ART
Arty greetings EVAN ANTHONY
It might be easy for the performing arts crowd to accept that critical comment this week should be festively larkish and frolic- some, but we serious fine arts fellows can't turn it on and off with seasonal demand.
Had we recourse, as others might, to such a device as a 'ten best' list, it wouldn't be at
all difficult to come on strongly joyful. Thus: my choice for best ism of the year is ... or, the ten sexiest paintings of 1970 are . . . or, the gallery consistently offering the best tipple is . . . well, you see what I mean. Alterna- tively, I had toyed with the idea of doing one of those cosily amusing `my week' columns, but that no longer seems wise since Tony Palmer blew the whistle on Alan Brien; if he finds Brien's adventures `trivial' and the recounting of them 'a grotesque abuse of the authority of print', I doubt that it's on to write about my three-year-old's initial reac- tion to the Rokeby Venus, no matter how larkishly described.
I am, let's face it, stuck with the week that was. Fortunately, it hasn't been at all bad—not particularly frolicsome, but plea- sant. For a start I went to Glebe Place in Chelsea and had a chat with Nigel Green- wood, a nice fellow who owns and runs this gallery-cum-house which he tends to regard as part of the art 'underground'. I was initially wary when he explained that he wants to show work that 'relates' to today, but I was reassured when he agreed that he is also concerned with making money.
Greenwood prides himself on offering the artist a platform denied him by other galler- ies and was delightfully modest as he pointed out that another gallery could just as easily have exhibited Gilbert and George. Gilbert and George?—they're those gold-plated livihg and singing sculptures who, during their two weeks at Glebe Place, attracted 1,500 visitors. (Whew! And where are they this Christmas?) I doubt that the current show, Before Painting—After Painting, will be seen by quite that many, but the artist, John Walker, needn't worry because most of his work, so I was told, has already been sold. I felt an absolute slob worrying that the enormous paper collage paintings (the `before paintings' or preparation pieces) might tear, knowing full well that what was upsetting me was the four-figure price, and for four figures I want canvas, at least.
I gradually relaxed as it was patiently explained to me that, after all, the person who bought it was the one to do the worry- ing. The `after painting' pieces (follow-ups? fall-out? their precise raison d'être remains inscrutable to me) are smaller and safely framed, a positive steal at f500, by virtue of their durability alone. And what about the 'in-betweens'—the paintings themselves? Well, it seems that they are currently on exhibition in New York. But that really doesn't matter, does it? Who is to say that the 'befores' and 'afters' aren't as relative to today as are the paintings themselves? (I hope I got that right.) Somewhat 'squarer' in content (almost anything would have to be) but equally interested in giving the artist a chance to have his work seen, is the Workshop, a new gallery in Lambs Conduit Street, run by Mel Calman and Karen Usborne. The owners have a nicely discerning eye for work that is lovingly done. The collection of drawings, prints and gouaches, are just that. These `one off' pieces are original and in many instances witty without being depressingly clever. The stand- ard of work is high (among the artists I ad- mired particularly are Jim Haldane, Moira Buj, Karen Usborne, and Sally Ducksworthy) and happily for those who haven't completed that frolicsome task known as 'Christmas shopping' it should be mentioned that it is moderately priced.
Less moderately priced, but a 'must' for .11 someone who has everything and a few hundred quid left, a visit to the new Mineral Gallery in the Brompton Road is in order. As Zuleika Dobson might easily have said, I don't know much about semi-precious stones, but I know what I like. At Norman Wilson's gallery, some young sculptors were commissioned to design settings, in stainless steel, silver or bronze, for some beautiful lumps of pyrite, fluorite, tourmaline and other stones. Some of the resultant marriages of metal and stone are not as harmonious as they should be, but it's an interesting albeit costly idea. Better have your piece gift- wrapped—lest it tear her Christmas stocking.
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