Page 44 - Studio International - June 1973

From a discussion between

John Plumb and Marc Vaux

(Above) John Plumb: Your work has evolved out of a kind of iconoclastic act of destroying what was
Marc Vaux semi-gestural preoccupation, or a juxtaposition a very rational kind of structure, and in fact I
U/4L/71 1971
Acrylic on cotton duck of formal and gestural elements existing in the saw these paintings as being a way of including
84x 144 in. same painting. Around '62 you made paintings within a single image a rational and an
(Right) based on a cross structure with what seemed irrational kind of statement. The paintings
John Plumb to me to be a very gestural shape wrapped moved away from that in the sense that I began
Colour Barrier No. 14 1972
about this structure. How did this change to suspect the naturalness with which I was
occur ? How does your work differ between reacting in what I would call an irrational way.
then and now ? In other words I was self-consciously being
Marc Vaux: Those pictures were a irrational. I think that for certain paintings it
development from what I was doing at the time worked out — particularly the earlier ones, but
of the 'Situation' exhibitions. Instead of areas after a while I began to suspect the element of
having different qualities of edge they took the symbolism contained in those pictures.
form of a linear kind of statement, so that the JP: What did they symbolize ?
area was reduced to a line, in this case a simple MV: I felt that there was a kind of dualism
cross structure which bisected the picture basic to human nature which was expressed by
plane in both directions. I think it's fair to say rational and irrational behaviour. When I look
that the gestural statements that I made in back now I can see that it wasn't really an
conjunction with those structures were uninteresting thing to explore.
intended very much to be destructive, JP: So you hadn't any direct concern for
MARC VAUX RECENT PAINTINGS AND countering kinds of elements, aimed at cancelling symbolism as a language. You say it really was
TESS JARAY PAINTINGS AND GRAPHICS the stability of that original cross. At the time a subconscious kind of symbolism ?
ARE AT THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, I was very much concerned with symbolism in MV: Not exactly. I became very conscious of
30 MAY — 24 JUNE. painting. These things did represent for me a the symbolism and began to find it less

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