Page 52 - Studio International - November 1973

push-and-pull, of opposing forces off-true variations of these, and any with the whole conception. And for an blue and crimson, and the third a
and dynamic tensions. Avery dares to incipient blandness is punctured by artist firmly rooted in a Western narrow band of hard green, right at
do the obvious, with often startling the introduction of a colour that jars tradition of painting, this is a crucial the edge of the canvas. In the
results. Dancing Trees of 1960 is a the others into life. In one small oil limitation. circumstances he gets maximum
good example of this, with its three in the show, Island in the Sea, there value for this green and it holds the
wobbly conical shapes put down are three main areas of dove (ground), Greenberg wrote of Avery's painting together. In spite of the
smack across the middle of the raspberry-pink (sea), peach (sky). On inexportability, citing Paul Nash as a stridency of the colour, the picture
canvas, which is itself divided into the right hand side, extending from British counterpart. Matthew Smith seems balanced, and as a
two; sky and grass. It's this painting, near lower edge to just short of top of would, I think, provide a more telling consequence the size tells effectively.
too, that demonstrates the way Avery the canvas, a jagged pool of strong comparison. Both men owed a lot to The second picture, untitled, of
plays off mass against line; the blue-green. On the opposite side of the Matisse, and the limitations of each March 1973, is a different shape, but a
scumbled bulk of the trees teeter on picture, sitting on the horizon line, a can be seen in relation to the French similar arrangement, and it too works
trunks like stalks, rendered with quick smaller shape of deeper blue-green. master. As for inexportability, Avery quite well. Several of the other large
dashing strokes of the brush. This They firmly articulate the space of the has been exported to this country, and works, though strained, hold
quiet, affectionate humour is an painting, and tighten up what could successfully. Anyone professing together, (Green for Cathy for
Avery hallmark and tells us a lot about have been stickily cloying colour. interest in painting and familiar with example) but in some the colour is
the spirit in which these pictures were This manner of putting down large his work must recognize him as, for such that it bounces and jangles
made. dark areas (usually blue or green) want of a better phrase, a minor without any feeling of balance, or
alongside sunny pastel shades is master. But so, in his way, is Smith. even in his own phrase of 'dynamic
The way that space is organized and peculiar to Avery, and the way he and I wonder how many devotees of equilibrium'.
suggested in these works is similarly manages to keep these darks from painting in America know about
unforced, with little play being made looking heavy, or obviously emotive, that? The form of these paintings
with devices that either imply a is near miraculous. It's proof, if it's Judy Marie inevitably recalls Barnett Newman,
recession or make an issue of canvas needed, that the throw-away ease is
flatness. Natural forms are abstracted based on an acutely pitched
to a point where they work both as painterly sense.
2-D signs and as spatial elements. In There's a transparent honesty about
Dark Inlet the diagonal thrust of the Avery's work that is impossible not to
base line of the hill stretches from respond to. The paintings are,
foreground to horizon, a pink wedge essentially, records and recreations of
between pale blue sky and deep blue the feelings aroused by the things
sea. The straight bottom edge of this they portray. They are completely
shape is butted right up to the dark without pretension, or cooking, or
blue, but its top, irregularly humped, gadgetry. They make you respect
is separated from the sky area by a their charm. And yet, finally, there is
delicately dabbed-in mauve line, its something in this easy mastery that
quality echoed by a sulphur-yellow bothers. In the end, I confess to
band taken straight across the lower finding the apparent lack of struggle
half of the canvas. The simplicity limiting. I'm not talking about the
looks near throw-away, but the apparent lack of stress, strain, or any
picture surface is locked into a kind of inner turmoil; nor am I
tautness that is anything but. suggesting that these pictures'
authority is in any way spurious.
The way Avery uses colour has the What I am saying is that nowhere in
same frankness about it. It's laid down this work is there any real evidence of John Copnall, at the Demarco John Copnall
in very thin washes of turpentined effort to transcend his basic vision. Gallery, Edinburgh, 25 September- Viva Pablo 1973
oil, through which the white under- Braque's contentment in knowing his 20 October. Photo : Helen Douglas
surface breathes. If the colour does limits was of a different order— to do In John Copnall Demarco has picked
get any heavier, it always seems to with an intuitive over-all self- a serious, thoughtful artist. He has and their execution Morris Louis, but
have white actually mixed into it. It knowledge precluding foresight of twenty-seven works in his show, they are not really like the work of
gives off a light quite unlike the each picture's individual terrain. nine of them really big canvases. He either. The situation of painters in the
vibrant complementaries of, say, Avery can only register dissatisfaction paints in acrylic on unprimed cotton later twentieth century is very like
Matisse, its close-valued hues and thus begin a dialogue within duck. The paint is run in bands of that of their predecessors in the later
shimmering with a slightly muffled certain parts of each picture, but not varying width, either right across the sixteenth. They are acutely conscious
luminosity. The colours sound sweet canvas from edge to edge, or all of the achievement of those who have
when named— pinks, greens, yellows Milton Avery Stormy Day 1960 starting from a line just inside one gone before. It is so great that it can
— but Avery often manages strangely Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in. edge. In several of the large canvases neither be challenged on its own
there are two sets of bands. One is ground nor ignored. In the sixteenth
long, running down to the bottom century painters sought to deduce
edge, and the other short, starting from rules from the received style, to
the same line and running to the top. intellectualize — academic thought
With the single exception of a was a mannerist creation — and then
beautiful small work of 1971, two to animate the rules by distortion and
unequal rectangles of canvas banded exaggeration.
horizontally in muted colours and
laid on white card, he paints in Copnall has sought to get away from
variations on the primaries, relieved his models by adopting an idea that
by very sparing use of secondaries. In can best be described as musical. The
two of the larger pictures, one of variations in the bands of colour and
which, Viva Pablo, is illustrated, and the intervals between provide a
both of which were painted earlier structure like the notes and rhythms of
this year, this extraordinary music. But in order to derive maximum
limitation pays off. Viva Pablo, effect from the relationship between
roughly 8 x 11 feet, is dominated by a colour and interval, he has had to use
broad central band of pillar-box red the coarsest colour. This is
moving to the left through a narrow distortion. It shocks and startles, but
band of yellow to a broad orange at the same time it is intellectual
yellow band. To the right of rather than painterly. He has sought
the main red are three narrow bands to develop intellectually Newman's
separated by bare canvas. The first intuitive sense of interval, and, like
two with slightly feathered edges are the mannerists, has put the idea

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