Page 63 - Studio International - July August 1974

degraded creatures, who have New work thirty years, and is now overgrown qualities of the area involved, eg an
seldom been portrayed more with shrubs, saplings, grass etc. and area with large rocks has large panels,
forcefully'. Monsieur Dorival has a Grass verge paintings cluttered with rocks. tall grass, tall panels. The panels of
way with words only matched by The proposal is to place several The intention is to place several each 'painting' are made of wood over
Rouault himself... 'If I make the 'grass verge paintings' in an 'grass verge paintings' in specific which painted canvas is stretched and
judges look such wretched creatures, environment for which they have areas of the quarry : the areas chosen then sealed. The panels are double
it must have been because of the been specifically painted .The are those which immediately sided so that they can be viewed all
shock it gives me to see a human being proposed site is a disused chalk indicate their own identity, and their around. They stand vertically and are
who has to judge his fellow creatures'. quarry at the edge of Wingate Wood, particular qualities make them fairly secured by metal rods passing through
How does Rouault depict his God ? Hailing on the Medway, Kent. The distinct and definable in terms of area, them into the ground.
Side by side in the main room at quarry is accessible by a narrow road structure, vegetation, etc. The intention is to place the 'grass
Manchester are two paintings. The and is cut into the hillside rather than The paintings are of grass, hopefully verge paintings' in the quarry either
first, Two Nudes (1910), is of a couple into the ground, so that its floor is at relating to the specific areas for which in late July or early August 1974 and
of generalized, universalized female normal level. It is surrounded on three they have been painted, ie the painting to leave them for about one month.
forms. They are twisted, unpleasant, sides by Wingate Wood ; the other becomes an extension of the The event will constitute an exhibition
and without doubt whores. The side opens via a short narrow wooded particular landscape and vice versa. in that the paintings will be there in a
second painting (1911) is also of two path on to the roadway, Pilgrims Way. The size and number of panels per specific location for a specific time.
figures (male) not appreciably The quarry has been disused for about painting have been determined by the Ian McKeever
different from the first. It is entitled
The Baptism of Christ. There is a
burning desire which certain devout
people feel for the body of Christ
which communion with this painting
would in no way satisfy. It comes as
no surprise that in 1911 a critic
stigmatized this work as The
Baptism of a Chimpanzee.
From 1914 onwards Rouault
painted less and executed many
engravings, working directly for
Vollard until 1928. There are three
main series : Miserere et Guerre first
published in 1948 under the title
Miserere, Reincarnations du Pére
Ubu, and Passion. The Miserere
series is shown in its entirety at
Manchester, interesting if only for the
the way they were made and for the
titles which they were given. Rouault
employed a special technique to make
these 57 plates. After photo-
mechanical transfer of the original
composition to the copper plate, he
'worked it over' with all sorts of
engraving tools until the mechanical
undercoating almost entirely
disappeared. Thinking ourselves
Kings is a figure which grins stupidly
and wears a crown. Christ will be in
agony until the end of the world
(Pascal) is the head and torso of a
crucified Christ, the arms
disappearing out of the top corners of
the page. The series continues in a
similar vein with Virgins, blind men,
scenes of war (Rouault lived through
both the First and Second World
Wars) and other dark and morbid
images which have in common the
idea of the world as a wretched place.
It seems that Vollard controlled the
direction of Rouault's progress
during these years, and it was after
ridding himself of all obligations to the
dealer who had more or less paid
wages that Rouault could apply
himself once again to his devotional
pictures, 'icons' such as The Holy
Face, reproductions of which seem to
sell extremely well to local education
authorities. Having been persuaded
by Moreau that it was right to strive
after a 'necessary richness', Rouault
sought to give to his pigments the
intrinsic beauty of ceramics, enamels
or stained glass, and he succeeded by
effort and a kind of clumsy skill in
transforming everyday paint into a
profound and sumptuous substance,
magical in its transparency.
Tony Rothon