Page 79 - Studio International - May 1974

formed by the seasons, and also two or three sections. They are that lack this tension are less lush, almost edible, candy tints — kept
to perceptions of geological divided into irregular rectangular interesting. The best painting, no. 2 airy by the transparency of the resin.
formations. areas over a grid, without any obvious (6ft 10in. x 11ft 10in.), remains The structures worked most easily
In 1970 Mladejovsky completed patterning. The colour is subdued — disjointed : a blue rectangle hangs with the more 'colourful' qualities of
two large paintings each measuring contrasts of blues, reds, orange- awkwardly off centre in the left-hand colour, because denser colours
6 by 5ft, which were concerned with browns, greys and yellows of even section, offsetting the yellow embarrassed the anti-gravitational feel
exploring his perception of growth density, or blues and dark greys horizontals in the right-hand square of the webbing : straddling the
and rhythm in a closer relation to punctuating stretches of pastel shades, section : flatness is less of an issue — sculptures low on the floor in more REVIEW 13
colour. In Listening, for instance, greys, blues, creams, greens, etc., as the more open horizontal format lets or less sculptural attitudes didn't
sharply tensile blue lines, formed if parched by the light of late it be taken for granted : the darker really resolve this. Upstairs Georgina
by stencils, burgeon upwards from afternoon. The colour holds its rectangles refresh the vertical Hunt's large spray paintings gave her
the lower part of the canvas, then opacity like a fresco in spite of its relationships, oases of shade as the room a strong atmosphere. In each a
give way to lines of a more delicate atmosphere, with its weightless colour ambles over the surface gradation (say from the palest violet
and cursive lyricism. Talking, in quality enhanced by the way oil through bleached pastel tints. The to lemon-yellow) was sustained from
contrast, is more assertive and formed paint is lightly brushed out onto the deceptive looseness allows one centre to edge : her problems were
by the inversion of the stencils. Here linen canvas in each area. The shapes colour sequence to freely take over technical, keeping the gradation
the lines are green, more vigorous are kept to essentially lateral from another with an amazing imperceptible, getting the right scale.
and dramatic, and general effect is relationships by arranging contrasts lucidity. Inevitably the intention to avoid an
jarring and febrile. so that dominant shapes don't stand Such an explicit relational use of image was compromised by having an
Mladejovsky's further attempt to out too much, whilst sufficient variety colour is a welcome change from the emanating centre, and they were
intensify his thematic exploration can keeps the attention moving from one glib dismissals of composition as a very much idealistic abstractions: but
be seen in Mirage of 1972. This work area to another, retaining the European nostalgia, a balancing act the idealism was so practically
which is intended to hang without character of additive composition for show-offs. Too often painters orientated that they were far more
wall support, is composed of two rather than pervasive monochrome. abdicate from it by leaving ascetic than run-of-the-mill Olitski
aligned canvases with incisions, Novros has the problem of bringing composition as the dried-up residue imitations, and more powerful thereby.
inclining at a constant angle, the colour sequences into a telling of painterly activity, or take a ride on James Faure Walker
forming the figuration. As one moves
around this canvas the impression Ambrose MacEvoy at Morley
received is like that of light reflected College March-13 April.
from a waterfall. And in Snowball of Ambrose MacEvoy had a
the same year Mladejovsky uses the conventional artistic training for his
effect of light in an even more time. The chronology at the beginning
literal image. A white canvas of the catalogue of this new
overlaying a confluence of exhibition at Morley College reads
interweaving colours is cut into a like that of the artist in Ronald
relief of swirling rhythms and Searle's series 'The Rake's Progress'.
currents. 1893 for example — 'Received
The limiting feature of this kind of encouragement from Whistler.
activity lies in its metaphorical nature, Entered the Slade. Met Augustus
in its tendency to give the image a kind
John.' A giddy year and enough to
of highly focused naturalism. In turn the head of the best. However
response to this recognition his individuality developed early and
Mladejovsky began to use the surface continued to do so until his death at
more deliberately, with greater David Novros No 21973 the qualities (or quantities ?) of one the early age of forty-eight.
