Page 56 - Studio International - February 1970

cups are in fact highly impractical, some by a very positive identity of his own. Edward tourists. They are not kept in shrines and
virtue of their fragility and others simply Burra's Les Folies de Belleville of 1928 for smeared with blood and feathers, but they do
because their boat-like shape would not example, conveys a splendid feeling of the appear at airports and are carried round by
permit liquids to flow easily. Function and period while remaining a vividly personal traders. Looking at them we are immediately
practicality are not, however, the significant interpretation. In several paintings by the aware of the kind of art which could be used
issues here—Woolworth, Wedgwood and any Camden Town group, just the opposite is seen for amusing after-dinner jokes or discussed
number of paper or plastic cup manufacturers to be true; Ginner's Meadow Landscape shows at bars in clubs. This work is the coffee-
will readily serve our needs in this respect. So the attempt to digest the almost overwhel- planters' modern art'.
quite rightly Price abdicates this problem and ming influence of the French Post-Impres- It would be fairer to the great traditional
we are left with objects to be judged on purely sionists that swept England in the years Makonde sculptors if this work was un-
aesthetic grounds. following the Grafton Galleries exhibitions mistakably labelled 'Makonde tourist art'.
As a group I find the cups quite delightful, in 1910 and 1912 ; in this landscape he comes There is a very good collection of plates of
extremely sensitive and personal— far more so closer to the work of Lucien Pissarro, evi- traditional Makonde sculpture in a book
in my opinion than the accompanying prints. dently sharing his enthusiasm for Cezanne's called Masks and Figures from Southern Africa by
My favourite cup, quite by chance, is the one painting. For those with a particular interest Ladislav Holy (published by Paul Hamlyn).
which appears most functional and in its in English pre-war painting, the works by Among them is a mask of a man from the
simplicity bears the strongest relationship to Ginner, Gilman, Ratcliffe and Innes included Linden Museum, Stuttgart, with a lop-sided
earlier 'domes'. On a pale acid-green ground in this show are well worth seeing. Two other face showing that he is partially paralysed.
there is a right-angled pink stripe rising from paintings that stand out particularly well are Such representations of human misfortune
the base and terminating in a nose-like Sickert's Girl Seated on a Bed, of c. 1908, a are quite common in traditional African
projection opposite the handle — a singularly small study in brown and black which is an sculpture as they are supposed to represent
beautiful and delicate piece which I un- excellent example of his work around that
ashamedly covet. date, and in direct contrast to this sombre,
The Snail Cup (apparently California had a slightly melancholy scene, Ivon Hitchins'
plague of them at one time), and the earlier Sun Bather, a glowing work of 1934 that looks
frog-cups, whilst referring to the earthy wit of fresher and more spontaneous than many of
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century loving- his later paintings.
cups, are in fact highly sophisticated versions Undoubtedly the paintings included in this
of them. The snail perched overhanging the exhibition are more consistent in quality than
edge of the yellow boat-shaped lower half of a the watercolours, drawings or sculpture, but
sky-blue cup, the feeler-like projections of John Nash's Group of Trees, Assington Park, a
another and the green wart-like projection on very striking watercolour, comes across in
a third give the cups a very funky quality terms of strength more convincingly than the
which would more easily have justified their rest, as indeed does Eric Gill's drawing Nude
inclusion in the exhibition of 'Funk Art' 7 than with Short Hair, a fine cleanly-cut study of
the eggs which were actually shown. They are 1926. Drawings such as these have the dis-
funky in imagery and funky in their function- advantage of making the lesser works look
lessness and in their cheerfully funky colour. simply less, and for an exhibition of such
PETER LAYTON overall fine quality one could have wished for
some more judicious pruning at the outset.
7 Exhibition—`Funk Art' —University of California, The inclusion of several weak items, mostly
Berkeley 1967. contemporary works that hang uneasily
together, does seem unnecessary, especially
as through lack of space all the works listed
One of the advantages of mixed exhibitions in the catalogue cannot be exhibited at the
such as this one at the LEICESTER GALLERIES same time and periodic changes in the hanging
is the chance given to see works by unexpec- arrangements will apparently be made to
ted though not unknown artists whom one accommodate them all.
does not normally come across. Adam and Eve The first part of the exhibition continues to
by Eric Forbes Robertson (1865-1935) is just the end of January. q
such a painting. One of the very few English SARAH WHITFIELD
painters who met Gauguin in Brittany, he
knew and worked with members of the Pont-
Aven circle in the 1890s and this painting The modern Makonde sculpture shown in the
gives a curious reflection of the fusion of GROSVENOR GALLERY exhibition is an ugly
symbolist and decorative elements found in form of surrealism. The wood is carved into
their work. Totally different in feeling, long, rope-like forms reminiscent of the
although painted within a few years of the tentacles of a jelly-fish and occasionally an
Adam and Eve are three London scenes by Paul eye or a pair of false teeth appear joined in the
Maitland (1869-1909) whose quietly observed lengths of jelly. It is undoubtedly a 'tourist'
landscapes appear more contemporary in art although 'authorities' on African art claim
character than most English painting of that it is not. They have not produced any
around the turn of the century.These, like other evidence, however, that it serves any purpose
works in the exhibition, are good examples in the traditional framework of African
of an English painter pursuing an individual religion. Perhaps these sculptures represent
course, often detached from the mainstream the spirits but they are not used as vehicles for
of modern art, and in so doing preserving the spirits to enter. Instead they are sold to
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