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has made workable sometimes, The high proportion of work by vibrations throughout its nightmare area, with less complex
particularly in his early pictures. non-members included both expanse. Marianne Kreeger's configurations. His concern with
Bell simply cannot coordinate these established artists who were Babel is also a towering construction, different ways of laying on paint is
separate elements together. In specially invited to participate and a but it is made of a delicate fretwork of shared by Richard Miller in almost all
Bar of 1970, an extraordinarily long number of new names whose work fantasy and is grounded in a luminous his admirably varied paintings.
arrow shaped field narrows until it was chosen by the Selection sphere. Graham Cowley is by far the most
terminates at a point, the width of Committee. As a result the show From the London Group one assured of the group in terms of
one finger, way, way down the wall contained a varied and stimulating expects, and appreciates, the stylish handling. Although less
from where it starts. One does not survey of the major routes followed stability of tradition. People who intellectually stringent, his work is
observe this work, one travels in its by contemporary painting and expect student shows to be firework distinguished by his facility for freely
direction. As a grand design it is sculpture in this country without ever displays of new and original talent are executed forms which he places with
hopeless, for mass and length cannot straying into suspect conceptual invariably disappointed. The extent considerable panache.
make an arbitrary shape coherent. territory. to which art-school work should The figurative contingent included
Size has been mistaken for The members, of course, include reflect contemporary trends is John Dewhurst whose pencil
monumentality. a number of long-respected names, clearly problematic, but it is surely drawing of a Victorian parlour was
Then there is Bell's use of colour. of whom the most venerable is relevant that showmanship is notable for its elegant technique,
He relies on those shades favoured by Duncan Grant. His Still Life, particularly suspect at a time like transcribing the polished surface of
architects in the fifties, orange and showing fruit illuminated by the today, when one cannot observe a the dresser with sensitive fidelity.
purple, accented with green, pink and diffused light of an old table lamp firm general direction. There is little In terms of subject matter, the most
yellow. The colouration is dense, with shade askew, stood up well to allowance for frivolity these days : impassioned painting was
without relief, and there is no some of its brasher neighbours. any tendency towards jokiness is Christopher Griffin's interpretation of
apparent relationship between it and a Welsh mining village, which showed
the structure of the canvas, There is a bird trapped in a miner's lamp under
a lack of unity among the pictorial the heavy glitter of an opaque black
elements. In some of Stella's works, layer of coal dust. Other noteworthy
these are so well controlled that a paintings included Tina Floyd's
picture might seem to move and yet Evolution of Women, a n
stay still. Like all really good painting, apocalyptic monochrome tangle, and
his best works have an almost Alexander Young's landscape-
organic character, shape and surface derived abstraction, expressed in
realized together. This is a rosy drifts.
sophistication which Bell seems to be Fenella Crichton
aiming at by using exaggerated
devices. He does not achieve it.
It is surprising, then, to find that Paul Camargo at Gimpel Fils,
Bell, like Basil Beattie, has well London, from 8 January to 2
developed themes in his works on February 1974.
paper, which are small, original and Camargo's fourth London exhibition
unpresumptuous. Most of them at Gimpel Fils consists of a series of
investigate how a specific colour and recent sculptures.
shape can interact (he callsthem Camargo has always guarded his
essays). In one example, two Installation shot. The London Group. Photo: George Lewinski independence with care and
Matisse-like swirls are cut into integrity. He had no formal art school
white paper and punctuated at the Sunlight picks out the tactile clumps resolutely pounced on by those who education. He was initiated into the
centre with a large circular black dot. of foliage in Julian Cooper's believe that there are serious problems arts through his contacts with certain
A superb drawing is Tallahasse Fan, paintings, in which interlocked about painting to be grappled with. artists. In Brazil he studied under
an image of a brightly coloured pieces of static honey-combed The second year show at the Lucio Fontana and Emilio Pettoruti,
outline of a square poised in space at structure contrast with the dynamic Royal College splits neatly into two and when he came to Paris in 1948 to
a slight tilt. This piece demonstrates streamlined furrows below. Members camps. There are those who are study philosophy at the Sorbonne he
particularly well Bell's expressiveness working in a totally non-figurative concerned with formal problems of met and became deeply attached to
in hand applied colour, the kind of idiom included Brian Fielding; his art ona universal level, and those Brancusi. The works of Arp and
trace which has an almost Painting II was notable for its content to work out personal Vantongerloo also made a profound
unconscious design. I have been strong configuration framing a solutions expressed chiefly in the impression on him.
told it is the one thing an artist can't diagrammatic motif, set off by dark figurative content of their work. The Ten years ago it was clear that
be taught. While it does permeate the splatters of paint like breaking chalk. first group consciously see themselves Camargo was entering an important
drawings, this quality has been Barry Martin investigated the use of as rejecting the traditional image of stage of his development. At the time
deleted from the paintings; with colour to create effects of recession the Painting School, and regard their there was a growing interest in South
Bell's natural gift, one wishes he through space, in paintings that work as a bid to leave behind the American artists, many of whom lived
were using it consistently. offer a positive tranquillity that is comforts of figuration in order to in Paris. These artists were (and are)
Cara Montgomery particularly rewarding. In comparison enter the vital mainstream of abstract involved in abstract art. However,
Arthur Wilson's convoluted and art. However biased this view may be, their outlook was subtly different from
interpenetrating metal reliefs have a their work at least shows that they are that of European artists. The ease and
The London Group at surging energy which is barely aware of post-1940 American art, in facility with which they expressed
The Whitechapel Gallery, London, contained within their highly contrast to the cosy cocoon abstract ideas, the total elimination of
4-23 December 1973. disciplined structures. Neville Boden apparently swathing some of the the figurative and yet the warmth and
The Whitechapel's loan of the gallery also uses thin sheets of metal to other students. However, although emotional content of their work,
space allowed the London Group fashion witty Angels, in the shape of their ideology commands respect, characterized a particular approach
to re-open their ranks to outsiders wings with scalloped edges, curling they are only beginning to work out which could be identified as South
again this year. with scarlet bravura. the large problems they have set American.
An exhibition such as this is The artists selected by the themselves. Very often the less Several months ago I passed
particularly valuable because it Committee included Robert Darkes, ambitious works of the other camp through Paris on my way back from
manages to open up the magic a skilful Realist with an unexpected are more successful within their own a trip to the Middle East and North
circle of the commercial galleries, talent for infusing lifeless stucco terms. Africa. I had visited a number of places
increasingly difficult to penetrate with colouristic warmth, while David Wiseman's four canvases including Isfahan, Damascus, Cairo
for both new artists and established retaining the bleak anonymity of his show how he has tackled the problem and Fez; and was full with the beauty
names whose work is currently chosen locations. The atmospheric of setting up and denying illusionistic of what I had seen ; some of the finest
unfashionable. Furthermore it qualities of his damp plaster contrast space. His tentative manner becomes examples of the art of a civilization
provides all the artists concerned with the gleaming surfaces of John progressively more coherent. In whose expression was entirely based
with a rare opportunity to revalue Ki 'day's High Rise Block, which comparison Michael Major's work on abstract principles. It was against
their own work through seeing it in uses rainbow iridescences appears more confident, perhaps this background that I saw Camargo's
a broad context. to activate myriad bands of because he is working in a narrower recent works. I was amazed by what
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