Page 63 - Studio International - May June 1975

Two Exhibitions at The Tate Gallery

Leger and Purist Paris—Robyn Denny

Architect: Neave Brown

The two exhibitions 'Leger and Purist One exhibition showed the work of a
Paris' and 'Robyn Denny' were mounted group of artists who knew and influenced
at the Tate under the heavily Neo- each other over a limited period. The
classical vault of the Duveen Gallery. other showed the work of one relatively
This space was allocated some years ago young man. The one was associated to
for temporary exhibitions and a great some extent with a consciously pursued
many have been held there since. Every ideal and was polemical. It also had
exhibition has unique requirements. In architectural context (Le Corbusier and
an attempt to make this unpromising Ozenfant). The space contrived for it
space suitable, the central area of ceiling directly acknowledged the architecture,
has been lowered with a lighting grid and and stressed the interaction of the artists
the walls lined to obliterate the detail. and allowed comparison between groups
However, it remains intractably long, of paintings. It was basically a single
thin and symmetrical, and the old vault space, comprehensible at a glance.
glowers ominously down through the The work of Robyn Denny required
grid. a more complex space. The paintings are
It is the ideal nature of exhibition space generally large. Many suggest a private
that it can respond to the particular world of mysterious depths, and the
quality of the material with a minimum possibility of vast and bewildering spaces
of effort. The spectator should enter not behind the canvas. They also confront and
just a room containing the objects on challenge the spectator and any
display, but also a manifestation of the arrangement should allow for a meeting
magic world they suggest they should with each canvas like a surprise encounter.
inhabit. If they are worth exhibiting and The space became something of a maze,
have enough identity, and the space is also mysterious and ambiguous.
congenial, only a little unobtrusive The incongruity of each, within the
conjuring may be required to achieve mausoleum-like body of the Tate Gallery,
this. Such is the nature of the Tate perhaps added a quality, as of discovering
Gallery that the original quality of the in a cavern an alive and unexpected
space must be totally obliterated. world.•
The requirements of the two Neave Brown
exhibitions were in extreme contrast.

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