Page 53 - Studio International - March 1970

This is John Edwards' third one-man show condition colour and adjust colour relation- with thickness of surface.
at the ROWAN GALLERY. He has been a ships. In certain of Cézanne's later landscapes It is important to emphasize that Edwards is
painter for long enough-16 out of 31 years a tree—say in the left foreground—stands out not involved with dramas of paint-mixing or
(including study) —to have had to discover the against open ground, countryside and dist- colour-making; that is to say colours are seen
use of acrylic paints for himself after an art ance; the adjustment of tonal and colour as relatively neutral elements until activated
school training in which only oils were used. relationships either side of the line of tree by juxtaposition or overlay within the total
Like many painters of his generation he found against landscape/space becomes the key context of the painting. The initial act of
in the particular flexibilities of acrylics a which tightens the whole painting. In a paint application is a very casual one. Once
means of liberation from (though not neces- painting like Green; and Yellow Grid Edwards activated, however, the colour elements
sarily rejection of) a whole tradition of paint similarly adjusts tone and colour along the induce a chain reaction of revision and
handling and picture making. Edwards' edge of the yellow grid line in order to mesh readjustment; this is caused by the demand
paintings are abstract and self-contained. The the (apparently) thin yellow with the opaque to achieve overall tension within the painting,
`language' of his paintings is one which has blue-over-green of the field. The degree of never—or at least never in a successful work—
been developed through the discovery and use tension in the painting depends very largely at the dictates of a consideration exterior to
of paint qualities and colour relationships, and on the extent to which grid and field act the painting itself (e.g. a specific reference,
of certain formal elements compatible with mutually to condition the total impact—in emotional or 'narrative', which the painter
his particular uses of paint and colour. terms of quality and distribution of colour might be tempted to make use of to instil
Generally speaking, acrylic paint— particularly relative to overall shape and size of the 'content' —a hangover from the days when
as used by Edwards— encourages a com- individual painting. paintings were pictures and looked like other
paratively unified surface; colours and textures The paintings need to sustain this particular things). Once the basic elements of formal
are more easily, more variably washed over tension to succeed, and I feel that the most organization, size and shape are established—
and bound together. To say, in front of a successful paintings are those—like Trapezoid and this soon becomes a self-generating
painting like Edwards' Open Grid, 'That's a Section; white—in which the greatest number of procedure; i.e. formal modifications follow
bad bit of painting in that corner' — or even to possible alternatives have been considered from demands raised explicitly or implicitly
be placed by the work in a position to say it— and rejected, within the terms of the painting in a previous work—the painting becomes a
is to say, 'That's a bad painting'. For over itself. Edwards' notion of painting is very in- self-determining structure. Edwards is con-
two years now Edwards has used an element formed and definite—which is to say that he is scious of a need to achieve an initial situation—
based on a trapezoid, either as a means of more concerned with access of quality or the 'invention' —which demands that sub-
division into areas or as a single formal motif intensity than with diversity or development sequent choices as regards 'execution' should
within an overall field. The assertion of a of style—and he paints fast and prolifically. be subordinated to the requirements of his
strong diagonal at an early stage in the making One danger which is likely to beset the painter medium per se.
of the painting implies a concept of surface who works in this way is that it may be hard This is by no means an easy situation to
that involves tension in depth, and a concept for him to see the individual painting in achieve nor, since the adoption of an appro-
of total image that involves tension between isolation from the whole episode of work to priate framework depends so much upon self-
the fixed area of the whole painting and the which it belongs, but a particular painting exploration and self-knowledge in and out of
flexible areas of colour within it. The rela- which has failed to achieve resolution during painting, is it often achieved rapidly. It is a
tionship between formal grid and total area is one episode— the duration of a particular set sure sign of John Edwards' experience,
made explicit, and crucial, in each painting in of preoccupations—may be used to discipline integrity and commitment as a painter that
terms of colour. Texture, superimposition, involvement in another and thus to provide the development of his work has come to
opacity or transparency are qualities which objectivity. In Trapezoid Section; white the depend more upon increments of quality than
Edwards controls through the use of PVA, buried layers of work give a depth and upon changes of style or taste. q
thinning agents, thixatropic agents, etc. to resonance to the paint which has little to do CHARLES HARRISON