Page 51 - Studio International - March 1970

The exhibition of recent paintings by Douglas to be changed, sometimes radically, as the existing work. In Portway's case the influences
Portway at the MARGERY PARR GALLERY work progresses. The method also gives the are particularly elusive. This is partly because
confirms the individuality, range and stature finished painting a feeling of freshness and the sources have been very fully absorbed, but
of his work. transparency, of immediacy and control. It also because during most of this period
Portway began exhibiting regularly in Lon- forms an essential part or unity with the image critical attention has been preoccupied with
don in the late 1950's at the Drian Gallery. created. The technique consists of numerous the more formal influences of American
It was during that period that his work very thin layers of paint, which when applied abstract expressionism, such as scale, colour,
reached maturity. He has described the are sometimes partly removed. Nearly always etc., while Portway had carried away only the
critical steps in the early fifties that liberated some of the oil content of the paint is removed freedom to explore for himself. With the pass-
his imagination and enabled him to move before use. The multiple thin layers of paint ing of time it becomes increasingly clear how
forward to an independent position. The first enable forms to be built while keeping the great a step Portway has taken.
was the realization that any preconceived commitment to a final state as flexible as When Portway settled in Europe in 1956,
intention concerning the image to be created possible. The process may involve thirty or dividing his time between London and Spain,
invariably fails. This represented a radical more layers of paint. The smaller works do his ideas about his work were still largely
change from the almost programatic art he not give the same technical freedom to influenced by the writing and work of Klee,
had been attempting. It was several years change the image, but the scale makes it an by the example of the American abstract
before old habits could be eradicated and a easier decision to start again. It is in these expressionists to take courage and experiment
new approach found that would enable the smaller works that the impression of spon- boldly, and by the images of oriental art. In
painting to evolve as a dialogue between artist taneity, variety and sheer pleasure is most particular this included a freedom to create
and image. The painting technique developed clear. images ranging from abstract to figurative, a
by Portway to foster this period of creativity, Before this stage could be reached a vital realization of the symbolic potential of these
free from conceptual notions, allows the image second phase in his progress to independence images and perhaps most importantly, an
awareness that through a range of images the
artist expresses, in Langer's words, 'not his
own actual feelings, but what he knows about
human feeling. Once he is in possession of
a rich symbolism, that knowledge may actually
exceed his entire personal experience. The
work of art expresses a concept of life,
emotion, inward reality. It is a developed
metaphor, a non-discursive symbol that
articulates what is verbally ineffable— the
logic of consciousness itself'. I think that for
the last ten years Portway has been creating
and elaborating just such a rich symbolism.
But the paintings of the early sixties show no
obvious visual link with these influences. To
me they were most reminiscent of the rock
paintings that can be found on almost any
outcrop in central Africa. The weathered
surface and palimpsest of images arouse a
strange sense of space and time. Portway
must have seen these paintings frequently. I
find it easy to accept them as a potent source
of unconscious imagery in the paintings of
that time. His work, however, rapidly deve-
6 was necessary. While still living in South loped away from this tenuous link to achieve
Installation shot, Rodin exhibition at the Hayward
Gallery: Age of Bronze (left) and Walking Man (centre) Africa, Portway had struggled to achieve a complete autonomy.
personal identity as a painter and had been The present exhibition illustrates several of
7
Installation shot, Rodin exhibition at the Hayward frustrated. An opportunity in 1952 to spend a the paths of exploration that Portway has
Gallery: Balzac with preparatory machettes
year in the United States was crucial to his followed. Most of the paintings are completely
8
Douglas Portway approach to his work. In America he saw the abstract the elements of form, colour and line
Oil on paper paintings of Pollock, de Kooning, Kline and creating tensions and resolutions, with one
22 x 15 in.
Rothko which revealed the possibility of move- element often dominating the overall work.
ment beyond Piccasso and Klee; and above In the smaller paintings it is usually line that
all was open-ended—there was room for is used with freedom and originality. In some
further innovation. It was the encouragement works forms are raised to the level of evident
that these paintings gave to his own explora- symbols that evoke wider circles of associa-
tions, coupled with his first opportunity to tion than usual, such as the recurring image
study oriental art, that made his year in of a circle in a square which has been explored
America so important to the development of in a series of works over a number of years.
his painting. Although in the early sixties More commonly it is the whole painting that
something of the originality of Portway's takes on the role of a unique symbol. In both
work was immediately recognized, there was the larger and smaller works the linear ele-
difficulty in 'placing' the images. However ment occasionally becomes figurative— though
radical the transformations in art, these frequently it initially works simply as the
changes germinate in concept and style from linear component in the whole image and