Page 36 - Studio International - January 1965

1
__
2
each other interminably, Bury always finds some pattern
that is like no other.
Since Picasso's bicycle seat. many artists have used
found objects toward humorous ends. Jim Love. a
Texas artist showing for the first time in New York at
the lolas Gallery, has a good sense of humour and con­
siderable sculptural skill. His compilations of metal
objects, ranging from soup ladles to scissors, nearly
always arrive at either satiric or burlesque images. At
his best. he offers economically scaled. cleverly con­
trived jokes that. because of his combination of unlikely
elements, endure beyond their punchlines.
No one at this point would deny that painting is in a
state of considerable confusion. The unprecedented
rush to work in the manner of a new 'school' is a sure
index of the general failure of the tradition to nourish
the young. For this reason. among others. I was par­
ticularly impressed with Frank Roth's exhibition at the
Borgenicht Gallery. Here is one young painter who,
despite the hectic swirl of 'tendencies· around him, and
despite the restlessness and inattentiveness of the
public, continues to permit himself to develop within
the framework of assumptions he adopted years ago.
It is because Roth has not swerved from his course,
but has rather deepened it that his new paintings are so
confident. so muscular in feeling. In seeing through his
original problem (the synthesis of abstract expressionist
freedom of form and movement with austere, strictly
governed elements) Roth has opened many new
thoroughfares into which he can move. His new paint­
ings, with looping lines. recessive forms and strange
perspectives hurtle into uncharted spaces. Much of the
activity is induced by his use of strong colours. applied
so that the surfaces are alive but not fretted. Swinging
with tremendous elan from one climate to another
within a single painting, Roth offers a variety of images:
shapes unfolding along diagonal axes like springy
hinges; shapes moving back, as though into deep door­
ways; shapes like highways straddling vast plains,
shapes vaguely reminiscent of organic life. Swiftness
and vitality controlled by a keen structural interest
characterize Roth's new paintings.
New paintings by Peter Saul at the Frumkin Gallery
continue in the vein of savage burlesque of American
mores. If anything, they are more angry than ever. Saul's
method, and his madness. consists in using familiar
symbols of comic strip and TV commercial provenience
in violently sexual contexts. Saul doesn't stop short
with classic Freudian symbols (the pistol. the clock, the
knife. the cigarette) but goes in for elaborate explana­
tions as well. Readable allegories of American pathology.
As explicit as Saul's denunciations are. they are
curiously expansive. There is much room for visual
experience having nothing to do with his motifs (his
use of large volumes and veering planes is expert) and
1 there are equivocal details that indicate a host of
David Hockney
Plastic Tree plus City Hall. 1 964 secondary interests. This young dissenter has found
Acrylic 5 x 4 ft. an appropriate vehicle for his sense of outrage.
Alan Gallery Juxtaposition in the good symbolist tradition is the
source of David Hockney's strength in his exhibition
2 at the Alan Gallery. Although I have seen his name cited
Malcolm Morley
High July frequently in relation to so-called pop art. Hockney
Kornblee Gallery strikes me as an intelligent heir to the symbolist tradition
as exemplified by the older painter Magritte. Like the
3 Belgian, Hockney often collates disparate, vignetted
Frank Roth images to produce a metaphor that is neither contained
Jodrell Bank. 1964
68 X 68 in. entirely within the painting, nor entirely independent of
Grace Borgenicht Gallery it. Moreover, he is given to the kind of visual conceits
24