Josie Jay paintings

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 5

Josie Jay paintings

“Paintings,” by Josie Jay at the C.S.A. Gallery until November 22. Reviewed by Pat Unger.

Matisse once said of Cezanne, “He is the great god of painting.” Now all the world admires not one but three gods. To this trilogy is added Matisse and of course Picasso. They are the heroes. Their shadows have been reflected in nearly all aspiring artists’ work at some stage in their careers.

Josie Jay has long been influenced by these greats, particularly Matisse. She is the holder of the C.S.A. Guthrey Art Award for 1987, and has visited Europe and has now seen the real thing. She also painted in the United States. These works are the result.

Jay has taken a step backwards. And it improves her work. By moving away from the artificial closeness of book reproductions, she perceives art principles and concerns more clearly. Working now on large canvases also makes the act of painting more selfconsciously realised. Apart from their size and the vigour of the paint application, there

Art review

are no radical departures in this show. Two of the works "Lifeline” and “Couple and Crows” have an up-to-the-minute contemporary boldness about them. Not bold as in “ideas” art — which is about intellectual (or anti-intel-lectual) things and is concerned with conceptual, political or coded statements — but contemporary as in decorative or painterly art. All the works deal with the human figure, but as a symbol within a compositional abstraction. They are not about life’s intimacies or about the human condition. They are about colour, about the brushstroke and about the mark, held in a unity of design. In “The Quest” the image of a ladder (now very popular) appears. Upon it wavers a washedwhite ghostly figure rising from its hatched and

gloomy blueness to see better the warmer tones above. White lining enhances the drama of colourful, if threatening crows in “Couple and Crows.” They also add a note of America and theatre to this work. “Seated Woman” and “Composition with Figures” are the most derivative and least adventurous. The colours, complementary and contrasting, are borrowed from the Fauvists. The brush strokes, scrubby and short and the compositions generally, suggest the animated style of the masters. Jay experiments with media. Oil paint is knifed on, crayon is slashed on. Pigment is sometimes thinned to a dribble and irridescent paint is everywhere. Modelling is suppressed to give paint and surface more expression. The painstaking carelessness of previous work is replaced by a spontaneous indulgence in technique and in the sheer pleasure of different paints’ effects. Some work better than others. They all carry a feeling of enthusiasm. Jay’s step backwards for a clearer view is a step forward for her art.