Page 24 - Studio International - July August 1973

paintings that in effect were made as three `planting' in Sculpture 1949 or licking the paint
separate containers. In 29-1959 two areas are on to 29-1959, indenting the earth with his
painted and butted up to each other. The one fingers to make the Masks of 1952.
on the right is deep scarlet, the other a deep Turnbull's masks remind one of tribal art
orange/red. Each have been slowly and partly because the subject is tribal but also
methodically built up from the short strokes of because they recall areas of that art in which
a small brush until after many coats the oil paint physical behaviour becomes the object. Masks,
has reached its maximum density of colour and like many other works by him, are clearly the
opacity. Each coat of paint seals the container sum of the movements of his hands. His
a little more than the one before and pushes the fingers are never subordinated to the shape
central boundary a little more into its neighbour. of a chin or nose and are not used to give
The fusion between the two areas is not expression to movement in space.
straight but bends under the repeated Female Figure and Source between them
pressure. The two containers become fused reveal three kinds of behaviour that lead to
together and the whole canvas becomes a single sculpture. In making the Female Figure he
impenetrable container. added (the figure is modelled from wet plaster),
he subtracted (the figure is removed to leave the
The juggler container) and he found a form (the mould)
My second 'model' I have called the juggler and chose to keep it as it was.
and it refers to the artist's own behaviour. Turnbull has always converted the material,
The focus here is on Turnbull doing the function and identity of his forms, a kind of
(Above)
Mask 1955-56
Oil on canvas 4o x 34 in.
(Right)
No. 28 1958
Oil on canvas 7o x 70 in.

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