Page 58 - Studio International - June 1970

Trevor Bell's paintings cover a range wider as a series of strategic ploys. In the paintings Carrière has not had a very good press. Every-
than most artists would think prudent. What done this year, we find him working in- one agrees he was an exceptionally nice man
makes them so interesting is that his themes ventively with a concept of painting which —humane and sociable, a loving husband and
run parallel rather than in strict sequence. But somehow echoes the nature of real (i.e. father, a remarkable stoic in the face of
after experiencing surprise at the difference of fragmented) perception. In some recent bi- abominable suffering, as unpretentious in
the works one begins to understand their success as in earlier obscurity. A friend, too,
7
basic and persistent themes and finds a strong Trevor Bell to progressive art. In 1890 he joined Puvis de
Copper 1970 Acrylic on canvas
sense of continuity between the very recent 10 ft x 11 ft 5 in. x 2 in. Chavannes and Rodin in founding the break-
and the earlier, landscape-oriented pictures. away Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In
From 1960-63, Bell was making paintings 1903, when the Société was settling into
whose interior shapes referred to landscape— conservative ways, he helped found the Salon
but to the forces as much as to the forms of d'Automne where, two years later, Fauvism
landscape; and it was this concern for what is was to erupt in the work of young men who
best described as dynamics which led him had been his students. He was an unhesitating
naturally into an investigation of the mech- Dreyfusard. Instinctively anti-clerical, he
anisms of painting itself. From 1964 to 1966, a substituted for religion a freethinking piety
period of extremely flexible reassessment, that embraced Darwin and Positivism in a
many of his paintings were about 'how-to-do- general faith in nature's harmony.
it' themes, reminiscent in conception to Jasper As he grew older and his work became widely
Johns's 'device' works, but far less didactic— known he acquired many admirers. At a
more a free play with a mass of process and banquet in his honour, given in April 1904
surface conventions. Some of the earlier paint- (he died in 1906), there were laudatory
ings had been shaped, but it was from this speeches from Rodin, Roger Marx and
period that the object preoccupation began in lateral pictures, like Red and Copper, each others; among those hearing them were (to
earnest, translating the original interest in formed by a pair of triangular shapes meeting name only those most easily remembered
forces in movement from a depiction within at a narrow low pivot and leaving at the today) Odilon Redon, Matisse, Marquet and
the object to the shape of the support itself. At centre of each work an 'empty' inverted tri- Friesz, André Gide and the sculptor Bourdelle.
this stage certain basic observations could be angle of wall-space, the total length of a The State bought some of his pictures. Books
made : an awareness of reference persisted but picture (around 20 ft.) prevents one from were written about him in his lifetime, by
was more often in terms of association than of holding the complete image at one go. Instead Geffroy, Morice and Séailles. Critics praised
direct source; both the expressionistic surfaces one is forced (by the 'missing' triangle) to his work quite often. It must be added that
of the earlier works and the harder, more scan from one lateral perimeter to the other Carrière took little note of praise or of
deterministic ones of the 'device' period had like watching a tennis match from the criticism; he also refused any commitment to
been extended, but the trend towards a more umpire's seat, crossing the court where the a gallery.
deliberated control was firmly established; action passes rather than originates in doing This adds up to a success story but it was not
also firmly established was the concern for so and, within the real surfaces, picking up a convincing one. The great Fénéon in 1891
literal shape, not, however, as an 'applied' and accumulating visual clues, checking sensa- thought it well to compare Carrière's misty
feature (though the establishment of a re- tions; in brief, one is pushed into a deter- and apparently mysterious art with the
stricting 'set' Bell finds useful) but as generated minedly active role so as to determine what is writing of Mallarmé and thus to find the
from the interest in dynamics and in pictorial going on— at no single moment is the whole paintings lacking in clarity and coherence.
strategies. But a certain point was reached implication of a work manifest. Experience is Others, then and since, have accused Carrière
(around 1967-8) when the literal object- oriented in time and the object and the of not being the painter they wished him to
character was so assertive that a development spectator's perception together control the be. Even his chief biographer, Elie Faure
into sculpture seemed possible. And yet, while environment. (1908), had to end his admiring book with
accepting a free interpretation of 'painting', This wilfully theatrical interpretation of the this assessment: 'Carrière exercised no influ-
Bell's preoccupation with shape has always possibilities of shaped canvas towards effect- ence at all on younger painters, and I think
been a painter's; and from 1968 the literal ing an environmental control poses as many we shall not have to wait long to see his work
quality of the shaped canvases, although self- questions as it answers. The tendencies to- little known, more or less forgotten in a few
evident in a total sense, was counteracted by wards extreme elongation and utilising com- years from now.... After another twenty years,
a new, or rather newly realised, manner of plicated variagation of shape, pose very sharply fifty perhaps, it won't be the young painters,
relating the canvas to its immediate environ- the problematic duality between the physical it will be the human spirit itself that Carrière
ment and, importantly, to the spectator, periphery of the support effecting a total will engage.' Not an encouraging expression
which is perhaps the single most exciting object and this periphery belonging part by of hope.
characteristic of the recent work. As Robert part to the activity engendered by certain in- The tone of most comment since then has
Morris said in a context interesting in com- dividual surface sections, as well as revealing shifted between this sort of pessimistic praise
. . the concerns now
parison to this one : and dismissal. The centenary of his birth in
the innate difficulty in making painting work
are for more control of . . . the entire as painting and at the same time working for a 1849 was honoured in Paris with an exhibi-
situation . . . The object has not become more dynamic and open-ended total spatial tion 'Eugène Carrière et le Symbolisme', but John
less important. It has merely become less self- situation. Trevor Bell's work shows that he has Rewald countered the implications of this in
important.'1 been taking risks; but his most successful his book on Post-Impressionism (1956) :
This realised control of space beyond the paintings achieve an impressive equilibrium `Having invented a formula that met with
object is of course implicit in the shaped of pictorial impact and spatial control. ▟ success, Carrière exploited it to the utmost,
canvas itself: the positive/negative aspect JOHN ELDERFIELD vulgarizing symbolism without adding any-
occasioned by real (i.e. wall) spaces within thing to it' — oddly harsh words from a norm-
1 'Notes on Sculpture, Part II', Artforum, October 1966
the painting area itself effects an interaction ally constructive historian. Fritz Novotny, in
Cf. also Michael Fried's criticism of the theatrical.
of object and environment. But Bell has literalist position in his 'Art and Objecthood', Artforum, his calm Pelican volume on nineteenth-
developed this through what is best described June 1967. century art (1960), wrote that 'Carrière's art