Exhibitions
Elisabeth Vellacott (New Art Centre, till 17 February) Hugh Buchanan (Francis Kyle, till 1 March)
Softly spoken
Giles Auty
Last week I wrote with regret about the sad posturings of young artists chosen for The British Art Show 1990. As I forecast, critical reactions to that show have been anything but favourable. Those reviews which I could understand made my own report seem mild or even avuncular by comparison. Above all I hated the way most of these young artists have been flattered and misled by those entrusted to guide them. Many have reached relatively mature years without having any idea of the pains and triumphs possible to some- one who has realised what being an artist truly entails. In consequence few of them have any lines of direction or hope in their work other than to make some easy money. But then even estate agents can do that.
This week it makes a pleasant contrast to write about two painters, one young and one venerable, who know quite clearly what being an artist means. Elisabeth Vellacott is 85 this year and the New Art Centre (41 Sloane Street, SW1) has seen fit, very properly, to mark the occasion with a small retrospective of her subtly beautiful paintings. The artist celebrates life on this planet through the depiction of People doing simple but satisfying things: walking through woods, drawing by a river's edge, playing the harpsichord, sit- ting on a window-sill and watching the world go by. I suspect the people in her paintings look free, dignified and at peace because, like the artist herself, they feel responsible for their actions. There is a moral toughness and absence of self-pity which lends her most recent works an extraordinary and uplifting sensation of happiness. 'People Walking Through a Wood', which the artist has just com- Pleted, has the feeling, if not the appear- ance, of a work from 15th-century Italy. Superb paintings such as 'Spring Feast', 1976, and 'Christ Driving the Photo- graphers from King's College Chapel', 1981, show Elisabeth Vellacott to belong to that important and idiosyncratic strain of British painters which includes Stanley Spencer and L. S. Lowry.
The artist did not hold her first one-man exhibition until the age of 63 so it is not surprising perhaps that her paintings should exude an aura of wisdom and serenity. She uses a muted but very beauti- ful palette and designs her works with thought and skill. Her conceptions are sometimes quite strange, yet true always to an internal logic. She can also show humour, as in 'Man Warming His Foot', 1971. Mention of cats implies creeping sentimentality yet the large grey and white specimen which accompanies the artist in some of her paintings is clearly muse as, well as companion. The deep satisfaction the artist derives from her work communi- cates itself to the viewer. In this she differs most markedly from the typical 35-year-old unfortunate selected for The British Art Show 1990. What will these young artists be doing in five, let alone 50 years' time? Nothing that gives a fraction of the fulfil- ment that can be gained from making 'The Speaker's Stale Bedroom', 1989, watercolour by Hugh Buchanan painstaking and highly considered paint- ings such as those of Elisabeth Vellacott.
Hugh Buchanan, who shows 60 superbly made watercolours at Francis Kyle (9 Maddox Street, W1), is still in his early thirties yet is an artist of rich skills already. His subject matter tends to be the exteriors or interiors of historic buildings. Some- times he focuses on a detail, sometimes on a whole room or facade. But these paint- ings are much more than architectural topography. Dramatic use of light and shadow and swathes of strong colour ener- gise and enliven even his smallest paint- ings. Hugh Buchanan has a reputed love of classical architecture but his approach is romantic more often than not. The present show includes a large section based on the artist's travels in Austria and Czechoslova- kia. I have argued often that young artists ought to be able to live largely from private patronage in the present economic climate, providing their work shows sense and merit. Buchanan's shows both, plus a high degree of virtuosity in his chosen medium; he has set himself on a path where both the challenges and achievements of his art are real and measurable. Buchanan's art sup- ports the case for concentration on the teaching of skills in art education. In the absence of these, the young artist brought up to think of himself as a young, even more misunderstood Van Gogh sits about glumly waiting for his annual idea to come. Will the supposed expression of this idea involve dustbin lids, pig-wire and other street-cred materials? Most probably — for such an artist has but one hope: that of being noticed by the equally modish selec- tors, paid from the public purse, of shows such as The British Art Show 1990. By contrast, Vellacott's and Buchanan's works enjoy merited popularity among discerning patrons accustomed to spending their own, rather than other people's money.
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