Page 40 - Studio International - March 1972

surface to the wall plane. That there seems to be in the way the picture plane starts off by being time it embodies hue of some kind and the hues
more directness in terms of materials is a at right angles to the wall and then towards the are matched. I liked the idea of paint just resting
product of allowing them to exist in their own bottom faintly establishes itself in terms of the there, not really finding a foothold. Its very
right, without imposing too much on them, by wall plane. There are fewer references, and it's arbitrariness was a precedent for later treatment
drawing for instance. And realizing in the case possibly my first piece to be reliant on of paint, but I saw it as a completely false start,
of the Permatrace its property to blur features phenomena. which was the basic reason for the title. It's also
which would otherwise be distinctive. I then found myself in a strange limbo for a tiny element of whimsy, which I don't think I
In the 'When Attitudes Become Form' show quite some time and inevitably returned to have enough of.
at the ICA there was an amazing Nauman, and doing some very straightforward painting. I also wanted to do a painting on a rectangular
the sheer coincidence of having the same space I had this idea for another series which would format, but found I had nothing to say about the
and having this idea prompted me to do LEAN be specifically about a painterly mark and each rectangle once I was presented with the
PIECE, which was a reflection of the format of mark was to be presented within a solid block of rectangle; I had to distort it in some way. So I
that work. There was a slight area of illusion in clear resin. But I found the whole thing was felt that at least I must establish a known
that I applied a very discreet mark in varnish, rather too preconceived and didn't really lend quantity, and the known quantity was the
which causes the Permatrace to become itself to any interpolation on my part. So I parabola shape from IMPROVED
transparent rather than translucent. I followed decided to take the wooden shape which was the REPRODUCTIONS. THINKING BACK
through a grid system following the parabolic mould for the resin and use it for a stylistic (one of a series of three pictures on this theme)

system, so that one could detect a grid of marks. painterly exercise, which is MADE IN ORDER is a vehicle for colour of a detached and non-
At the near edge of the piece there is only one TO MISLEAD. Over a period of about three inventive kind. I laid on an area of white
layer of Permatrace, in the right hand corner weeks I gradually put various things down on it, following the curved lines of the piece, then
there are about eight. It was rather a hybrid trying to place the marks in an unexpected way. covered the rest of the canvas with the green
piece in the sense that I wanted to cross the I think it is probably the first time I used paint and took the scraper to it. The paint doesn't
INTERFERENCE idea of the triangle with the for its viscous quality and the fact that one could mean much; it's just there to reinforce the shape.
curve of the IMPROVED REPRODUCTIONS build it up in various ways. In the first two Very much like a skin, and it's identifiable as a
series. It involved a lot of precise cutting and pictures of IMPROVED REPRODUCTIONS skin because it does have this sort of roughness
calculation. It also imposes itself spatially, and I use paint as matter—denying the fact that it's a and texture. The surface looks artificial and
is really rather radical in the context of my work vehicle for colour. Here I think for the first calculated. When I was painting these pictures I