dexterity; hence the images, Oil on canvas, 2 parts 6 ft 10 in x 82 x 142 in. colour at a time, keeping formal At the Slade he was influenced by
especially his most recent, began to unity across the surface without devices to the legitimate threshold the Old Masters, whom he copied
lose their effect as visual metaphors immersing them in a pictorial space of current taste in the name of some assiduously and of whom he made a
and attain a fresh autonomy. or imposing a facile linear design. safe vanguard : it's a short well- close study—Titian, Rubens and
Apart from New Year, the other Previously he seems to have got round trodden path from bareness to Rembrandt and in the first decade of
painting in Mladejovsky's this by using systemic devices — banality, and pedantic refinements, the century Sickert introduced him to
exhibition which attained a realized repetitions, rotations, L figurations (a even bogus religious sentiment take Impressionism. His debt to Sickert in
integration and autonomy was memento of shaped-canvas days). over where greater things were other directions is shown in his
Front Page. If it lacks the generous The L motif crops up a few times here, intended. But here the composition landscapes of this period — Margaretta
freedom of that work, it is no less but its pronounced character is kept doesn't intrude as a self-conscious Terrace (1906) in the exhibition—and
evocative. Here the colours disclosed in check by playing it in subordinate process of decision-making, it in the use of reflection as in The Ear
from within the cut canvas are deep colour. Perhaps to counteract the remains quietly behind the scenes, Ring of 1911. These two influences
orange, brown and black. The ground, stacked look the elements take on in giving the colour its own eloquence, enabled him to show by about 1910
a fresh pink, has a quality of heavier colours, Novros has separated and the paintings remain direct where a brilliance in handling light and
lightness — as if it were permeated the colour into lights and darks which directness isn't an issue. colour which was to keep him at the
with air. There is a sensitive and vivid are juxtaposed in 'in front of or behind' The most recent Space studio show forefront of his profession.
arrangement of tonal value—of warm situations : these overlap illusions are was at 98 Euston Road, a stony His Odette Thornhill of 1911
oranges, of cold greens, of opaque too graphic to be credible and cancel building next to St Pancras Station. (also at the Morley) paved the way for
browns —that actively engage and themselves out with a touch of irony, The six artists have only been there his future fame, cemented by
sustain a rich sensuousness as a leaving the lateral relationships in a year and the corridors are still the appearance at the N EAC in
tonality. Indeed, the relationship charge. This works well in no. 5 haunted by smells of steam as much 1914 of Madame, in which a looking
between the constituted whole and (8½ x 5ft) where a number of pastel as paint. The bizarre change of use glass is again used to great effect.
moment is reciprocal : each focal rectangles play hide and seek round at Space buildings invariably gives From then on his life was that of a
moment owes its sense to the whole, a central large dark area, and pop in their new users a weird sense of place fashionable portrait painter, except for
and the sense given by the whole is and out of the edge of the painting. to work with or against. Here Ben a brief period as a war artist in 1918.
engendered by what the focal You might expect the main shape Jones's bright and coolly coloured What seems to distinguish him from
moment offers. to dominate the others, or drop away lattice-like constructions were just the majority of those who succumb
Christopher Fox as a background plane, but the colour right : they consisted of webs of fibre- to this exacting calling is that only
and scale keep the shapes glass ribbon twisted and stretched, set rarely does he fail to establish a
David Novros at Felicity Samuel's enigmatically local to their positions on in coloured resin, and knitted into rapport with his sitter and almost
Gallery, London, 1-26 April. the surface. A smaller related painting dumpy translucent structures a few never to bring out their personality.
Space Studio Show at 98 Euston no. 4 (4 x 8½ ft), which employs a feet high. They resembled Brower His portrait of Lord Crewe, the
Road, London, 1-6 centred image of interlocking shapes, Hatcher's bushy structures, but distinguished statesman and
David Novros had six paintings on gets close to being a constructivist were less busy, letting the eye follow diplomat, is an exception : it alone in
show at Felicity Samuel's, all cliché of elephantine proportions : the the strands along tracks and zones the exhibition seems to have been a
rectangles ranging from 4 x 8ft to tension intensifies the colour's effort without getting lost in a generalized duty rather than a labour of love, for it
7 x 12ft, the larger ones made up of to get back in place. The paintings haze. Colour was their strong point — is wooden and unfeeling in