Page 26 - Studio International - July August 1973

behaviour that can span more than the time of exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, London, in units added to them, but as they stand they
the individual work. In Permutation Sculpture 1968 are of light-toned cotton duck, and each form an over-all square. However the spaces
1956, he placed a self-contained work contains a simply coloured rectangle which is an between the upright sheets are slightly narrower
horizontally across the top of vertical piece inch or two smaller than the support. The mark than the width of the sheets themselves. The
called Column (Female) 1955. At one end of the of the hand has almost completely gone, not as surfaces are few and we must concentrate our
horizontal piece he placed a small head/object. the result of dogmatic technique but because focus on the proportions, so that our eyes travel
Each of the pieces was made independently of his behaviour with the brush has become from space to sheet to over-all width. This
the others. He has been bringing works extremely simple. We are neither prevented is an entirely symmetrical work that, because of
together in this way ever since. A multiple work from entering the vast blue or orange space, as heightened visual rhythm, cannot be read
may take a long time to evolve and with it we had been in the earlier paintings, nor symmetrically.
grows a relationship between the kind of invited to do so. His sculptures have never Turnbull has sometimes used rhythm
spontaneous behaviour that builds each piece been obstacles to our free movement. without symmetry. In Sculpture 1949 rhythm
and behaviour that covers a long period of time. Solids are never inflicted upon us. The comes in the sway of the twigs. It is also induced
29-1959 relates spontaneous and prolonged connections between the verticals and by alternating readings of the work, the one
behaviour in the central connection. The join horizontals have been made so simple of an object small enough to be held in the
appears to us as soon as we look at the painting that they seem to be a natural part of our hands, the other of a vast field. That kind of
but we then become involved in the density environment. The surfaces of his sculpture rhythm reached an early peak in the Mobile/
of the coats and the multiplicity of edges that do not obtrude and the way they are prepared Stabile of 1949. The object is small enough to
make up the join. The colour in this painting, ensure their maximum sensitivity to light. We be held in the hands but being very spiky is
as in many others of the time, is may read them with the same delicacy that we physically demanding. At the same time the
semi-transparent. Therefore the build up read the surfaces of his paintings. Whatever the extremes of scale in the piece give us a sense of
towards density is slowed down by the colour of his surfaces, whether of painting or vast scale and the line of the forms a sense of
translucent scarlet, orange and red. sculpture he gives us a sense of the maximum extreme rhythm. Rhythmic lines become
Turnbull regularly asks himself the question, amount of light possible. The tone of the dangerous spikes. We experience a rhythmical
`what would happen if ?' What would happen colour may be low but never the quantity of swing from the (mobile) movements of the
if a canvas were to be painted the colour of the light. Turnbull has become a master of irony. design to the (stabile) weighty and spiky object.
canvas ? (As in a series of 8 canvases he painted His art makes no demands on our eyes, our The rhythms are open, not tied to a surface.
in 1968). What would happen to the identity bodies or our living space and very often we In the Head/Objects Turnbull placed rhythm
of an object if one changed its function ? (As may not even be aware of its presence. firmly on the surface so that they would isolate
he did in the sculpture called Duct 1966, by Yet it can make us aware of the extremes our attention to the area of the object itself. The
sealing the ends of a section from an air of our originality. He makes simple greater the rhythm on the surface, the more
ducting system and welding it from stainless archetypal objects (gateways, lingum's, tables) objective is our reading of the form, the less the
steel). and he makes use of spatial forms that are possibility that we will read the form as an
What would happen to material if it were not related to specific surfaces, objects or extension of the environment.
treated differently from the way it is normally images. Two of these spatial forms, closely In the late fifties Turnbull made a lot of
treated ? (as in No. 1-1963, which was made by linked, are symmetry and rhythm. His carvings. Being a reductive process, carving
hand from wood, then cast in bronze and finally symmetry is 'a way of cutting down rhetoric' enabled him to take shape down to its most
machined to a smooth industrial finish). What yet is never total and engages us, as an Islamic basic and to reduce surfaces to their minimum.
would happen to the appearance of an object if iron grill might engage us, in its inconsistencies, Perhaps carving was an instinctive response to
rhythm were made to dominate gravity ? (As in offering us perfection with a faltering hand. his wish to bring separately made forms
Two-Ways 1966 in which he stands the The less active the forms of a work, the more together. This wish began to be satisfied and his
horizontal/vertical relationship on its side). heightened seem the imperfections of the forms began to fall easily into patterns of time
What would happen to a container if it were to symmetry. Screwhead 1957 is made of a single and space that were of his own choosing.
multiply itself ? (As with the Cones of 1968 in flat slab that stands upright upon a smaller The dominant subject since the mid-sixties
which each of the twelve cones is the mould horizontal slab. There is a large circle at the top has been the ground, the great 'container'. The
for the others). of the upright slab and running down the centre forms he places on the ground have nearly
I have called this 'model' the 'juggler' of the circle is a vertical, straight groove. all been released from self-containment. He has
because Turnbull's art grows from an ever Halfway down the slab are two connected so reduced the number of surfaces that his
increasing number of possibilities, all of which squares, each of which contains a nipple hole. forms work without the dramatic power of
must be kept within the performance. Seeing The boxes are symmetrically placed and the shadow. His sculpture has become like the
what will happen if . . . sets him off into his act. line of their join coincides with that running seeds of a split poppy's fruit that have run out
The tightrope is short, the weights and shapes down the centre of the circle. A line also and spread themselves through space and
are unknown and his movements become divides the base slab and relates to the position around objects. The simplicity with which each
unpredictable. His aim is to test his balance of the centre of the 'breasts' and 'head'. The `seed' asserts its individuality has enabled the
against ever increasing odds. There can be no whole piece looks like a standing figure with a artist to think in terms of continually
conclusion. head like a giant screw. The symmetry is developing rhythm.
strengthened by the iconography but at the The first 'model' belonged to the object. The
The dance same time the positively round circle of the second belonged to the artist. The third may
Turnbull has always made it easy for us to live head, seems to throw out of true the line that belong to us. But the rhythms he makes do
with his art, particularly that of the last twelve runs down its middle. Screws turn. As we look not shatter our senses, move us to extremes
years. The paintings have become very large at it the circle spins and its rhythm destroys the of physical abandonment or lull us into
but do not demand our participation in them or symmetry. Rhythm was used to destroy the monotonous tranquillity. He does not make
reduce our confidence by pretending to hold symmetry of the double joined canvases of chaos so that we may imagine an order within
secrets that we cannot share. The vast areas of 1962 No. 7 and it was used in the piece called ourselves. He has never proposed romantic
the canvases are covered with uncomplicated 3 x 1 1966. The latter is a very compact work in solutions to problems of mental or physical
colour. The paint has been applied with which three units have been butted together. isolation. His art makes possible the detachment
extreme simplicity. The canvases that were They could be moved apart or have similar that ecstasy brings. q

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