Page 87 - Studio International - September October 1975

simpler and more complete. They with the landmarks Monet or
also rely less on lyrical paintwork, Whistler used in London, the
perhaps because there is less of a Houses of Parliament and the
separation between the painterly Thames bridges, which were
and the structure that supports it. surely used for their symbolic
Such structures - or formats that centrality as well as for their
permit colours to be separated visual shape. They situated those
without being overtly composed - colour fields, and served to co-
have had to remain functional ordinate them on an identifiable
(but inarticulate) armatures. and potently evocative slice of
Formats have a tendency to take reality witnessed at a specific time.
root as styles and lose their If those colour patches are seen as
initial advantages. Edwards has invented, and not as documenting
been shrewd to keep his in something seen (ie not
rotation, but here he is moving recognized), they appear quite
away from the idea of formats and arbitrary and meaningless. The
series altogether. These are illusion must be strong for the
paintings in a more open sense: experience to seem authentic - a
their identities are not so strange paradox in painting. If
interdependent. And whereas authenticity is still founded on
before Impressionism hung about deception, as it may well be, the
as a vague allusion, here it assists question would not be 'did Monet
in making those identities more see that or did he make it up?'
concrete. but, 'is there a painting here to be
Titling a work with a place- seen?' -a sort of perceptual
name is usually more than a double-bluff. Presences in
sentimental after-thought - painting, that is illusions of
witness Diebenkorn, Stella or presence, are as subtle as people.
King for example. It situates the To reject illusionary devices in
feeling of a work, immerses it in favour of an art that doesn't trick
that place. Edwards has accepted the mind - apart from being
the fact that these paintings are appallingly simple-minded - is
going to be evocative, and has the classic way new illusions get
titled them with places round foisted on us. Illusions keep one
Wapping, where the warehouse step ahead.
studio holds out in the dockland Brian Fielding's paintings have
ambience of derelict wharves. a different type of presence. They
The place is so drenched in bare the nerves of picture-making.
maritime memories that even the Where Edwards' are fluent and
names are like old tars. homogeneous these are dry and
David Jones It's significant that the strut hesitant, full of pause and
The Maid at No. 37 1926 Although he understood the motif is itself analogous to a
Pencil and watercolour intent behind their work, David suggestion. To imaginatively
15¼ x 11 in. Jones never followed his silhouette, sometimes looming in comprehend the chalky markings
contemporaries into pure the foreground, sometimes in the you have to fill in the gaps, like
assertive. In addition to washes, abstraction. His care for his background, and is liable to
undergo distortions of scale (the
bright flecks of colour are dryly subjects was too strong. He was colour field coheres as light, not
John Edwards
and urgently brushed on. White is the instrument of his affections space). They define the indefinite Cold harbour 1975
mixed into some colours giving and this exhibition testifies to atmosphere. They're comparable Acrylic on canvas
them a pearly opaqueness. their rare innocence. 90 x 66 in.
Crayon is used in glancing strokes. Paul Hills
The pencil lines run free of
shading, carving shapes and
encircling space; or the pencil
is wielded in sharp chiselling John Edwards
jabs. As in Ben Nicholson's Rowan, 20 June-13 July
work - a major inspiration at this
time - the strokes of the brush Brian Fielding
frequently overlap the sparely Hoya, 4-31 July
drawn outline, and their texture
and speed are undisguised. It is The most striking thing about
remarkable that Jones could John Edwards' new paintings is
follow in watercolour Nicholson's their light - it sheds off when you
example in more substantial hit the street outside. It's heavy
media. and gloomy, filtering through
These changes underline David blacks, reds and watery greens -
Jones's recognition of the the effect of the thickish glazing
autonomous nature of the work scraped over the surface. Bonded
of art. The marks made with into this texture are forceful X and
paint on paper possess a life of Y shapes, bending against each
their own, which transcends other like struts wedged against the
any illusionistic intent. Jones sides. They're grouped in the top
appreciated the exploration of half of the vertical field, exposing
materials carried on by his a vertiginous drop underneath, a
contemporaries in the '7 and 5' direction that's blocked off by a
Society, such as Wood, Nicholson, horizontal bar in some. These
Hepworth and Moore. In his work thrusts synchronize with the
may be discerned the same rhythm of the modelling
clarity of line and the same controlling the surface - their
feeling for the space between dynamics are sculptural in that
objects. Instead of stretching a they inhabit rather than make this
cat's-cradle of string to define a space.
space between two solids, he Edwards' paintings are
loops a briar from cup to jug. expressively integrated, the
And like Ben Nicholson he strut-like motifs strain against the
unites the spaces of a landscape paint's viscosity, and the colour is
beyond a window with the in dialogue - it's not juxtaposed
intervals between familiar in layers or fragments as in
objects on table and sill. previous series. They are both
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