Page 46 - Studio International - September 1973

(Left)
Installation view of Paula Cooper Gallery
during Doug Sanderson Exhibition
Photo : Robert E. Mates and Paul Katz

(Below)
John Walker
Blackboard no. z3 1973
Chalk, 8 X 22 ft
Cunningham Ward Gallery, New York
Photo : Bevan Davies

illusion Léger effected by covering the cubic
interior of a room with colour does not, in
substance, differ from the illusion of the Roman
painter's. Rothko used to talk about the 'jointed
scheme' he had in mind for the Houston chapel,
and he, like any Renaissance muralist, sought to
suffuse the given space by means of the mastery
of scale. The various intentions, and their
differences, must be taken into account, but
finally, the painter who uses walls — whether
the temporary walls of a museum, or the walls
of his own studio — is not so much a new breed
of environmental artist as he is an outright
muralist.
There have been many exhibitions all season
in which the temporary circumstance of a
gallery with its X number of walls has been
utilized, but I will speak only of the two which
seemed to me the most successful. Doug
Sanderson moved into the Paula Cooper
Gallery with a will to silence that was both
strong and overpowering. Sanderson has always
worked on the edge of silence, using neutral
tones ranging so narrowly as to seem pure white.
Or pure light. Whichever. Given the very long
wall of the gallery, and an adjoining shorter
wall, the light factor became even more
significant than in his smaller works. Using the John Walker's drawings at the Cunningham object, true, but it isn't an environment either.
rectangular format that echoes the room's Ward Gallery have on their evaluation. While Through working shadows, secondary shadows
essence, Sanderson literally modulated the it is true that Walker has, of late, taken to the and fugitive forms beneath the final plane of
walls. A step or two in either direction, and the walls of galleries in London, Birmingham and colour, Walker has kept his work within one of
light would discern an echo. A measured pace New York, and has characterized his works of the mural traditions — the tradition which draws
from wall to wall, and the diminuendo of light this kind as 'remarks,' it does not seem that the the eye to the image, to the exclusion of the
from the upper reaches to the floor slowly particular spaces were necessary to him. These environment, precisely. It is true that the largest
registers. Everything is a matter of both were nice, frangibly whitewashed walls, the drawing, in terra-cotta variations with the
temporal and illusionistic measure. kind of gessoed-soft surfaces that any painting strongest circular image in impastoed whites,
Sanderson's murals for all their quietness, hand would itch to mark, or remark. But apart compels more than does the dusky black-to-grey
and although they are painted literally from their physical limitations — one very long drawing. For some reason the chalk-dust,
wall-to-wall, cleave to the traditions. It is not wall and one rather narrow — the wall for blackboard impression dissolves into a flattened
because the light suffuses into the viewer's Walker was merely another surface on which to almost filmic vision. But terra-cotta is tougher,
ambulatory space that they bring about a key compose an illusion. His technique has already more nearly related to fresco painting which
mood, but rather because the painter has been described on these pages (chalk and chalk demands speed and skill in fixing nuances, and
figured a surface in a certain way. The pleasure dust on damp surface) but technique here means is more resistant to easy effects. In this case,
of being with the room cannot be separated little more than intention: to make a drawing Walker gains scale because of the internal
from the pleasure of being in it, or from the which is large, complex, and discrete. The fact relations of the bold central image and its
pleasure of coming, finally, back to the illusion is that even though the wall is a continuous contrasting linear cognates. He could probably
created by painterly means. Whether the surface, Walker's pictorial sense has dominated have done the same drawing on a surface that
knowledge that the walls would be whitewashed it, and set the composed drawing apart from it. could be moved or preserved, and he could
a week or two later has any bearing is hard to Illusion conquers. Moreover, the picture does certainly have done it on some other gallery
say. not disperse itself into the atmosphere, but wall or some other street or in some other
Still less bearing does the temporary status of stands compelling before the viewer. It is not an country. q
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