Page 60 - Studio International - April 1974

represented by nearly 130 works, From 1955 there was a move away painting impossible, he continues to divergence between the two, or the
sufficient to make some from the sharp angularities of the paint in gouache. display may be a public relations
generalizations on the qualities which 1953-54 works. Shapes became David Brown exercise in fancy dress). Only in the
make Hilton a painter of peculiar rounder, more 'organic', lines special context of an art gallery do we
distinction. There is his almost lengthened and became more Drug abuse in Maine at focus our whole attention on 'the
unerring sense of scale; large pictures rambling. There was a reintroduction The Gallery, London, 22 January- display', on the assumption that what
do not appear overblown and flaccid of shallow illusory space. Allusions to 16 February. is on display is 'art' ; however not all
but possess the tension seen in the body and landscape increased. Angelo Bozzolla at objects found in art galleries are art,
drawings a few inches square. There Stays in Cornwall were reflected in Situation Gallery, London, therefore the initial problem facing
is the handling of the medium. It is suggestions of boats and beaches 24 January-24 February. any visitor is to identify the art (this
difficult for Hilton to make a mark on and forms floating in water ; some 'Are you just watching ... while problem increases in difficulty as
canvas or paper with paint or titles were descriptive such as drug-related crime invades your artists employ ever more disparate
charcoal that is not charged with Grey Day by the Sea, March 1959. neighborhood ?' demands an media).
energy, but this ability is a strictly (It was disappointing that one of the anonymous official in 'Drug abuse in Paradoxically, in the case of 'Drug
controlled means and never finest works of the period, Desolate Maine', a small display of statements, abuse' ... the identity issue remains
dominates to become an end in Beach, January 1960, was not in the diagrams and photographs whose unresolved because its physical
itself. Likewise Hilton has an exhibition). References to the body subject is the propaganda against context — The Gallery — prudently
impeccable ability to handle colour; could be allusive as in March 1960 drugs issued to the American public omits, from its name, any mention of
combinations are sometimes very (Grey and White with Ochre) or frank by their national and state law the problematical word 'art'.
bright but never sweet or tasteful. as in Figure 1961, in which there is a enforcement agencies. Furthermore the directors have
All these resources were seen marvellous balance between the Physically the exhibit is extremely arranged for their display to be shown,
deployed in the paintings of 1953-54. tongues of paint suggesting simple: it is a free-standing unit in the near future, at other venues
In 1953 Hilton abandoned the negative space and the canvas bare, consisting of three wooden boards where the question of an art context

Drug Bus, Union Fair, Bangor,Maine
Photo: Gillian Daniell, copyright V. Grylls, will not arise. Wegner's and Grylls's
N. Wegner 1974
strategy is subtler yet : we visit
arranged in a Y-shape to yield six galleries to see what is on display, but
display panels; these are painted if what is on display is, literally, 'a
black, and all printed matter has been display' then we find ourselves in a
reversed in colour (ie white on black, meta-language situation.
instead of black on white) in order to The theme of their display is, to say
achieve a formal unity. the least, piquant. Does anyone in
The source material for the display England, in the midst of an energy
was collected from Maine's police crisis, really care about the publicity
department by Peter Michel and campaign mounted by Maine's police
Gillian Daniell (two English against drugs ? There must be a
sculptors) on a recent visit to the thousand topics intrinsically more
United States and its presentation is interesting. However, this is exactly
by the directors of The Gallery, the point : a flat, relatively boring
Roger Hilton Underwater Scene 1947 save for a few charcoal lines, Nicholas Wegner and Vaughan subject is required if the nuances of
Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in. the genre of displays is to be
suggesting solid form, a body as taut Grylls (both artist-entrepreneurs).
depiction of illusory pictorial space as a spring. When painted this picture This procedure enables Wegner and appreciated. In any case the relevance
under the influence of Mondrian, not dismayed some of his admirers ; it Grylls to reverse the usual relationship of the information will vary according
directly but through the work of needed as much courage for an between artist and gallery director. to individual response : the anti-drug
Constant, whom Hilton describes as abstract painter in Britain to make a Their policy is to relegate the artist, as lobby will find it an admirable show ;
'a humanized Mondrian' (the phrase is frankly figurative image in 1961 as it far as exhibitions are concerned, to a those in favour of legalizing the use of
revealing). Another contributory did for a figurative painter to turn subsidiary role in order to negate the soft drugs will interpret it as an
factor, says Hilton, was a remark of abstract in the early 50s. cult-of-personality syndrome. indictment of 'big brother'
Howard Bliss who, referring to a The range of Hilton's formal The directors justify their interest in bureaucracy. The stance of Wegner
slightly earlier painting said invention is astonishing. With the displays by pointing to the plethora of and Grylls is scrupulously neutral,
(approximately) 'Why don't you take exception of the two versions of the informational and documentary they present the jargon of American
a part of this and blow it up' ? figure of December 1963, Oh Yoi Yoi shows which appear constantly in the administration and illustrate its
All the paintings of 1953 are of a and Dancing Woman, no two pictures entrances to banks, in showrooms, hierarchical committee structure
restricted palette, black, white, the were alike. The imagery is simple and cinema foyers, libraries and other without comment, in a bland,
primaries and a few earth colours, direct, all is sensual and much is public buildings. So commonplace unobtrusive manner which only
with a few pictorial components, and sexual ; buttocks, breasts, thighs, are these displays that they are serves to emphasize the ambiguity of
ragged-edged areas of paint. Some, phallic and vaginal shapes abound. virtually invisible. We may give them a all 'pure' information.
like December 1953, are totally By the early 60s Hilton was able to casual glance but rarely do we Previous shows at The Gallery
abstract but figurative references move freely from and into figuration. question the relationship between the satirized the London art world
kept appearing, to landscape or to He has continued these themes until theme of such displays and the unmercifully. 'Drug abuse ...' marks a
the body, August 1951, for example, now and though in the last year or so institutions that temporarily house change of policy : it is the first of a
strongly suggests a female torso. confinement to bed has made oil them (there may be a radical series of 'display exhibitions' ; the