Exhibitions 2
Susan Wilson (Cadogan Contemporary, till 20 July) Augustus John (Piccadilly Gallery, till 27 July)
Natural interests
Giles Auty
Returning home feeling somewhat tired last week, I switched on my television without bothering to check the channel. Through drooping eyelids I watched a young woman of feral demeanour reflect pleasurably on the joys and apparent pains 'January, Two Months, 1991, oil on board, by Susan Wilson of lesbian congress. Sneezing and facial rashes appeared to be part of what one might describe as the downside. Devotees, if there are any, may realise here that I was tuned into Channel Four's weekly Out pro- gramme, which was previously unfamiliar to me. I suppose I dozed off awhile there- after until awakened suddenly by the rather overdone yell of a young man hurling a dis- cus what appeared to be all of 20 feet. Apparently he was one of 7,000 athletes from 27 countries who took part in last year's Gay Games in Vancouver. Out is a programme which seeks to institutionalise orientations which were regarded common- ly, at one time, as deviations from a norm.
I reflect on this whole matter because I had returned home that particular evening from prolonged scrutiny of some very wor- thy paintings by a young New Zealand artist and mother, Susan Wilson. A good deal of her subject matter concerns her rather new child and another which looks to be a couple of years older. Someone had said to me earlier how odd it was that a painter should wish to do a series of paint- ings of babies and even the gallery-owner admitted that such choice of subject matter seemed unlikely to prove popular. There are times in an art critic's life — usually no more that four or five a week and generally in the face of some ultra-new, highly praised art form — when a strong suspicion forms that one may be merely on a visit here from some other planet. I remain most strongly persuaded, for example, that babies are or should be of considerable,
natural interest to us all. Even devotees of the Out programme may agree that the future of the human kind does depend somewhat upon a continued and reliable supply of small infants. Furthermore, I can- not think of any more natural or practical subject matter for the young mother/ painter. Sleeping babies provide a wonder- fully cheap source of models and do not require endless reminding to hold their pose. What is or isn't odd in this world is clearly a matter on which opinions are like- ly to remain divided.
Susan Wilson is an unaffected and grati- fyingly direct artist and I recommend thor- oughly not only her paintings of babies but also those she makes of the little shrines which she creates with bottles and post- cards of some of the world's great cities and buildings. Two of the latter paintings, entitled 'Monuments in a Time of War', tell of a mother's heightened anxiety for the future not just of her own children but for the whole of human civilisation in a time of conflict. These are the kind of timeless themes to which good artists have habitually addressed themselves.
The exhibition at Cadogan Contempo- rary (108 Draycott Avenue, SW3) is of unfortunately short duration but the gallery's management intends to retain unsold works for a time after the show clos- es. I liked especially `Cosima II', a particu- larly fine painting of the artist's senior infant, and 'Pregnant Self Portrait', which transcends the personal by its force and dignity. The paintings are as tough and uncompromising as one might hope from a New Zealander and, in view of their sub- ject matter, are pleasantly free from any hint of sentimentality.
Some weeks ago, I concluded a stint of duty of several months' duration with the Art Working Group for the National Cur- riculum. In Augustus John's day, drawing skill was looked on as fundamental to suc- cess as an artist. That this is no longer the case has become another of the norms of contemporary life we have been called upon to accept, yet remains one I resist strongly. Standards of drawing among art students have declined sadly in the past 50 years, let alone from the time when Augus- tus John was at the Slade in 1894-98. Fifty- odd drawings and etchings by John at Piccadilly Gallery (16 Cork Street, WI) remind us of what we have lost. John had a great gift, which was not always put to the best use in his paintings, yet his drawing skills remained always at a level which is exemplary. A wonderful little head in cray- on of Percy Wyndham Lewis from 1903 shows what can be achieved by co-ordina- tion between trained hand and educated eye.
Skilled looking remains the basis of skilled drawing. To feel it necessary to write something so axiomatic saddens me. Yet I feel increasingly ours is not an age in which one should take even the most obvi- ous things for granted.
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