Page 53 - Studio International - September 1969

four bases and four lids. In this process the
`front' plane of each box was horizontally
bisected, but the 'back' line of the lid was
fixed, box by box, progressively 6 in. farther
back, this rearmost line of section occurring,
in sequence, 6, 12 and 18 in. back from the
`front' edge of the top of the box, and 6 in.
below its 'back' edge. The sequence of the
four lids was then simply reversed, Box 1
acquiring the lid of Box 4, Box 2 that of Box 3
and so on, and the reversed-order lids were
hinged normally to their new bases. (The
boxes are painted a uniform light grey,
maximizing the tonal distinction of form.
Craig-Martin's colours are always deliber-
ately non-associative, focusing decision and
experience away from the subjective, but hue,
finish and even tactile properties are a positive
element in the whole effect of any work).
Each lid closes smoothly, but ostentatiously
fails to form a regular junction with its base,
the boxes individually presenting most irre-
gular polygonal side elevations and giving as
a group an immediate impression of being
four unconnected free inventions. It is astonish-
ing that four units which, open or closed,
expose so directly the regularity of the three
decisions which define their entire form should
so distract the eye and confuse the intellect,
camouflaging the facts by the very display of
these facts, to the extent of seeming in essence
a-formal and impulsive. Also notable is the
degree to which a sculpture having the In the past, David Saunders' paintings, seen in liberation through arbitrariness and for the
character of a serial demonstration, notionally various group shows, have won good critical ensuing importance of consistency of method.
comprehensible from a single viewpoint, com- attention and respect but they have always been The success of Saunders' paintings also hinges
pels investigation in the round, revealing con- divorced, to some degree, from his main men- on the use of a consistent formula for dealing
figurations of line and form too strange to tal preoccupations. Stylistically, the break to with all contingencies in execution. So that he
have deduced. Craig-Martin deliberately the present series is not too wide. These have has to be ready for accidents of line-juxta-
uses both forms and methods that imply retained the soft colour fields, the delicate position, conjunctions, preferences of this
simplicity and concentration for ends which nuances of tone of the previous works, but the direction over that, all of which will be deter-
in the context are positively baroque. There floating quasigeometric shapes of the latter mined by wherever he happens to begin
is a conscious irony in this, as in the contrast have now disappeared. What we have in their applying the paint.
of the way each sculpture is so obviously made stead is a network of spiky lines whose spacing, This reference to Kierkegaard is one of the
to be manipulated (and the perfectly-carpen- placing and complex interrelations are go- many factors which indicate that although
tered efficiency of its every hinge and move- verned by rigid systems arbitrarily chosen; Saunders is interested in paint-language, his
ment) with its lack of any practical purpose indeterminacy is of growing importance for motivating involvement is elsewhere, outside
whatever, not to mention the frustration built Saunders and he often arrives at his systems narrow visual traditions. (He over-modestly
into several pieces which simultaneously de- by adapting the divination techniques of the admits to a 'layman's' interest in mathe-
mand and prevent their own resolution into I Ching, a book which has been prominent in matics, music and philosophy.) The present
primary wholes. 4 identical boxes with lids shaping the way he thinks. The rich symbol- exhibition at the GREENWICH THEATRE GALLERY
reversed lie open inert, like a row of impractical, ism of the trigrams and hexagrams of the is a statement based on five years of mental
clumsy coal-scuttles. I Ching are also reflected in Saunders' shape- preparation, expressed hitherto only in a
The exposure of hinges underlines Craig- patterns which can be rewardingly searched stream of private drawings and notations.
Martin's determination to make sculpture for figurative interpretation. Otherwise, the What direction his work will now take is
which is literal to the last detail. For exam- configuration of forms in each painting is only difficult to say, but I would predict that all
ple, every movement and transformation of a a microcosmic unit in an infinitely extensible that delightfully seductive colour might one
work can be effected in only one way, the system. The frames themselves are arbitrary day disappear; or, at any rate, its function
position of the spectator/manipulator being but their function is to impose human scale might change. Saunders likes it because he is
fixed and formalized. This exactness with which on possibilities that are beyond human a good painter; he does not object to a
purpose is carried through in execution ensures, comprehensibility; to focus attention on frag- decorative effect. Neither do I, but I think
however, that the visual and conceptual ments because these are all we can take in. that his continuing concern with behaviour,
force of the experience of transformation is at They liberate the imagination so that it can with motivation, with 'transforming the
the same time one of maximum physical catch at the vastness of which they are parts. accidental into the absolute', could eventually
directness and informality. Control and Liberation is the key word. Saunders borrows make that beautiful colour seem dispensably
detachment in these works give results that his title for this exhibition from that witty soft. q
are both immediate and richly surprising. q theoretical essay in the first part of Kierke-
RICHARD MORPHET gaard's Either/Or. There the case is stated for TERRY MEASHAM