Page 42 - Studio International - February 1973

A note on some

recent pictures by

Alan Green

AN EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY ALAN GREEN IS
AT ANNELY JUDA FINE ART, LONDON, FROM
2 MARCH TO 7 APRIL.

Alan Green's new paintings seem to me not only
extremely beautiful but also of outstanding
interest in relation to what he has been doing
in the last few years. For some time he had been
concerned with simple rectangular grids. The
new pictures come right out of that concern;
they are unimaginable without it, and yet they
completely transcend it. They are a marvellous
example of how a fairly narrow line of enquiry,
followed ruthlessly enough by an artist of
imagination, can lead him into new and fertile
regions.
A grid ruled across a rectangular surface
affirms that surface in a special way. Verticals
amplify its verticality. Horizontals amplify its
horizontality. The certainties of the edges are (Top)
spread across the entire surface; the grid is like Koda Colour 1972
a rigid re-enforcement of the surface. At the Acrylic on canvas
66x 84 in.
same time, the lines of the grid are marking off
areas of that surface which we can picture as (Left)
lying beyond the grid. It is as though the grid Corner Piece 1972
is taking on the function of the flat surface, Acrylic on canvas
5 ft. 6 in. x 7 ft.
allowing us to see the interstices as open. Again,
we can also picture the squares made by the grid (Bottom left)
as solids, or as identical units which fill out the Scrapbook 1972
Acrylic on canvas
surface as though they had been packed there,
7 x 8 ft.
or aligned like boxes within the regular openings
of the ruled lines. (Bottom right)
These are admittedly only readings : the Double Time 1972
perceptual alternatives that the eye rehearses Acrylic on canvas
7 x 8 ft.
when faced with something as predictable and as Photos courtesy Annely Juda Gallery

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