Page 53 - Studio International - December 1973

clever variations on previous themes,
but lack the archaic edge which
epitomized his earlier style. Dine's
work in the sixties advanced the
tradition of an autobiographical
element in American art. The recent
work now on exhibition serves only to
remind us of his initial artistic vigour.
Epigrammatic themes are rehearsed
again. Densely applied colour is
strong in tone as pictorial space and
objects are organized into coherent
John Laker Two Horizons II 1973
units. Things in their natural setting
(second version: the Blue guide) certain bourgeois élan to the balanced to the sky, at altered angles Low keyed, cool shades are toned
reads as a series of objects suspended ensemble. and in different lights or geologic land down almost to the point of
to the floor before a blue canvas by a The exhibition of etchings and masses make horizontally layered neutrality. In Coast I, acrylic on
network of impulsive-looking wires. lithographs at the Felicity Samuel formations. A chiaroscuro effect of canvas, three bands of off-white are
Dine's passion for tools is here again ; Gallery is extensive. Most of the dense black and white surface connected to three counterbands of
a brush, a pair of pliers and a images are familiar ones. Thirty bones complicates the texture of the off-pink by a dark grey square on a
screwdriver keep company with of my body is a collection of tool depicted shapes so that the image of a pale grey field. I assume this is a
twisted silverware, a stick of wood forms with hair growing from them, a shrub has the same grainy denseness reference to the sun sinking into the
and a book on Japan. From a formal typical Dine combination. His prints of the sky. The quality of light in these west in three staccato movements,
standpoint, it is a beautiful integration raise a question about the necessity photographs is very well controlled ; which is an interesting idea, but is not
of textures; the fineness of the wire for using that medium as a kind of the sky appears dark and the land transformed into a particularly
the maleability and spacial quicksand into which the artist's pale. It conveys the kind of light one challenging visual description.
associations of a blue field and the familiar pictorial decisions and can see in Texas on a rainy afternoon — In the photographs it is clear that
concreteness of the objects which iconographical statements fall. The dark and soft at the same time. Loker has a facility for seeing how
look cold to the touch, slightly print frequently becomes a smaller By including the photographs in the land aligns with space and how land
awkward and very well used. Things rehearsal of whatever is explored exhibition Loker would seem to be masses in rural terrain. When he tries
in their natural setting (first version) more conclusively in the paintings. referring us to the format of his to engender this sense pictorially, the
is a similar construction , with a spade Whereas the tool prints of Dine are paintings, as if nature gave the tripartite division and colour scheme
and other tool-shed equipment technically excellent, and at one guideline to pictorial abstraction. The of Coast seem arbitrary. There is no
around the base of the picture. This point represented an interesting new photographs show how land is doubt that he has set himself a
folksy iconography is typical of Dine's way of looking at things, they now structured in masses, how the sky and difficult problem, that of reducing a
oeuvre and an expected feature of his appear like Dine's identity stamps and ground make a line when they meet : specific aspect of nature to one
work. lack conceptual force. If the print this becomes the motif of the exemplary shape. He is not the only
Dine's investigation of the medium is to be more than a reference paintings and the lithograph. artist around who has remarked this
personalization of objects was among to the powerful decisions an artist This transition is not wholly as an issue. Vija Celmans, in her
his key contributions, perhaps the once made, it should perhaps use the successful, possibly because in the ocean drawings, approaches Loker
most interesting aspect of his technical advantages of the medium. photographs Loker has the benefit both in the linearity of her surface
paintings. In some of the pictures he The Rimbaud Etchings achieve this of an image which fills the picture treatment and devotion to demarcating
hangs a single object adjacent to the most completely. surface, whereas in the other work he the horizon. She succeeds where he
surface, as in John Golding (a still Dine has done treatments of Oscar must invent the range of space he is does not by looking carefully at wave
life). This is a series of four canvases Wilde and costumes for trying to describe. The empty area of formations so that when reproduced,
viewed as one painting, each a Shakespearian characters before, so canvas or paper is intended as they behave in pictorial space the way
separate colour arrangement — one that romantic historical figures are positive space but whether it is they do in actual space. This does not
in yellow and green, another in pastel persona in his repertoire. The six positive abstract or real space is not make the composition less abstract,
pink and blue, a third in Jaspar Johns- Rimbaud images are grey, white and clearly declared. but rather more unified. Loker,
like grey with white and the last a very black renditions of the poet's face in In his lithograph, Two Horizons, involved with the same theme does
intense green with orange and yellow. tonal variations. As the images Loker uses the short vertical and long not develop images which convey
They are differently painted. The pink progress so do the lines and shadow horizontal line which is associated how his space is experienced. He
and blue panel features a lyrical and which express the changing character with the grid pattern ; it looks like seems to have consolidated his ideas,
spacious line while the dark green of the figure. In the final image the Sol LeWitt. These grids read as long which is to his credit, but not yet
surface is gestural and energetic. A face is completely in shadow and the bands positioned in a symmetrical found a technique to convey them.
