Page 60 - Studio International - July August 1974

play of light which, in striking certain something refreshing about an older
forms directly, robs them of their artist resolutely continuing on the
substance. impure but ultimately more complex,
An elaborate drawing of 1972 difficult and rewarding task of making
depicts a group of figures clutching works which reconcile apparently
each other, apparently performing a opposing requirements. Robert
kind of conga dance. It is surprising Adams is of the same generation as
that this grouping, with limbs at Armitage, but in the early fifties when
alarming angles, makes much sense 'abstract' versus 'figurative' was the
visually until one realizes that the central issue he sided with the former.
composition, now in vertical format, His work has never been easy to pin
has been built upon a lateral one in down stylistically. In his new
which the rogue elements fit with sculpture at Gimpel Fils the initial
perfect logic. The motif of this impact of uniformity created by the
drawing has been formalized in a sleek forms and craftsmanship in the
series of three made in the following repeated combination of highly
year. In these the figures are cut off at polished and tastefully patinated
the shoulders and divided by a line at bronze conceals an extreme
the waist, and the legs beneath them eclecticism.

Henry Moore Sculptural Object in Landscape Kenneth Armitage Drawings
1939 Chalk, pen and watercolour, 15 'X 22 in.
at the Hester van Royen Gallery,
Drawings, to illustrate Moore's own London, 1-25 May
visual education. Moore's choice Robert Adams Sculpture
consists of Michelangelo, Seghers, at Gimpel Fils, London, 29 May-
Rembrandt (including the wonderful 22 June
negress on a bed), Turner, Millet, This is a particularly apt moment for
Redon and Seurat. But this is a highly an exhibition of Kenneth Armitage's
dangerous game to play in the context drawings. His recent sculpture
of a modest showing of Moore's own combines graphic images with
work. It's a bit like reading the decent plaster figures, themselves often
prose of a literary critic and finding having drawn features. It has been the
that any excitement generated is in achievement of Armitage's best
the illustrative quotations. Though it sculpture to encapsulate human
is of interest to re-contemplate observation within the context of an
Moore's achievements in the light of original, often highly abstracted form.
drawings that have meant much to The drawings in the exhibition, with
him, there is an unfortunate effect : their humour and technical invention,
both he and Auden are dwarfed. are a worthy counterpart to this
This leads to a consideration of the achievement. They also have a sense
Museum's justness in sponsoring so of spontaneity which he has only
munificently what is clearly a recently attained in his sculpture.
commercial enterprise, not just Unfortunately the only sculptures on
paying tribute to a famous English display at the Hester van Royen
artist. If the book (not complete in Gallery were the two bronze versions
time for the exhibition) was likely to of Design fora Wilderness. Not only
be a work of superlative craftsmanship are they less vital than similar works in
a case could be made, I suppose. But plaster, but much of the sense of
judging from the specimen pages interaction between the two and three
presented, the thing looks as if it will dimensional figures is lost because
be just another tribute by the rich to of the disparity in colour and material.
their existing collections. The Although the drawings shown are
typography is pompous, the pages not specifically studies for sculpture
bloated, quite unsuitable for the poet's the relationship between his work in
work at least and its vapid luxury the two media is fascinating. The
makes it consort ill in its present earliest drawing in the exhibition of
surroundings. It is not easy to two seated figures, dating from 1954,
reconcile the austerity in stone and anticipates the Diarchy of three years
line that Moore has practised with this later in its use of a flat plane to suggest
vulgarity. The lithographs are excellent the torso, contrasting with the
technically but are appendages to the almost aggressively jutting-out legs.
poetry : they might just as well be The female figure has small yet
rolling around diurnally 'with rocks, pendulous breasts stranded in the Kenneth Armitage Untitled 1971 For example, the large Vertex shows
Charcoal, collage on paper. 30 x 20¾ in.
and stones, and trees.' middle of the chest. The feeling of an interest in mathematically-based
There is a bonus, even though from isolation from the structure of the disturbingly, don't quite fit. The form, but the initial inspiration is
a ragbag. This is the little exhibition of body allows them a certain three- repetition gives a frieze-like quality surely Moore's knife-edge pieces. It
Auden memorabilia, manuscripts and dimensional presence denied the to the image. Instead of the rich and seems to be simply hedging its bets.
photographs etc. These more torso. These tensions are carried out complex texture of the earlier Too often, in the smaller pieces, the
accurately represent the poet than in the later drawings. In two drawings drawings the form is created through a formal tensions created by the slight
anything else here. Two photographs of 1971, collage is used to create simple juxtaposition of short white asymmetries or links which are not
notably catch the eye : there is the stark clean areas of white against a rapid pencil strokes. There is a much quite made are dissipated rather than
famous one of the poet lighting a fag, richly worked charcoal surface. stronger sense of background, so resolved by a somewhat facile surface
striking his 'Alpha' match in a pose There is the same harsh contrast making an apt two-dimensional elegance. Perhaps the difficulty is the
that turned on part of a generation to between black and white which equivalent of those sculptures in disparity between the fundamentally
poetry ; the other was taken on Fire Armitage favours in photographs of which the figures strut on a narrow organic nature of Adams's inspiration
Island, New York, in 1947. It shows his sculpture. Yet this interplay stage against a flat surface. and the need to transmute this into
Auden, Spender and Isherwood between light and dark also creates an At the time when the avant-garde bronze, with its very strong fine art
together: Auden looks to his right, unexpected relationship between so often regards the attempt to do connotations. In spite of its
Herr Issyvoo looks left while Spender flatness and three-dimensionality more than one thing at a time as an abstraction, it is demonstrable
-seems to be looking inward, deeply. within the structure of the human unworthy compromise ('matter as that Adams's sources are of this
Timothy O'Keefe body. Here it is rationalized by the matter' or 'idea as idea') there can be kind. There are constant references