Page 38 - Studio International - March 1972

Choice states:

Keith Milow

in conversation

with

Anne Seymour

Keith Milow has had exhibitions this year at I would often go for primary colours because
King's College, Cambridge, in January and at the they were absolutes. The JOHNSON pictures
University of Utrecht in February. He is showing were straight copies of very vividly coloured
in the Gregory Fellows exhibition at Leeds City photographs meticulously painted, and then a
Art Gallery in April. glazed grid of red, yellow and blue was
superimposed so the colour was almost negated.
Because he has often identified with artists When I started working in resin I didn't feel
older than himself one can get confused about the need to employ much colour, because the
Keith Milow. He was born in December 1945, nature of the material was so distinctive it did not
although by early tuning in he managed to see require colour alteration. It's another example of
the UIA Congress exhibition on the South Bank colour being a given quantity. I also use colour
in 1961 and the second 'Situation' show that which derives from a metallic source or which
year, even before he left school. And if he was imitates wood and makes paint become a
disconcerted by the reductiveness of the Richard material rather than an illusory tool. The only
Smith's in the latter show and not too sure colour I'm conscious of using intuitively is
whether the Chrysler building was a suitable green. It's rather disembodied and a positive
subject for painting at all, in the case of the I think I've always found it rather difficult to colour which is neutral. There's a picture by
Richard Hamilton exhibit in the former, he was engage in straight painting, partly because I find Gottlieb in the Tate, which is a very explosive
soon committed to both these aspects of the challenge has become rather too obvious and picture but is green. I'm not particularly
painting. worn. I like to pose myself problems in terms interested in Gottlieb, but it's a marvellous
His early pictures were often of architectural of medium. I like to work by 'aimlessly' setting contradiction of colour and image.
subjects in the heroic styles of the twenties and up a series of ideas about technique and play of In RCHO ICE J I wanted to do
thirties, based on photographs or out of his materials. I go through cycles of setting things J S TATESR
head, their vast planes disrupted by layers of up and bringing them together into an object or something which would be a public piece. It is a
formal abstract activity, sometimes just with series of objects; at the same time running a room space as opposed to a clean white wall
paint, sometimes by physically cutting into the parallel race with ideas. I find myself looking piece and I think it came out of a degree of
rectangular canvas, sometimes by painting the back all over the place in order to go a step frustration over just engaging in what amounted
image on glass, sometimes by adding more further. to easel pictures. I had just come back from
tangible pieces of reality to the illusion—perspex I was at Camberwell, which was a very New York when I did this piece, which I think
grids, a light fitting. Even then they were near Euston Road-oriented situation. The figurative was a reason for the scale. I wanted to establish
to being boxes with the sound of their own element pervaded everything and inevitably I a field in space, so I took a blown-up photograph
making. found myself attracted to it. Auerbach was which showed part of the original piece the
Milow adopts much of the formal language there, whom I appreciated enormously; I really IMPROVED REPRODUCTIONS were based
of his peers, and there are connections with didn't want to deny him anything, but I on, and which fitted into the corner of the room.
Cubism and Constructivism as well as the couldn't bring myself to that stylistic thing. All It seemed to be verging on a mirror-image of
immediate past. But the materials he uses — that guts and angst was rather too forceful for the space. I then required the piece to establish
plasterer's tool for applying paint, resin, me. I wanted a subject which embodied the itself environmentally, and I treated it quite
photographs, lights, slides—and the openness of figurative and the abstract and it seemed that literally by establishing a diagonal aluminium
their conjunction and the functional qualities of architecture filled that need rather neatly. bar in space and suspending sheets of Kodatrace
each indicate a younger generation. It was a time when one was unavoidably and Transpaseal from it. My basic concern at
The statement which follows is based on a influenced by Pop Art and its often literal this time was reflection—photographic as well
recent conversation with Keith Milow. q translation of objects into paint. If I did engage as actual. I wanted an expressive, modulated
ANNE SEYMOUR in a life painting it was very literal : if there was surface and I organized it so that there were air
tone I put down tone, and if there was colour bubbles between the two sheets of opaque and
and hue I put down colour or hue. But I always transparent plastic. There's a very fine area of
liked the idea of illusory painting; the mixed confusion: a slight interference of surface and
techniques and the fact that one had this strange image and a rather arbitrary conjunction of
MADE IN ORDER TO MISLEAD 1971
Acrylic on wood 6 1/2 X 12 X 12 in. object which was trying to be as real as it could surface and image. What I wanted to suggest in
possibly be within the limitations of the material. the title was that one had the choice of taking
2 INTERFERENCE 1970-71 I couldn't do anything that looked unreal; the piece figuratively or abstractly, or as
Resin, permatrace, light
6o x 36 X 22 in. works had to describe and manifest their depiction, or environmentally.
Tate Gallery integrity. I was never intuitive in the sense of I'd also seen Beuys by this time—the
being able to construct a picture in a vacuum; installation at Documenta, which was just
3 LEAN PIECE 1971
Aluminium, acetate, varnish I've always supplied myself with a lot of clues shattering. I think it was the first indication for
96 X 24 X 36 in. and worked within those as directly as I could. me of the fact that one could engage in this
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