Page 45 - Studio International - March 1973

Glass r. From Here 1971
108 x 204 in.
of a group — it implies a background of and much that has not but is relevant to all his
experience; it also calls for a degree of working work. The paintings are characterized by the
out. In the pictures the more complex deployment of inter-locking shapes which rise
interlacings of the previous series are absent but only a short distance from the lower edge of the
remain implied by the definition of key areas or canvas. Most of them are wider than they are
angles. However, these minimal notations are high and some are a great deal larger than the
themselves heavily outlined by broad bands of artist's usual format. The titles Glass I. From
colour and so tend to become individual objects, Here, Glass II. From There, View from the Blue,
whose tendency to float in complete isolation is Two Way, allude to the notion of a mirror
in turn negated by their manifest relationship (specifically that of Alice Through the Looking
(once again of symmetry or colinearity) Glass) where you do not see your own face but
which draws the line between them. may find yourself in a world that is reversed, a
The next group of paintings (which with its fantasy world that has its own logic and truth
sub-groups, comes up to the present) is and from which the real world appears
marked by the elimination of lines and bands conversely topsy-turvy. Some of this is hinted at
and by the replacement of sombre hues by in the use of forms which are transposed from
brilliant ones which, however, remain almost left to right and of colours and forms that are
but not quite as unnameable. Like many earlier transposed from picture to picture. More than
pictures, they frequently contain a picture almost any other of his paintings they create a
within a picture n times over so that what is, space or place to inhabit, a place which is one
at one level, an object, becomes, at another, in which we find our own self. Such a space
context. In many pictures this context is inside cannot be represented by a blank canvas which
rather than outside the 'object'. Moreover the would assert itself as an object, but here the void
reality of what one sees changes both with the is created by the precision and coherence of the
duration of one's gaze and also, because of the threshold elements, just as a single line of print
subtlety of the colour combinations, with defines the emptiness of a page which is quite
changes in the quality and intensity of the light. different from the reality of a sheet of paper.
Like the other devices described or imputed The fact that you have to look down to see these
here this is purely pictorial. It deals with the elements in the picture draws attention to the
way things are perceived. However, in 1973, fact that when you look straight in front of your
no one need emphasize the relationship between face you see space. Without attempting to spell
the way things are perceived and social or even out the metaphor it clearly has to do with the
political attitudes. I hope I have done enough to relationship of the artist's fantasy — his
hint what these implications may be in Denny's construction of the world — to the 'real' world, to
case, but I must repeat there is a sense in which the process of turning this into an image and
his pictures, more than those of most artists, by the way the viewer deals with this in relation
inviting the viewer to think about his to his own real world. This concern is of course 'This note is based on a reading of the artist's
published and unpublished writing and on
perceptions, about the way the picture has been one which is still central to art but it is one that conversations, but is a personal view not purporting
made, have a history in the future as well as in has determined the fact that Denny's art has to be an authoritative statement of the artist's ideas.
the past. evolved consistently from the late 1950s, The principal account of Denny's work are:
David Thompson, 'Robyn Denny' Penguin New
The last series that Denny has exhibited without any attempt to mimic the work of other Art 3 1971 and Robert Kudielka, 'Robyn Denny'
epitomizes everything that has been said here artists or to seek divergent means of expression. q Tate Gallery 1973; both books contain bibliographic
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