A GOOD GROUP SHOW

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31825, 1 November 1968, Page 19

A GOOD GROUP SHOW

Group Show, C.S.A. Gallery, 66 Gloucester Street, until November 10.

This year’s Group Show is a good one. The clean white walls of the new gallery do; much for the paintings,! though in places poor natural' light and the absence of artificial lighting is a disservice to artist and viewer alike! (e.g., 86-89). Quentin MacFarlane's i "Storm Sketch (Marine),”! illustrated above, reveals once more his command of. superb dignified blues, his] sure, almost calligraphic, style of painting, perfectly at one with mood and media. This work should eventually find its way into a public collection.

W. A. Sutton contributes two clean, cool, pictures with beautifully seen and painted elegies of hills in autumn and in winter; hills unsullied and lonely as a cloud. Surely these two paintings are meant to be seen together like movements of a Symphony?

lan Hutson will, I think, come to be regarded as one of the best of the very promising artists at last emerging from the Schools of Art. Certainly his “Lazarus” (35) reveals an understanding of paint quality, very rare in this country. The sonorous surface of this picture almost recalls the physical presence of a late Rembrandt.

By comparison, while there Is much to enjoy in Derek Ball’s painting and sculpture, especially his portrait of “Rodney Kennedy esq.,” some of his “problem solving” seems clever rather than visually satisfying. However, I would be the first to agree that his “Interlocking Sphere” (128) is badly displayed.

Speaking of portraits, the bronze of Sir Edmund Hillary by Alison Duff has the ruggedness of Everest and the mountaineer combined, yet for some reason it failed to meet my expectations as a work of sculpture, perhaps because for me it is a oneview work. Paradoxically as it may sound, I judge it painted portrait in the round. It is a very spirited and worthwhile work all the same.

Perhaps even more courageous are three portraits by Doris Lusk in water-colour, which are outstanding for daring and skill. To allow waterborne pigments to spread and seep to create the softness of lip and to do this with precision consistent with personal characterisation can only be achieved by an absolute mastery of the medium. It is easy to underestimate works which do not shout or scream for attention.

Louise Henderson tempts us with soft, gentle diaphanous paintings, but then the catalogue taunts us by saying they are all “n.f.s."

John Coley has been busy working out lattice structures in a thoroughly conscientious and painterly way and his “Perdida” is extremely clever, but L for one, look forward to what he may next do, if and when he has exhausted his interest in “retinal art.”

The shock picture of the exhibition for many will be "Nappy Rash” (93), painted by lan Scott I hope nobody

| will mistake this for an ex- | ample of New Realism, for •to be so considered it would need to be better constructed I and painted. Propaganda I painting which indulges in j macabre sensationalism is I ever more possible in this age of planned obsolescence, but if it is to rise above the (in- ■ effectual) level of the horror film, it must be art before it can persuade us. "The Dormition” (118) of Ria Bancroft fills a pleasantly I irregular shape. As a composition in which heads and hands play a very important part I wish either its scale had been a trifle larger or the material used been capable of accepting more precise definition because, it seems to me, some of the hands are at a half-way stage between a simplified, stylised symbol and a fully perceived and realised form. However, this comment is no more than hair-splitting compared with the achievement presented by the nobility and serenity of the Virgin Mary’s head, masterly in its repose. Tom Taylor’s black steel “machine sculpture” is very different in spirit and it would be hard to find sculptures more unlike; it may be hard for some viewers to even agree that both are good of their kind.

Taylor’s beautifully designed, sensitively shaped, soundly constructed compositions grace their clean con-

crete pedestals, but will they find a home? When will industry and commerce support the arts in this country as they do overseas? Glamorous competitions are all very well but direct commissions will achieve more for patron and artist in the long run. If tax laws prevent such developments then the laws should be changed—it would cost the Government next to nothing and would mean a great deal to the artists of this country. There is more good sculpture in this Group Show than I can remember for a number of years.

Indeed, one is tempted to believe that after its long travail, sculpture has come of age, is accepted and understood as being more than a counterfeit of natural forms; though only recently a person looking at a sculptor’s drawings was heard to remark, “Oh, I knew he was a sculptor but I didn't realise he was an artist as well”! Len Castle is well represented by his now-familiar “archaeological” ceramics; Michael Trumic contributes pots with very distinguished glazes; Warren Tippett shows in his work a verve and spirit we normally associate with medieval pottery; and Nola Barron presents works which would grace any international exhibition.

Ida Lough confirms that the tapestries she produced

two or three years ago were only the beginning of a long, mature, evolving study. “High Country” (138 B and “The Clearing” (138 E are both rewarding works which will, I am certain, survive all the ups and downs of fashionable change. Some of our larger galleries tend to be timid and behind the times and they accord the “Fine Arts” a superiority they don’t really possess: surely Ida Lough deserves to be represented in public collections? It was a joy to discover the work of Margery Blackman; her rugs and wall hangings, reveal a designer and weaver par excellence. Looking back over the last decade it becomes clear a revolution has taken place. In 1958 paintings came in autumn tonings of green and brown and only a few years before "crafts." as they were then described, were considered unworthy of being exhibited with painting. Quite a lot of the credit for the more enlightened attitude prevailing today, and reflected in the present exhibition, must go to Group Shows of previous years for opening their doors to artists who were not then “accepted.” One hopes success will not diminish the Group’s crusading spirit and its championing of artists who still find it difficult to exhibit. tr T C