Art
[TILE ALPINE CLUB GALLERY, MILL STREET.]
MR. JACK YEATS, whose paintings are being exhibited at the Alpine Gallery, is a school to himself both in outlook and method, and it is difficult to decide whether or not a strain of Irish blood in one's veins may not be necessary to appreciate fully his work. His vision, even in the most everyday subjects, is romantic (for want of a -better word), and this-romantic or whatever you like to call it Outlook is more appealing to an Irishman. This must not be taken to mean, however, that his pictures only appeal to Irishmen, for such is very far from the case. In this exhibition; Mr: Yeats carries his visions a step further; and in two of his pictures he 'introduces mys- terious figures. Faces in- the Bog has two diaphanous figures In the foreground, through which 'the landscape- is visible. -Horses, too, still claim his attention, and The -Horse. Lover, painted at Galway races, is one- of- his best pictures. The lights on the grass below the horse and rider, the bright con- fusion of the crowd, and the background of sea are all worked into an hainionious and colourful whole'. There, is a touch of poetic sentiment in A 'Farewell to Mayo, where a very sunlit landscape contrasts with the gloomy mood of the man , Who is being driven on an t` outside ' (not-jaunting)•car to the station, and thence to exile and foreign parts. A . Summer Evening, Bosses'. Point, Ass and . Foal, and Dawn-Holyhead belong to Mr. Yeats' earlier period, and as the last-named is hung in close proximity-to Faces in the Beg one can see clearly how far Mr. Yeats has changed in his methods in later years. One hopes that he will go onwards with his present, methods from vision to vision. There is great appeal in his. work, and whatever else his paintings do, they arouse in one the desire to visit the land whose people-and landscapes he paints
in so colourful and kindly a manner. • . .G. G.
Previous page
