Page 53 - Studio International - December 1974

the Serpentine. One exhibit was four each newly warped square. To corral an inner reason for producing most of part of the world. Salisbury Cathedral
(real) dead mice, twisted and tangled these burgeoning lines, Evans applies these pictures; however, there are had a glittering quality, without that
together and bound with pink cotton his second touch-scheme, calmly signs that such vision may well appear normal dull architectural slant so often
thread, preserved indefinitely in a detaching the flapping segments on as he lives longer and searches more seen in pictures of historic buildings.
perspex case. Definitely in the Gothic their North and West sides. Freed, they deeply for his material. Disappointingly, the trees in it looked
and Romantic traditions, Lang was throw themselves back and down, Particularly beautiful and easily like flat theatrical trees associated with
born and brought up in Oberammergau, brushing past one another at each the most inspired watercolour was stage scenery, preventing me from
and in his work there is the whole square's unturned corner. Holding it number 61 entitled Flying Fish. This fully enjoying the glistening building —
spirit of the Passion play, the Dance of captive between them, they finish the picture was full of promise and light, why were they not right? I am
Death, the violent crucifixion wood- cycle as two loops hanging mid-point it had really achieved a strange and puzzled that an artist of such ability
carvings of Bavaria, the Romantic from the square's bottom right corner. mysterious atmosphere. It had scale, should not have tried more
imagination of Caspar David Friedrich's Manually controlled frenzy, which is depth, space and it shimmered and conscientiously to have solved the
landscapes, and the cruelty of German what 6 makes of 1, intermingles the moved, yet he retained control over problem of those trees. I felt they
folk-lore. He is also concerned with cross-in-square to produce optical all. Any person who has not seen should have been used with the utmost
ecology and wider formal problems of conflicts amongst the work's new real flying fish in action, on looking care and economy. Perhaps I have
communication and aesthetics. All of configurations. More important, at this picture must have experienced attached too much importance to the
this is subtly present in his exhibit at disruption lifts drawing into gravity, the next best thing by seeing it through question of those particular trees,
the Serpentine. It is called To the line acquiring meaning by closing on the artist's eyes. especially when there appeared to be
Götte brothers and sisters. It is a shapes which support one another and Picture number 80 Gooi Nie also so very many other well painted and
collection of hundreds of relics of and themselves: Number 6's squares are contained a timeless sensation that skilfully constructed ones pervading
data about a peasant family who lived supported by its loops, these in turn hypnotised me. The placing of the the whole of Mr Procktor's exhibition.
in poverty on an isolated farm in angle from the wall compliments of shapes and balance of colour and tone I realize his pictures have a very
Bavaria from about 1900 to about 1960. that shape's sides. were instinctively right. successful market and that the many
It is laid out like a display in a museum This way Evans avoids a structure- The Irish pictures which I imagine people who have the pleasure of
of archaeology or anthropology, and is meaning split, functionalizing form to stem from Patrick Procktor's bone owning one or more will be extremely
close to being such an exhibit. But have physical manipulation (per se) read and blood gave me the impression happy to live with them. But I feel
there is heart and there is art there, and as subject matter. His relief's at this that the Irish landscape was much there is a danger that his work could
it is a sculpture to be carefully studied, become facile, given too much
not quickly glanced at. It will not commercial success.
