slogan : linked stanzas were read aloud: sometimes we Sudan No. 5, where a large right angle in the
`Kasmin Likes Tiepolesque Colours'. Is it would be aware of a division and accept it, upper left answers a smaller right angle in the
at all possible that he supplies visiting sometimes not notice it, sometimes realize that lower right : there is no anxiety that the situa-
American artists with free paint in these tones we were passing it over but enjoying that in tion could. become tackily katty-cornered', so
from his back room, or is it really the case that itself. In a way the rectangles, and some patch- it doesn't.
it just reveals a current predilection of New es of pigment (especially in corners of the Visiting this show and expecting pleasure, one
York painters themselves ? At any rate, he has rectangles), remind me of Hans Hoffman, but found it. Come sky-diving with Bannard, go
now put before us a number of compellingly the effect is quite different. For one thing, surfing, have some sherbert, enjoy the touch
beautiful and unexpectedly expressionistic there is—and I report this with a sense of of flesh.
paintings by Walter Darby Bannard, in just relief—an utter minimum of dynamic, asser- JOSEPH MASHECK
these 'flavours'. tive, 'problem-solving' push-pull. The parts of
Five large canvases comprised this exhibi- each work hang together, without strain, in
tion. Their titles alone convey a mood of the plane. When you do notice the rectangles
lyrical opulence together with overtones of as a pattern, when they may appear as blocks 6
Peter Hide
rich relaxation, like Wallace Stevens at Key in a wall, they are more like blocks in a wall Steel sculpture 1969
West : Louvain lights, Nos. 2 and 3; Hawaiian which we are right up against; like Monet's Mild steel sandblasted and varnished
snow, Nos. 1 and 3; Viola Sudan, No. 5. And Water lilies they seem flat on the eyeball. 102 x 192 x 108 in.
the paintings themselves reward this expecta- There is a very pleasing unselfconscious David Evison
tion. Light-drenched and sunny, clear-skied (and un-historically-worried) panache at work. Untitled 1968-9
and smooth-sailing, they thrill with a Riviera Bannard just doesn't care whether we think Painted steel
10 x 8 x 6 ft
suavity. he is turning back a chapter or two in the art
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All the works except Hawaiian snow No. 1 are history textbook. Some strokes splash, some Gerard Hemsworth
built on a three-by-three module of nine equal swell, some drip, some passages explode (but Fibreglass sculpture 1969
Fibreglass
rectangular subdivisions of the canvas area; in politely small explosions), and then there Each unit 15 x 57 x 57 in.
in Hawaiian snow No. 1 the same principle are, too, spots like the ring of the bottom of a 9
Alan Barklay
applies to the basis of four by four. But it is paint can in the upper right-hand corner of Marion's window 1969
interesting to consider that the statement of Louvain lights No. 2. Bannard just paints a Painted plywood
84 x 84 x 84 in.
this fact seems to convey an entirely wrong picture to make it beautiful. Sometimes there
10
impression. There are no dividing 'members' is even deliberate calligraphy (so what if it's John Fowler
and there is no insistence upon the regularity 1969; A Painting is Forever), just for the hell Untitled 1969
of individual rectangles or the pattern they of it. In Hawaiian snow No. 1 there is even a Fibreglass
36 x 108 x 36 in.
form: no structural armature, independent prominent area in which a form with a limply
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of the actual colours, is implied by the system. wavering outline is punctuated with a trail of Walter Darby Bannard
It is simply unobtrusive there, to notice and blurping dots, evoking Miró. Louvain lights No. 2 1969
Enamel on canvas
assert in some passage here, or to ignore or This unselfconsciousness, this sophisticated 66 x 99 in.