hook screw is attached to the surface eyes have become empty white arrangement. An elementary problem Cara Montgomery
of each at eye level with a single tool sockets. It is a strong sequence of is why there is the use of rigid
suspended from it, centrally placed imagery and the stronger for using the symmetry in the paintings, but not in John Hoyland at the Waddington
and isolated in a field of colour so that linear, and tonal effects of the etching the lithograph, for nothing in nature is Gallery, London, 18 October-10
the canvas becomes like a frame for process. One hopes that Dine's symmetrical, as Loker's photographs November
the object. This method of using four continued development will be show. In treating the horizon as an To begin by stating the obvious. The
unrelated canvases to form a single marked by such innovation. abstraction, the first thing eliminated commercial gallery situation in
composition works well, producing a is its actual variability. This makes the London at present is bad. Pitifully few
sense of tense abstraction not shared John Loker's exhibition at Angela painting image unconvincing and the galleries are in the market for serious
with the other work in the show — Flowers featured paintings lithograph somewhat less so. Where contemporary non-representational
inexplicable rather than predictable photographs and prints. Each medium Loker delineates the sense of painting. The result is that
cohesion. is used to investigate the theme of the movement and contrast in physical disproportionately few artists are
A new addition to Dine's repertoire horizon and how it separates physical space, he isolates the vitality of the allowed to demonstrate the
of tools is very fine, heavy, space. What appears central in the motif into an ideal, but tries to present healthiness of this side of British art.
respectable silverware. The forks and work is locating a graphic symbol of this ideal in physical terms. In the one It is not their fault that they are forced
spoons slip in gracefully with the rest horizontality which serves both as an case the picture should follow the to carry a load which should be
of the hardware, making an impression abstracting device and a structural requirement of its motif, in shared by more artists. Hoyland's own
of wholesome glamour, for silver has representational motif. the other, the motif should be clearly artistic shoulders are wide enough,
a wide and positive range of The photographic ensembles are superseded by abstraction. This but even this creates special problems
association. It is useful, like a impressive. Loker seems most sure transition is suggested in Loker's for him. To some artists in this
screwdriver, it is an object of of himself when confronted with an work, but not completed. country, Hoyland is a sort of Charles
connoisseurship, like a picture and a image of the actual landscape which Loker's tendency towards Atlas of British painting. They regard
gratifying symbol of companionship he is able to interpret poetically. This abstraction is complicated by his use his artistic physique with a mixture of
in dining. Dignified as an object of sequence of the show consists of five of colour. The greys, blues, grey- envy and suspicion, and perhaps
prestige, silverware has a grave as series of eight or ten enlargements, whites and pinks suggest cement resent the uncomfortable feeling he
well as friendly presence. Integrated each developing one theme of rather than the light of the coastal gives them that they just may be little
with less stylish tools, it contributes a horizontality. In each the land is horizon they presumably refer to. more than seven-stone weaklings.
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