Page 50 - Studio-International-January-1974

of the work is a problem, it retains occupied with colour abstraction in would make the unpainted sections of
conventions which appear to refer large scale work. Coincidentally, the field as active as the stained
more to earlier work. When electric they share a common problem; a sections. It's a talent Louis has and
fires were first invented they self-conscious preference for Irvin hasn't, making one masterly, the
continued to employ parts which, mainstream style. other drab.
although necessary to a coal fire, Basil Beattie, in the Coronet Why one artist would copy so
were completely superfluous to the Gallery, a facility which appears to directly from another is a mystery,
new invention. Dibbets, like any double as a student lounge, presents for Irvin has made no effort to conceal
artist who attempts to redefine his five canvases in a vigorous but rather the source of his means. He is expert
work, is facing this problem. frenzied abstract mode. Lyrical with his tools, the paintings look
The most complex piece in the abstraction, if chosen as such, is not finished. He obviously knows how to
exhibition contains two squares, one an easy style to paint in, for colour paint, but apparently not what to
black and white, one coloured, made must manage to suggest spaciousness paint ; one hopes for a more
from four photographs. The projecting a harmonious rather than inventive investigation in the future.
photographs are all related views of Castelli mailer by Jan Dibbetts busy pictorialism. Beattie overstates This observation leads directly to
the Italian landscape (Dibbets now the field with gestural manoeuvres so Trevor Bell, exhibiting at the
lives in Rome), half land and half sky. that the colour is not quite balanced Whitechapel Gallery. Bell has made
They were all taken at an angle of 45° arrangement of the same images. The to the pace at which it seems to an incomprehensible adaptation of
to the horizon. The land forms a water makes it impossible and have been applied. His most Frank Stella's shaped canvas idea.
diamond and the sky becomes the possibly unnecessary to decipher the successful pieces are the smaller The principal difficulty of the work
background square. The result is means by which these photographs acrylics on paper, which are exquisite. lies in the artist's misunderstanding
initially kaleidoscopic but a closer were produced. The relationship is Greys, yellows, greens and reds are and misuse of Stella's techniques,
examination reveals subtle but implicit in the similarity of images but thoughtfully juxtaposed in modulated which leads to a number of specific
important differences between the they defy the traditional reading tonal densities which shape an problems.
four triangles which form the structure he has developed in illusionistic space. They possess a The canvas shapes are outlandish
diamond. Some photographs appear previous work. spontaneity and clarity which the in conception and too large to be
to be identical, others are completely A purely aesthetic connection is paintings do not. Beattie will, for read clearly. When they are not too
different. With the hindsight of equally unsatisfactory because the example, leave areas of paper empty large they are too ambiguous. Most
previous work, it appears that the development in the work concerns but fill in the similar space in a of the works are two, four or six
tripod remained stationary and the theory and practice, not the supremacy painting which clutters the part sectionals which are combined
camera turned through 360 The of one over the other. Theory for composition. There is a sense about into compositions. The paintings"
work, as in the Dutch Mountains Dibbets is all decisions which the work that the artist has not yet designs, relying heavily on right
series, is a manipulation of the horizon. precede the work practice is why fully declared himself; the imagery is angles and points, have weird
The change has occurred in the there are always several versions and not decisive. Beattie has been a Gothic overtones. Seminole of 1972
balance between the camera's stages to any single idea. The promising painter and may come to is such an example. Two panels make
possibilities and Dibbets's own limitations he imposes upon his be a very good one. a shape which looks like a chapel
criteria. The distortion is also more theory explain why he is discussed in Beattie's work derives its general door of a cathedral; is this a motif?
complex. The natural horizon is no terms of past art traditions. It is the format from the propositions It is ornamented in an abrasive
longer horizontal, but a more serious point where he remains a painter. It is formulated by New York colour- pastachio of green, pink and orange.
challenge is the new horizon created at that point that the work should be field painters. Their influence is there Confused by the ungainliness of the
by the photographs. There is a seen in more depth, before its full but it is discrete. The same cannot be form, the alarming allusion and the
perspective vanishing point in the implications can be appreciated. said for Albert Irvin, exhibiting at the mannerist colour, the work could
middle, at the point where the four Lynda Morris New Art Centre. Irvin's pictorial almost be placed in the its-so-ugly-
photographs meet. The result contribution is second-hand its-got-to-be-good category. On
anticipates the disappearance of the Morris Louis veil images lacking the continued examination, it is not new
diamond into its own centre. Also in Basil Beattie at the Coronet delicacy, grace, tension and resolution beauty in disguise, but pictorial
relation to the Dutch Mountain Gallery, Imperial College of Science of the original. Possessing a grand misjudgement.
series, each horizon appears to curve and Technology, London, scale, intrepidly stained colours and Some of the canvases are flush
inwards at the centre. This is achieved November-December 1973 the requisite areas of raw canvas, with the frame, others are slightly
by illusion without any technical Albert Irvin at the New Art they are not technically inept, but the modelled. Presumably this additional
manipulation. Where the line between Centre, London, 6November- artist has not used these devices complexity should help unite the
sky and land is surrounded it appears 1 December 1973 well. Celebration of 1972 colour and image inside the frame
softer than when the edges of the Trevor Bell at the Whitechapel (98 x 168 in.) is a study in yellows, with the two- or three-dimensional
photograph converge upon it. These Gallery, London. 30 October- inky blue-greens and pastels. Its edge. The complete unit ideally
points are also made by the multiple 25 November, 1973 abstract forms are pleasantly integrates with the wall and the
in the exhibition, in which the two Three English painters, Basil amorphous in a kind of hazy imagery environment of the room. It is a
squares reverse the role of sky and Beattie, Albert Irvin and Trevor Bell, and the tonalities are pretty. What is complex proposition which Stella
land as object and background. had one-man exhibitions in London lacking is a sense of proportion in the Trevor BeII Burn 1973, 8 x 36 ft.
However in this work all the last month. Each is principally interior space of the image which Photo: J. S. Lewinski
photographs are identical ; which is
important because the camera's
function has been relegated in favour
of the final visual effect.
The two other works are series of
photographs of water. One piece
called Jonkind's Photography
refers to the Dutch painter who
influenced Monet's painting of
water. (A particularly explicit
reference to his source.) Again the
form is two squares of four
photographs each representing an
area of water. The image fills the
whole area, there is no sky and only
an anonymous surface below the
water. The other piece, Water
Structure, is a line of eight
photographs of water, a strip of white
light reflected across the top of each
varying image. The diagram below
the photographs suggests a different

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