Page 33 - Studio International - July August 1974

TO RE-EXAMINE THE WORK OF KENNETH NOLAND

Shadow Line x968 We think we know the work of Kenneth Two serigraphs have been done from
Serigraph Noland. Because it has been so widely paintings by Noland, the first of which,
discussed, reproduced, and acclaimed, it Shadow Line,4 is particularly successful. It
seems a settled issue — both in its stature and its consists of eleven bands, all of about one inch
essence. Yet to my eye there are still some in height, uniformly interspersed with twelve
important although unexamined aspects of repeating pairs of very thin stripes, a pink
Noland's painting. This article is intended to one above a light blue one in each case. These
suggest two such aspects and (secondarily) to thin stripes perform a number of functions.
make some observations on Noland's working One is to inflect the surface away from its
processes. otherwise rigid frontality: the pink stripes
For instance, it would seem to me that part- read in front of the blue ones because of both
to-part relations within Noland's painting have their warmer hue and their higher gloss, and so
been rather neglected. Perhaps this is the provide a regular canting away from the picture
result of a preoccupation in the literature with plane. The recurrent pairs work also in a
questions of 'deductive' structure, questions second way, as a kind of drone — that repeating
that owe their prominence to a series of superb element frequently found in Bach, much
articles by Michael Fried,' but which do not Indian music, etc., where it provides a
by any means exhaust the artist's structural `sense of home'5 by virtue of its sheer
concerns. Not that this is an unimportant issue. repetitiveness. The regularity of these thin
From Noland's 'discovery' of concentricity stripes contrasts with the greater variety of the
through those diamond and stripe paintings wider ones, although the latter quite clearly
which tend to subvert2 their literal shapes, the fall into a typical Noland grouping.
element-perimeter relation is quite central to While these wider stripes or bands are
Noland's accomplishment. But in many mostly dark green, four of them differ from the
Nolands this relation is less important than rest.Towards the top, a yellow band tends
structure achieved by grouping elements to group with a light green one two bands below.
within the work. In the bottom half of the picture, a white and
Noland himself observes that many of his a purple band, again separated by one of the
paintings can be viewed in rather the same dark green ones, also form a pair. These
way as a typical Cézanne, in particular Cézanne's pairings stand out from the regularity of the
landscapes. For instance, there can be a rest of the picture, and since their parallelism
certain weightiness towards the bottom of tends to make the eye of the viewer move
Noland's pictures, especially in the horizontal back and forth between them, they unite to
stripes, that he himself feels may relate to the form a yet larger grouping. Nonetheless, while
landscape tradition. But more importantly, in the two pairings are identical in schematic
a mature Cézanne the eye of the viewer is organization, they do not read the same: the
progressively led from one facet to another, top one seems more homogeneous because more
from the smallest to larger ones and eventually consistent in value, and beyond this
to the picture as a whole.3 A similar sort of difference in colour interval, the pairings are
organization can be found in a number of not symmetrically placed within the picture.
Noland horizontal-stripe pictures, including Hence the four-band grouping is irregular and
one of his serigraphs. open enough for the eye of the viewer to
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