easily be forgotten. Betty Swan wick
Rodney Burke
An International Exhibition of
Garth Evans at the Rowan Gallery, Post-Minimal Painting at the Scottish
London, 11 October — 1 November Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh,
Twelve years ago, Garth Evans showed 26 October — 10 November
his first work at the Rowan Gallery, a The mid-sixties interest in minimal art
number of wall reliefs. Moving from focused mainly on sculpture. The
these, he has tested his sculptor's sense innovations within sculpture from the
against a variety of formats, rounding cubic forms of Judd, LeWitt etc. up to
out the early ramped up wall plaques, the materialistic informality of Robert
turning in the sixties to free-standing Morriss's felt pieces tended to exclude
fibre-glass and steel. His new work at the emphasis on comparable
the Rowan is again a series of reliefs. developments in painting. The concepts
In this return to starting point, he has seemed no longer distinct, and public
had a look at the 'middle generation' interest followed the course of sculpture
pieces, analyzing them to find into what was to be called 'post-
systematic inventiveness with shape Garth Evans No. 1 ABCD 197314 Patrick Procktor Regents Park 1974 minimal sculpture' or 'process art', and
Painted wood, 62 x 61 x 5 in. Watercolour
their strength. He has found too that finally conceptual art. As a consequence,
littleness handles this purpose better the minimal painters and the painters
than Herculean size. But mainly the associated with this development —
new work notes smallness as level are do-it-yourself manuals, fiercer than my memories of it. His Ryman, Mangold, Marden, Martin —
conceptually right, its fragility locating teaching organic behaviour to geometry. colour seemed too harsh and not so were overlooked temporarily. Once
sculpture on the wall to throw away Strung together (in their system of four) subtle and limpid as I remembered people had appreciated the full
three dimensional support. The clear- they are also flashes of contrary Ireland, though God knows the ramifications of conceptual art in its
out restates 'aerial drawings' source in directions which the spectator clarifies weather was often stormy and wild most extreme manifestations, something
painting, rightly petitioning architectural by his repeated experience of them in on my visit to that lovely country. of a dead-end was recognized in avant-
aid for solid line, freeing it to time. However at their best, as in I found many aspects of the Irish garde activity. This was a good time to
concentrate on descriptive function. Number 4 ABC + D, they transcend pictures free and bold but sometimes look again at the minimal painters, the
Once this status is conceptually logic, integrating process in its in the textures of the skies and galleries had things to sell, and the
achieved, Evans makes his line of thumb- expressive and task-orientated sides. ground there was a self-consciously public had something to look at.
thick plywood to common pattern: This compound is lyrical, the translation careless element caused by the rough The renewed interest in minimal
four squares inset with a central cross, of associations into physical language. handling of the medium. painting was certainly called for but
so that the whole consists of six equal This language — of implied movement — Number 51 entitled Boat had a like all resuscitations in a particular
lengths provisionally attached. The is a choreography for our minds, from well composed air of tranquility cast field of art activity which has seemingly
reliefs are series of four such units and the confines of the wall to open space, over it, due once again to the had its hey-day, it is also efficacious on
develop this configuration through line travelling from logic to elation. excellent and simple balance of colour the level of practice as well as
distortions which home in on and vary Caryn Faure Walker and shapes. Number 62 Crew and appreciation. A new generation of
this constant. Number 1 ABC D, for Draughts proved the artist's skill at minimal painters was born, who in
example, stays closest to the stable drawing the human form. This sense certain senses have taken painting
pattern: four squares are arranged, two Patrick Procktor at the Redfern of draughtsmanship is noticeable in all along the course which is implicit in
across and two down, so that their Gallery, London, October the recognizable objects he makes use the works of painters associated with
placement echoes the single units Patrick Procktor's recent exhibition of from nature in his work. He has minimal art, but only became explicit
division into four. Having parts and revolved round oil paintings, water- certainly drilled himself well in the later. Also, when Judd was the big boy
whole organized alike, makes Number l's colours, etchings and drawings produced exercise of drawing and this should of sculpture, Ryman, Mangold, Martin
system. Number 6 ABC + D, not the by him during the year 1973-74. It evoke great admiration from a and so on were not being exhibited
show's best, yet clear in structure, was lively and enjoyable. I found the knowledgeable and understanding nearly as much as their counterparts in
explains Evans's method. From etchings the most appealing section of audience. the field of sculpture. The trajectory
remaining geometric clues, the work his work. Possibly because this I found the Paddington pictures of sculpture had yet to be realised in
starts in a flat evenly spaced pattern particular process helped greatly to for example number 37 very tidily painting.
like Number 1 ABC + D. Two separate give them a unity and the sense of portraying a rather depressing world: Recently, the Scottish Arts Council
schemes of touch are then applied, one direction frequently absent in the not inviting to visit or for closer Gallery in Edinburgh presented an
to the square unit's perimeter, the other paintings and watercolours. Some of inspection, perhaps this was an exhibition organized by Nicholas and
to its cross. The first holds the square's these prints had great delicacy often intentional idea in Mr Procktor's mind. Fiona Logsdail, directors of the Lisson
left side to the wall as it flips the bottom missing in the watercolours. The Tangier watercolours come over Gallery in London, called 'An
right side up. Symmetry's cross-in- Mr Procktor's watercolours covered well, often witty in colour, spirited in International Exhibition of Post-
square arrangement forcibly convoluted, a wide range of subject matter and mood and movement and generally Minimal Painting'. It is the second in a
6 spins out the crosses' excess lengths, techniques. I felt the subject matter they exuded the effervescent series whereby the Scottish Arts Council
waving them from the backdrops of was not often enough heightened by atmosphere one associates with that invites a London dealer to select a